I'm looking at the list of things that Facebook says it will take down as "misinformation" and is this retroactive? They'd then have to take down most of public health advice, including from the CDC and the WHO and major newspapers, from the first six months of the pandemic. https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/1358838193668325377

Looking at the list, Facebook may have to take down some current real news and public health statements, too. We have ongoing clinical trials with no placebo, for example. (UK heterologous prime boost trial) Also today's reports on ChAdOx1? May need to go under these guidelines.

There are *still* countries where public health authorities do not recommend masks (besides being standard advice from WHO till June 2020). Tons of mainstream media articles from 2020 with claims of masks making you sick/higher risk for infection. What about those?

Yes, yes, yes I'm an early advocate of masks and I think the evidence is strong but we've never had the ideal randomized cluster trial. If there were a chance for a new study, are people not allowed to talk about it on Facebook? Who drew up these @Facebook guidelines?

Oh, the irony: about six months of my life was eaten up by trying to convince WHO that healthy people *should* wear masks and now Facebook will ban the following as misinformation. (Now, it is indeed false). Not so irony: we'll ban whatever WHO disputes for now not an ideal rule.

Also. Of course there are tests that are not yet approved that can detect COVID-19. Does Facebook think tests collapse into reality from their superimposed state the moment they are approved? If a test fails to detect a new variant for some reason, are we allowed to discuss that?

If even I can immediately spot errors—the ongoing clinical trial with NO PLACEBO—that means Facebook didn't hire a COVID-19 expert to check this. I hope it never happens but seems Facebook would also ban discussion of vaccine production issues. (Last big incident: 2008, China).

Yes, as it is worded, Facebook would have to ban all discussions of today's news around the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the strain in South Africa. There goes today's WHO presser, I guess! https://twitter.com/BettinaRyll/status/1358861985597820930