We conducted the largest study on masks and covid-19: They work (...if you employ Soviet-style tactics...)

Washington Post ^ | September 9, 2021 | Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Ashley Styczynski and Heidi McAnnally-Linz

[DoodleBob]

At the beginning of the pandemic, public health officials waffled over masks: Do they help? By how much? The World Health Organization declined to recommend mask adoption until June 2020, for instance, partly because of a lack of real-world studies of their efficacy (although laboratory experiments clearly show masks partly block viruses). As recently as July 2021, City Journal published an article arguing that “the best medical” research suggests mask-wearing during the pandemic “has likely provided little to no health benefit.”

Because of the lingering uncertainty, we set out last year to conduct the first large-scale study to answer two questions: Can community-wide masking norms be changed in the real world? And does wearing masks measurably reduce community-level coronavirus infections? We now have the results, and the answer to both questions is an emphatic yes.

To the extent there was still a debate about masking, it should be over. Just as importantly, we have a set of tools that have been proved to increase mask usage substantially, at least in the setting we studied.

The study was a randomized controlled trial that involved 600 villages in Bangladesh and 350,000 people. Bangladesh, with a population of 165 million, already had a mask mandate, but (as in many places around the world) it was widely flouted.

[DoodleBob]

...it only works if you have an accompanying Soviet-like, tacitly-Orwellian and somewhat Stasi-style campaign of ginormous proportions.

The Compost article doesn't give you the full details. So I went to the full study: A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during COVID-19 shows that the intervention tripled mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections..

The intervention increased proper mask-wearing from 13.3% in control villages to 42.3% in treatment village. The payoff? Based on blood samples, post-masking symptomatic seroprevalence for the masked group was 0.68% vs for the control group. 0.76% - a Mask Efficacy of 10% (statistically-significant at a p-value of 0.043).

....except, look at the massive Big Brother intrusion/oversight:

To emphasize the importance of mask-wearing, we prepared a brief video of notable public figures discussing why, how, and when to wear a mask. The video was shown to each house- hold during the mask distribution visit and featured the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, the head of the Imam Training Academy, and the national cricket star Shakib Al Hasan. During the distribution visit, households also received a brochure based on WHO materials depicting proper mask-wearing.

We implemented a basic set of interventions in all treatment villages, and cross-randomize additional intervention elements in randomly chosen subsets of treatment villages to investigate whether those have any additional impact on mask-wearing. The basic intervention package con- sists of five main elements:

1. One-time mask distribution and promotion at households.
2. Mask distribution in markets on 3-6 days per week.
3.Mask distribution at mosques on three Fridays during the first four weeks of the intervention.
4. Mask promotion in public spaces and markets where non-mask wearers were encouraged to wear masks (weekly or biweekly).
5. Role-modeling and advocacy by local leaders, including imams discussing the importance of mask-wearing at Friday prayers using a scripted speech provided by the research team.

Households were randomized to receive messages emphasizing their altruism or self-protection.

Households were randomized to receive twice-weekly text reminders or not. As mentioned above, the text message saturation was randomly varied to 0%, 50%, or 100% of all villagers receiving texts, and in the 50% villages, the specific households that received the texts was also random.

Households were randomized to making a verbal commitment to be a mask-wearing house- hold (all adults in the household promise to wear a mask when they are outside and around other people) or not.

So there it is...if a government deploys a MASSIVE propaganda push utilizing religious leaders and social shaming and frequent Karen-like reminders and interventions via text etc, you get trebling of the masking rate but that accompanies only a 10% reduction in infection rates.

I don't think this was what these researchers wanted to be the take-away, but as Christopher Walken would say...

[bray]

47 other studies show they do not work and are actually unhealthy.

[Fai Mao]

I have been guessing 10 to 25% effectiveness for a while now.

I stopped wearing a mask a few months ago unless I have to because I believe the COVID has mutated into a more contagious, less lethal form. The benefit of the mask is not worth the aggravation.

[Boomer]

I agree with Christopher Walken.

[Bob434]

nearly everyone that got covid the past year was wearing a mask when they caught it because their states mandated they be worn in public- - They tell us masks work? Then why did so many wearing masks get covid?

[Bob434]

infact, if i recall right, cases of covid went up AFTER masks were mandated-

[ifinnegan]

Nice write up.

Minimal 10% difference in positive tests.

Did they compare deaths or other factors?

[DoodleBob]

The man is a national treasure. And spot-on.

[Brian Griffin]

I’ve never seen Biden wear a mask correctly - he leaves big gaps on the sides of his nose.

He wears the wrong type of mask. A mask should be tented.

A man in his position should be given medical grade masks.

[DoodleBob]

Thanks.

They extrapolated the 10% reduction upon the broader population to perform a cost/benefit analysis.

They were silent on the value of reduced free will.

[Brian Griffin]

Midnight basketball works -
to a very limited extent.

[cgbg]

The elites have no intention of following any mask guidelines as long as they don’t think anyone is looking....

Obviously _they_ don’t believe the masks work.

[Bob434]

ya lost me- was post that meant for someone else?

[servantoftheservant]

Opening the window in an enclosed space does more to stop transmission than mask wearing.

[Olog-hai]

Stasi were Soviet, although they were not Russian.

[Paul R.]

Heck, all that is a lot less intrusive than the mandates in many places in the US.

[Olog-hai]

By Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Ashley Styczynski and Heidi McAnnally-Linz …

Oh yes. I’ll go straight to these three screedwriters if I want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth rather than Fauxci’s latest propaganda . . .

  

[Paul R.]

Virtually zero education on how to properly use masks + virtually zero availability of N95’s for vulnerable people.

[Tymesup]

They answered the question whether masks reduce prevalence at a point in time. they did not answer whether they reduce prevalence in the future. they did not answer whether masks affect immune system function. social interaction. oxygen intake. bacterial infection.

perhaps they do not want to know the answers to these questions

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

If you believe this I have a couple of bridges to sell you.

Masks do not work for viruses no matter what some third world mohammedan hack would like you to believe.

But just kiss the foot of your better and put on your training burka.