Tag: Epidemiology

How accurate are the covid tests?

One of the most frequent questions I’ve been getting recently is how accurate I think the covid tests are, and in particular the PCR tests. As it happens, a systematic review has recently been published in Evidence Based Medicine that looks at the covid tests (both PCR and antibody), so I thought it would be interesting to look in to the evidence together. This article … Read more

Do face masks stop respiratory infections?

There has been a lot of controversy over whether face masks decrease the spread of respiratory infections during the covid-19 pandemic. And what is the most sensible thing to do when a topic is controversial? Look at what the evidence says!

An umbrella systematic review (a systematic review of systematic reviews) was published in Canadian Family Physician in July looking to answer this question. It … Read more