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UBS Debates: What Did the Massive Bangladesh Masking Study Really Find?

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UBS Debates: What Did the Massive Bangladesh Masking Study Really Find?

Dr. Jason Abaluck and Dr. James Lyons-Weiler trade viewpoints in this UBS Debate.

James Lyons-Weiler
Apr 4, 2022
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UBS Debates: What Did the Massive Bangladesh Masking Study Really Find?

popularrationalism.substack.com

Prompted by a challenge by Steve Kirsch, Dr. Jason Abaluck and Dr. Lyons-Weiler agreed to compare notes on Dr. Abaluck’s study on masking in Bangladesh. What do you think Dr. Abaluck is safe in concluding? Leave a comment, and as always: Help defeat censorship by sharing across social media!

Recorded 4/3/2022, first aired 4/4/2022.

More detail here:

Popular Rationalism
Yale Masking Study Scientist Quits Rational After Debate
I have to give credit to Dr. Abaluck for showing up for the debate, and for being willing to address criticism of his study of the effects of masking in Bangladesh. I’m sorely disappointed in Dr. Abaluck’s inexplicable inability to follow his own illogic…
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a year ago · 60 likes · 40 comments · James Lyons-Weiler

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UBS Debates: What Did the Massive Bangladesh Masking Study Really Find?

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Dr. K
Apr 4, 2022

James, I am sure this is important stuff that I want to know. But I will never listen to a podcast as is true of many readers here. Wrong format for us and fundamentally far to inefficient. Most sites to which I have whined have found auto-transcribers for their podcasts which, while not perfect, are good enough. They generally post the transcription with the podcast which is wonderful for all communities of learners, visual or aural.

I hope you can do this. Many of your peers on Substack do this already and it is most appreciated.

Thanks for the good things you are doing. I cannot wait to read this particular dialog, frankly.

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9 replies by James Lyons-Weiler and others
Brian Mowrey
Writes Unglossed
Apr 4, 2022Liked by James Lyons-Weiler

Abaluck has a really good point at 17:50, "Well, hold on hold on hold on holelelelele."

His apologia for the "masks were working" headline is pure semantic illogic. If a study finds that trucks can carry logs but cars not so much, then the headline "automobiles could carry logs all along!" conveys a meaning (all automobiles can carry logs) that is contradicted by the study. "Some" ≠ "All," and "All" is the default implication of a sentence when a modifier is not added to the subject.

Sad and embarrassing that he can't see how flimsy his own counter-argument is here. But spend enough time in a cult and you forget what real debate consists of.

I was visited by a stranger with family in the FDA a few weeks ago, and the conversation went the same way. If I said severe outcomes from infection were rare, I was told to understand that that is not how I "have to think of it." The same way Abaluck thinks you are "misunderstanding" his study, as in thinking about it in a way different than how he thinks you "have to think about it."

It's a train wreck, really - hard to keep watching. I hope he gets around to specifying what the denominator was for the seropositive rate.

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