With the uptick in news stories concerning the new strain of COVID making the rounds and governments (federal and local) being tempted to mandate face masks, it might be interesting to take a look at what the data has shown about masking ourselves to fight off the viral infection and not to get sick.
Don’t want to read the whole thing? Evidence is inconclusive that masks help. To this point, no one can prove that masks in the real world help or don’t help.
You can read one of our previous articles on this Cochrane review here. These studies only confirm what has been known since before the COVID-19 scare. Masks are not reliable unless in a controlled environment. Hand washing and keeping your distance from infected people are best to avoid infection.
Who is this again?
Cochrane, a British nonprofit specializing in systematic reviews of health care studies, published a report called “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses [1].”
About Cochrane: they say on their website, “Cochrane is an international network with headquarters in the UK, a registered not-for-profit organization, and a member of the UK National Council for Voluntary Organizations [2].” They don’t accept commercial or conflicted funding, so their research and publications are highly esteemed and sought after for health information.
What did they do?
The review authors identified 67 relevant studies. They took place in countries worldwide “during non-epidemic influenza periods, the global H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, and epidemic influenza seasons up to 2016. No studies were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors identified six ongoing, unpublished studies; three of them evaluate masks in COVID-19 [3].”
What did they find?
They found that hand washing was probably one of the best ways to fight off an unwanted infection. Even though hand washing did not necessarily stop the individuals from catching the illness eventually, it seemed to show that it took a more extended period to catch the illness.
The authors of the review said that “Compared with wearing no mask, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness (9 studies; 3507 people); and probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3005 people) [4].”
They also found that “Compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (5 studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (5 studies; 8407 people) or respiratory illness (3 studies; 7799 people) [5].”
The New York Times reported [6] that Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist and the reviews lead author, said the results were unambiguous.
“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” in his interview with [7] Maryanne Demasi, Phd. “Full stop.”
Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library, has responded on behalf of Cochrane saying “ [8] that the results were inconclusive.”
Cochrane pointed out that this has been only an updated finding of a review up to 2007 [9].
Notes:
- ^“Featured Review: Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.” 20 Sept. 2023, www.cochrane.org/news/featured-review-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses. (go back ↩)
- ^“About us.” 20 Sept. 2023, www.cochrane.org/about-us (go back ↩)
- ^“Featured Review: Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.” 20 Sept. 2023, www.cochrane.org/news/featured-review-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses. (go back ↩)
- ^ibid (go back ↩)
- ^ibid (go back ↩)
- ^Stephens, Bret. “Opinion | The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?” 22 Feb. 2023, web.archive.org/web/20230222000304/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/opinion/do-mask-mandates-work.html. (go back ↩)
- ^Maryanne Demasi, PhD. “EXCLUSIVE: Lead author of new Cochrane review speaks out.” Maryanne Demasi, reports, 5 Feb. 2023, web.archive.org/web/20230222003917/https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-lead-author-of-new-cochrane. (go back ↩)
- ^“Statement on ‘Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses’ review | Cochrane.” 21 Sept. 2023, perma.cc/Z764-9ZTH. (go back ↩)
- ^“Featured Review: Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.” 20 Sept. 2023, www.cochrane.org/news/featured-review-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses. (go back ↩)
