Late last week, a group of researchers posted a letter that they had sent to the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) requesting the retraction of a study published the week before that purportedly showed mask use was the most effective intervention in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in New York City.Though PNAS editors have yet to respond to the request, scientists have roundly criticized the study's methodology, and the entire kerfuffle has highlighted the difficulty of "doing science" amid a full-blown pandemic.The paper in question, "Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19" states, "After April 3, the only difference in the regulatory measures between NYC and the United States lies