A research letter that has been touted by conservatives as evidence that wearing masks is not just useless in combating the spread of the coronavirus but actually to the people wearing the, particularly children, has been retracted by the medical journal that published it because of faulty research methods and disconnected conclusions.

Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson cited the study on his July 1st show claiming that the “study confirms that masking children wasn’t simply unnecessary and probably counterproductive.  Masking children was legitimately dangerous for the children.”  Frequent conservative media guest and vaccine conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson tweeted frantically, “Solid evidence here that masks may actually be DANGEROUS to kids – they raised the level of inhaled carbon dioxide six-fold in a short trial of 45 children. Younger kids had higher levels. CHILDREN SHOULD NEVER BE REQUIRED TO WEAR FACE DIAPERS.”

It turns out the evidence wasn’t so solid.  The Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics issued a retraction of the research as other scientists questioned the authors’ methodology for determining baseline carbon dioxide intake, the systems used to measure absorbed carbon dioxide and their ultimate conclusions.

“The Research Letter, “Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” by Harald Walach, PhD, and colleagues published online in JAMA Pediatrics on June 30, 2021, is hereby retracted,” the notice reads.  “Following publication, numerous scientific issues were raised regarding the study methodology, including concerns about the applicability of the device used for assessment of carbon dioxide levels in this study setting, and whether the measurements obtained accurately represented carbon dioxide content in inhaled air, as well as issues related to the validity of the study conclusions. In their invited responses to these and other concerns, the authors did not provide sufficiently convincing evidence to resolve these issues, as determined by editorial evaluation and additional scientific review. Given fundamental concerns about the study methodology, uncertainty regarding the validity of the findings and conclusions, and the potential public health implications, the editors have retracted this Research Letter.”

There has been no announcement when or if Carlson will issue a correction on his television program.