The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? [opinion column]

New York Times via Internet Archive ^ | Ferbruary 21, 2023 | Bret Stephens

[grundle]

The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.

“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.”

But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?

“Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson.

What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?

“They were convinced by non-randomized studies, flawed observational studies.”

What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?

“There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”

These observations don’t come from just anywhere. Jefferson and 11 colleagues conducted the study for Cochrane, a British nonprofit that is widely considered the gold standard for its reviews of health care data. The conclusions were based on 78 randomized controlled trials, six of them during the Covid pandemic, with a total of 610,872 participants in multiple countries. And they track what has been widely observed in the United States: States with mask mandates fared no better against Covid than those without.

[consult]

This article was referring to the following study confirming what we knew before, during and after the pandemic.

• Meta-analysis and systemic review finds that wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness (laboratory‐confirmed or not) compared to not wearing masks; moderate‐certainty evidence (Cochrane Database Systematic Rev. 2023;1:CD006207. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6). The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. The use of a N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks probably makes little or no difference for the objective and more precise outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza infection (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.34; 5 trials, 8407 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence). We included 11 new RCTs and cluster‐RCTs (610,872 participants) in this update, bringing the total number of RCTs to 78. Six of the new trials were conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic; two from Mexico, and one each from Denmark, Bangladesh, England, and Norway.

[Paal Gulli]

" The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?"

Considering the Veterans Administration hospitals still require a mask for admittance, I'd say it'll be a while yet.

[Grampa Dave]

Scott Morefield

CNN’s
@smerconish
confronts Dr. Fauci with the latest evidence that masks, even N95s, made “no difference” in the pandemic. Fauci responds by basically conceding that point while adding the nonsensical claim that masks work on an “individual basis,” or something.

Smerconish ends the interview by asking whether going forward we should just “protect the most vulnerable and allow others to lead their normal lives,” essentially what the authors (
@DrJBhattacharya
,
@MartinKulldorff
,
@SunetraGupta
) of the Great Barrington Declaration asserted in 2020. Fauci ducks the question entirely, but doesn’t attempt to refute it.

https://brownstone.org/articles/author-of-cochrane-mask-review-responds-to-fauci/

[Grampa Dave]

Good for spotting crazies, so you know to avoid them 24/7.