3 ms·

I'm not equipped to evaluate, but a quick Google seems to suggest this result is against the majority of other papers. That's not to say it's wrong, just that r

I'm not equipped to evaluate, but a quick Google seems to suggest this result is against the majority of other papers. That's not to say it's wrong, just that reading most other papers on the subject would suggest something else

criticaltinker 5y ago
Per the OP: > Higher self-reported mask use protected against SARS-CoV-1 in Beijing residents [30], but RCTs found no differences in PCR confirmed influenza among Hong Kong households assigned to hand hygiene with or without masks [mask use 31% and 49%, respectively] [31]. Medical and cloth masks did not reduce viral respiratory infections among clinicians in Vietnam [9] or China [10], and rhinovirus transmission increased among universally masked Hong Kong students and teachers in 2020 compared with prior years [32]. These findings are consistent with a 2020 CDC meta-analysis [33] and a 2020 Cochrane review update. Care to cite the literature you're reading that contradicts these statements? I'm genuinely interested in learning more about the state of scientific consensus on this topic.
- manwe150 5y ago
  Not directly in reply to your question, but an anecdote I thought might be relevant: I was recently reading more about Ignàc Semmelweis, the doctor famous for promoting hand washing. He was finding that hand washing had almost no impact on the outcomes in a particular hospital. He eventually discovered that they needed to wash the sheets better too. Either intervention alone would have almost no impact, but together they were powerful. Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)16022-4/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
- space_fountain 5y ago
  I was mostly responding to this statement > We did not observe association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states. COVID-19 mitigation requires further research and use of existing efficacious strategies, most notably vaccination. Googling turns up lots of articles like this: * https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0252315 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... * https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm The statements made seem compatible, but I think reading just this article you could come away thinking mask mandates are a bad idea. They might be, but a quick google does make that seem more doubtful. As another commenter pointed out the impact is probably pretty small though and easily swamped by other factors. Who is better controlling for those factors isn't something that's clear to me. Covid also isn't the flu so I'm not sure how relevant masks effectiveness against the flu is to covid. I think influenza has a lot more surface transmission than covid for example
manwe150 5y ago
I think it is also known that the signal is weak, since there are so many other unknown factors, and that makes it hard to discern from the noise (or perhaps easy to cherry-pick results). So it is possibly still an open question of whether has an impact in the short/medium/long term, whether it requires better compliance levels, or whether it simply does no harm to wear them. It seems that the measurement problem is difficult without challenge trials, and it is unclear how that could be done blinded nor even ethically.

criticaltinker 5y ago

Per the OP: > Higher self-reported mask use protected against SARS-CoV-1 in Beijing residents [30], but RCTs found no differences in PCR confirmed influenza among Hong Kong households assigned to hand hygiene with or without masks [mask use 31% and 49%, respectively] [31]. Medical and cloth masks did not reduce viral respiratory infections among clinicians in Vietnam [9] or China [10], and rhinovirus transmission increased among universally masked Hong Kong students and teachers in 2020 compared with prior years [32]. These findings are consistent with a 2020 CDC meta-analysis [33] and a 2020 Cochrane review update. Care to cite the literature you're reading that contradicts these statements? I'm genuinely interested in learning more about the state of scientific consensus on this topic.

manwe150 5y ago
Not directly in reply to your question, but an anecdote I thought might be relevant: I was recently reading more about Ignàc Semmelweis, the doctor famous for promoting hand washing. He was finding that hand washing had almost no impact on the outcomes in a particular hospital. He eventually discovered that they needed to wash the sheets better too. Either intervention alone would have almost no impact, but together they were powerful. Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)16022-4/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
space_fountain 5y ago
I was mostly responding to this statement > We did not observe association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states. COVID-19 mitigation requires further research and use of existing efficacious strategies, most notably vaccination. Googling turns up lots of articles like this: * https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0252315 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... * https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm The statements made seem compatible, but I think reading just this article you could come away thinking mask mandates are a bad idea. They might be, but a quick google does make that seem more doubtful. As another commenter pointed out the impact is probably pretty small though and easily swamped by other factors. Who is better controlling for those factors isn't something that's clear to me. Covid also isn't the flu so I'm not sure how relevant masks effectiveness against the flu is to covid. I think influenza has a lot more surface transmission than covid for example

manwe150 5y ago

I think it is also known that the signal is weak, since there are so many other unknown factors, and that makes it hard to discern from the noise (or perhaps easy to cherry-pick results). So it is possibly still an open question of whether has an impact in the short/medium/long term, whether it requires better compliance levels, or whether it simply does no harm to wear them. It seems that the measurement problem is difficult without challenge trials, and it is unclear how that could be done blinded nor even ethically.