No-one knows. Masks may help, and if people can wear masks they probably should, but the evidence we have so far isn't great. If masks were strongly protectiv

No-one knows. Masks may help, and if people can wear masks they probably should, but the evidence we have so far isn't great. If masks were strongly protective it would be easy to see this effect in RCT, and we've done a bunch of trials of masks and respiratory disease and it's difficult to see the benefit. Distancing and hand-washing remain important, and if people are focussing on masks but lapsing on hand-hygiene and distancing then we're probably going to see a rise in infections. If we assume 20% of the population have asymptomatic covid, and that masks reduce risk by 40% then about 200,000 people have to wear masks to prevent one extra infection. (Page 18) https://www.fhi.no/globalassets/dokumenterfiler/rapporter/2020/should-individuals-in-the-community-without-respiratory-symptoms-wear-facemasks-to-reduce-the-spread-of-covid-19-report-2020.pdf https://www.fhi.no/globalassets/dokumenterfiler/rapporter/20...