Major Study Finds Masks Don’t Reduce COVID-19 Infection Rates

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RhodesianSon said:
I constantly see people pulling their masks down to sneeze or cough.

I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to sneeze into something strapped to my face that I have to leave there either.
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That’s exactly right.

In a medical setting, they would just go wash up and change their mask etc.

You have given a great illustration of WHY societal masking is different than medical personnel.

(Yes there are other reasons, but your example is great and obvious. So they either take off their mask and sneeze in the crowded aisle at WalMart or wherever. Or sneeze into their mask and now wear a gross and wet infected mask blowing who knows what kind of microbes around through that now compromised and infection-laden mask, which is now a proverbial blowtorch of infection nidus.)
 
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Thanks for the link Humility.
At the time, mask use was not recommended by Danish health authorities, and fewer than 5% of residents used them outside of hospital settings. Those conditions made it possible to conduct the first — and only — randomized controlled trial of the face coverings. . . .

. . . no matter how the researchers sliced and diced their data, they could not find a strong signal that the volunteers in the mask group were more protected than their counterparts in the control group. . . .

. . . The study results “should not be used to conclude that a recommendation for everyone to wear masks in the community would not be effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections,” wrote the team led by researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital. . . .
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And I agree with that. You can’t make broad-based recomendations and conclusions based upon one study.

There will be others.
. . . “Masks likely need to be worn by most if not all people to reduce community infection rates,” . . .
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Bold mine.

I would agree with that. That’s mitigation.

The reduction you see is in “rates”.

It does NOT state . . . Masks likely need to be worn by most if not all people to stop this pandemic. . .

Also . . .
Another problem is that people assigned to wear masks often chose not to. Only 46% of volunteers in the mask group told the researchers they followed all the rules about wearing masks in public, 47% said they “predominantly” wore their masks, and 7% said they didn’t follow the rules.

In other words, the journal editors noted, “the study examined the effect of recommending mask use, not the effect of actually wearing them.” . . .
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I still think we need to have community service messages on TV, YouTube, FB, everywhere we can reach people on how to properly WEAR masks as well as how to clean the washable ones and how long before we dispose of disposable types.

Wearing a disposable mask for days on end is wrong. Not washing cloth masks daily is wrong. Not wearing them correctly in the first place is wrong. We need to wear masks but more importantly, we need to do it right!
 
Pattylt said:
Wearing a disposable mask for days on end is wrong.
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Good point PattyIt.

We frequently see the masks dangling from rear-view mirrors until they hit the parking lot and you can correctly conclude this is helping no one and is likely ADDING to morbidity and mortality in the long run.

Mask wearing situations like this (and so many other situations) are feelings based.
Not science-based.

Mask-mandating is kind of superstitious (in such situations) as everyone knows this stuff is NOT “scientific” or “beneficial” yet so many people sit around pretending it does help.

Trading feelings for reality.
 
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Cathoholic said:
Yes there are other reasons, but your example is great and obvious. So they either take off their mask and sneeze in the crowded aisle at WalMart or wherever. Or sneeze into their mask and now wear a gross and wet infected mask blowing who knows what kind of microbes around through that now compromised and infection-laden mask, which is now a proverbial blowtorch of infection nidus.
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That is unfortunate, but that’s what humans do. That does not mean that masks in general don’t reduce covid infection rates.
Cathoholic said:
You can’t make broad-based recomendations and conclusions based upon one study.
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No one is doing that anyway.
Cathoholic said:
The reduction you see is in “rates”.

It does NOT state . . . Masks likely need to be worn by most if not all people to stop this pandemic. . .
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Which is still better than not reducing infection rates.
Cathoholic said:
We frequently see the masks dangling from rear-view mirrors until they hit the parking lot and you can correctly conclude this is helping no one and is likely ADDING to morbidity and mortality in the long run.
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When compared to using a fresh mask, this may be true. When compared to wearing no mask at all, a days-only used mask is still better than no mask.
 
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The study in the OP seems to address whether wearing a mask protects the wearer. Since the main reason why the general public is asked to wear masks is not to protect the wearer but to protect others, the study seems beside the point.

Why people should make a fuss about wearing a mask when in company I just can’t imagine. A little inconvenience — at a time of pandemic — what can people be thinking of?
 
Masks need to be seasoned with good bacteria and other beneficial organisms in order to be effective.
 
As I recall, NYC residents were not wearing masks during their initial surge. They were going to work in highly crowded subway cars and busses because of a reduced schedule.

I suspect that broad mask usage in these crowded venues might have attenuated their initial surge.
 
Pattylt said:
Wearing a disposable mask for days on end is wrong. Not washing cloth masks daily is wrong. Not wearing them correctly in the first place is wrong. We need to wear masks but more importantly, we need to do it right!
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Better to reuse a disposable than to not have/use a mask. I only wear my masks for a few minutes daily, when I’m interacting closely with other people. I wash regularly but not daily.
 
Who ever said that masks can STOP the spread? Mitigate was the word I always heard from the experts, including Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci. The same with social distancing, but I have heard lately that 10 feet would be better than the prescribed 6 feet. However, some studies, such as the one you present, will disagree, as is customary in research of all kind. That is the nature of science itself, always finding new information, sifting through the studies, trying to rely on the preponderance of the evidence, but allowing for and being open to change. I understand, however, that your gripe is with the social policy, not with the research.
 
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That is why so many Americans 250,000+ have died from Covid–many don’t like to wear masks. I am an American here in Philippines very few people here have died from Covid (8,000 in a population of 100 million)because mask enforcement is strict. Not just the tropical climate. Florida has a tropical climate and has more covid deaths than Philippines despite Florida having a much, much lower population.
 
The Far East cultures that mask up every time a foul wind blows seem to be on top of things compared to countries that resist universal masking.
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“I only wear my masks for a few minutes daily, when I’m interacting closely with other people. I wash regularly but not daily.“

That’s probably ok…not ideal but I remember from long ago at the lab, the total hours for a disposable was three hours or after three days if less than three total hours. This was general recommendations from pre Covid but it’s still a sensible recommendation.
 
The people most exposed to COVID on a consistent basis are healthcare workers. LA county has been tracking infections among healthcare workers in the county and have had about 18,000 infections out of a total of 350,000 infected total since the pandemic began. That is a 5.1% infection rate of healthcare workers in proportion to the total number of infected in LA county.

CDC estimates nationwide there are 18 million healthcare workers. If we assume healthcare workers are proportionally distributed 18 m / 330 m = 5.4% approximate of total population.

So the infection rate of healthcare workers is somewhat proportional to their assumed percentage of population in the county.

If masks are ineffective as some claim you would expect the people most frequently exposed to have out of proportion infection rates.

There were some studies earlier this year that indicated 15% of healthcare workers worldwide had been infected. However early PPE shortage and less stringent health facility construction standards in other countries can partially account for that high infection rate.

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/docs/COVID19HCWReport.pdf
 
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