Making scientific evaluations more transparent

A year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, science has saved many lives. Without basic biomedical research, the vaccines could not have been engineered and evaluated for safety and efficacy. But the scientific community has not been as clear on other critical issues related to the pandemic. The evidence on the usefulness of masks, for example, and on the reliability of models of viral transmission, has been tentative. This is partly because many of the relevant studies have been flawed.