Two Oxford scientists have skewered Facebook, claiming the company is engaged in anti-democratic censorship by flagging their article on mask-wearing “false information.”
Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson authored a paper called, “Landmark Danish Study Shows Face Masks Have No Significant Effect.” They based the article on a study done in Denmark in which 6,000 folks were divided into 2 groups — half wearing masks outside their homes and half not wearing masks. According to the study, the infection rate for mask-wearers was 1.8%. The rate for those who didn’t wear masks was 2.1%.
The study called the results “inconclusive,” but the 2 Oxford doctors went further, saying, ” … it seems that any effect masks have on preventing the spread of the disease in the community is small.” That was enough for Facebook to step in and call BS, slapping a warning on the article and adding that it was “checked by independent fact-checkers.”
Professor Heneghan railed on Facebook, saying, “I’m aware this is happening to others — what has happened to academic freedom and freedom of speech. There is nothing in this article that is ‘false.'”
Dr. Jefferson told the Daily Mail, “It is censorship and it is one of the reasons we face a global meltdown of free thinking and science.”
On the scientific front, the study did not address what appears to be an indisputable fact … that masks do reduce the spread of COVID-laced droplets and that’s just common sense … if someone who is infected wears a mask it’s harder for the droplets to escape into the air.
That said, on the subject of censorship, this is exactly what critics have been screaming but few have cared to listen … to make Facebook the gatekeeper of the information we receive is fraught with peril. It assumes Facebook can tell us what to think about everything from auto repair to cancer … at least, that’s what critics charge.