How Effective Are Face Masks? Shocking Studies and Statement by Dr. Fauci

Oct 1, 2021

Health and Science , Society , Videos , Kodoom Official Blog

Health, Science and Society Blog, Kodoom.com
The use of facemasks are now mandatory in some countries and controversial in others. But how effective are face masks in preventing viral respiratory infectious diseases? A review of several papers may surprise you:

1) In 2019, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in response to David Rubenstein asking about usefulness of masks to prevent infectious disease recommended no masks, just avoiding paranoia and trying to live a healthy life:

2) New study by University of Waterloo demonstrates that blue cloth face masks were only 10% effective in preventing COVID infection but KN95 masks were able to filter 46% of aerosol droplets. In both cases, even a 'moderate' level of ventilation matches the best of masks in terms of filtering out infectious particles.

3) For flu: FaceMasks may protect against aerosolized viruses but multiple RCT (Randomized control trials) studies show masks are not that effective in mitigating spread of infectious viral diseases as seen in the chart below:

Remember influenza particles are about 100 nm in size, similar to SARS-COV-2 particles.

4) New study by Guerra and Guerra analyzes CDC & IHME Data and concludes: "We did NOT observe association between #mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states."

5) A July 2020 review by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks against virus infection or transmission.

6) A 2015 study in the British Medical Journal BMJ Open found that cloth masks were penetrated by 97% of particles and may increase infection risk by retaining moisture or repeated use.

By the way, for a good review of aerosol filtration efficiency of common fabrics used in respiratory cloth masks, you can check this article HERE.

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