A Florida epidemiologist who will 'prob end up voting for her' calls out Nikki Fried over her 'sloppy data dump' on masks in schools

On Thursday, Florida Dem and potential challenger to Gov. Ron DeSantis released a report arguing that masks in schools are effective and “districts requiring masks resulted in up to seven times lower COVID-19 cases per capita than school districts that did not require masks”:

School districts requiring masks resulted in up to seven times lower COVID-19 cases per capita than school districts that did not require masks.

— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) October 7, 2021

But her report is total garbage, as Florida-based epidemiologist Melissa Ward, PhD, MPH, was so kind enough to point out to her.

“The antidote to anti-science IS NOT a sloppy data dump with unclear methods & untested conclusions. JFC,” Ward tweeted:

I have so many questions. Like: who did this analysis? What is their training? What are their statistical methods for testing their observations?

The antidote to anti-science IS NOT a sloppy data dump with unclear methods & untested conclusions. JFC. https://t.co/X6Wsm7AsMc

— Melissa Ward, PhD, MPH (@MelissaKariWard) October 7, 2021

And Ward said she will “prob end up voting for her but my god this makes my blood boil”:

I am a Dem & will prob end up voting for her but my god this makes my blood boil.

Please get some science comm specialists on your team, @NikkiFried. Political consultants are not equipped to handle this. The way epidemiologists and biostatisticians are CRINGING at this thread…

— Melissa Ward, PhD, MPH (@MelissaKariWard) October 7, 2021

Your team’s analysis doesn’t account for important factors beyond masks, such as testing frequency, community spread, etc. Did all these schools collect data in the same way, define cases in the same way, and mitigate spread the same way?

— Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD (@FLSurgeonGen) October 7, 2021

Instead of pandering to political narratives, I’ll always ensure @HealthyFla continues using valid data & credible, data-driven methods to make our decisions.

— Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD (@FLSurgeonGen) October 7, 2021

Basically, Fried was caught “cherry picking the best districts at the peak with masks and comparing them to the worst districts without masks”:

You see what she's doing in this thread? She's cherry picking the best districts at the peak with masks and comparing them to the worst districts without masks.

She isn't giving the whole story because she doesn't have it and if she did, it would not tell the story she wants to. https://t.co/mtEq0Jp7IC

— Kyle Lamb (@kylamb8) October 7, 2021

This alleged data scientist and former college professor adds that Fried “would have failed the grad school class I taught”:

Im a data scientist and former college professor. Thought I would lead with that because progressives love appealing to authority and credentialism so much. You would have failed the grad school class I taught. This is just awful. Please stop. https://t.co/dVaNsxNdZJ

— District AI (@districtai) October 7, 2021

Over to you, Florida journos. Time to call her out:

These are great questions. If Florida had journalists, then those journalists could theoretically ask these questions to Nikki Fried.

More seriously, this is why Charlie Crist is racking up endorsements while Nikki Fried racks up Twitter likes. https://t.co/KgA0Dk6E2Z

— “Max” (@MaxNordau) October 8, 2021

But we will point out that what’s making Dems really mad is that Fried ended up “muddying the waters” on all of this:

You pandered to political narratives day two on the job.

Your lack of support for mask mandates goes against the ***currently available best evidence*** for protecting kids. For example, see this Oct 1 study from @CDCMMWR https://t.co/5blBL7s2jW 1/3 https://t.co/5JKxEhHla0

— Melissa Ward, PhD, MPH (@MelissaKariWard) October 8, 2021

Waiting for a *perfect* study that isn’t ecologic & checks all of your causality boxes is going to cost kids their lives, and/or their long-term health, and/or the trauma of losing a parent or grandparent. (Have you tried to estimate these last two impacts, I wonder?) 2/3

— Melissa Ward, PhD, MPH (@MelissaKariWard) October 8, 2021

(But good job @NikkiFried’s comms team on muddying the waters more with your horrible analysis. Refer to CDC study in tweet 1 as something you could have used instead, & advocate for getting the school data to independent experts who are trained to handle it. You are not.) 3/3

— Melissa Ward, PhD, MPH (@MelissaKariWard) October 8, 2021

Good advice, but we doubt Fried will take it.

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