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CLINICAL EVIDENCE & SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Demonstrating ineffectiveness of masks in surgery
Disposable surgical face masks for preventing surgical wound infection in clean surgery.
Cochrane Systematic Review
The evolution of the surgical mask: filtering efficiency versus effectiveness.
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology
Surgical face masks in modern operating rooms—a costly and unnecessary ritual?
The Journal of Hospital Infection
Wearing of Caps & Masks Not Necessary During Cardiac Catheterization.
Catheterization & Cardiovascular Diagnosis
Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data.
Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy
Virus Transmissibility Data
Droplets and Aerosols in the Transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Suggests airborne transmission is not driving the pandemic
Science of the Total Environment
CLINICAL EVIDENCE & SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Demonstrating ineffectiveness of masks in reducing the spread of infectious disease
A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers.
BMJ Open
Unmasking the surgeons: the evidence base behind the use of facemasks in surgery.
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
Surgical mask to prevent influenza transmission in households: a cluster randomized trial.
PLoS One
Use of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of the common cold.
American Journal of Infection Control
Systematic review of the efficacy of face masks and respirators against coronaviruses and other respiratory transmissible viruses for the community, healthcare workers and sick patients.
The International Journal of Nursing Studies
Surgical Mask vs N95 Respirator for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Workers.
JAMA
Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in protecting health care workers from acute respiratory infection
The Canadian Medical Association Journal
The efficacy of medical masks and respirators against respiratory infection in healthcare workers.
Influenza & Other Respiratory Viruses
Popular Mask Effectiveness Studies That Ignore Real World Conditions
(And Demonstrate Even More Mask Ineffectiveness Upon Further Investigation)
Frequently referenced hamster study with the dubious headline, “Surgical Masks Can Reduce Spread of Covid-19 virus by up to 75%”. To replicate “real-life situations” the lead researcher placed surgical masks between the cages of hamsters in an isolated facility. If this study replicates real-life situations to the researcher, we should all be seriously concerned by the type of social life he has.
Hong Kong University
Researchers at Texas A&M declare that face masks prevented more than 66,000 infections in New York City in less than a month. The study makes hasty assumptions of universal consistency in mask quality, mask fit, duration of time worn, assumptions that the wearers aren’t touching their face, that their aerosols and droplets aren’t being deflected and sprayed all over their face, hair, clothes, and creating clouds of droplets from above, below, and through the sides of the mask. And it’s also assuming that the masks are effective in the first place, which the vast majority of real-world clinical trials show that they’re not. Lastly, their graph demonstrates a downward trend in infections prior to mandatory masking and doesn’t differentiate the effects from social distancing, shelter-in-place, etc.
PNAS
Sexual contact carries some risk for exposure to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Annals of Internal Medicine
Circulated articles state things like, “a cloth mask offers more protection than a surgical mask for people nearby.” With data gathered from participants putting a mask on for a few moments and coughing 5 times to establish said effectiveness. Upon further review, the study itself noted, “both surgical and cotton masks seem to be ineffective in preventing the dissemination of SARS–CoV-2 from the coughs of patients with COVID-19 to the environment.” Even though they came to that conclusion with what can easily be considered an inadequate amount of data (they’ve since retracted), what’s even more alarming is that the scientists found when test subjects coughed into the masks, even more virus particles ended up on the OUTSIDE of the mask than on the inside of the mask. It may come as a surprise, but that’s simply how viruses can travel in the real world.
Annals of Internal Medicine
Yet again, another study positing the efficacy of masks by having participants breathe/cough into a collection apparatus. This time it was a G-II bioaerosol collecting device. To repeat, this on and off duration of mask use and direct collection of particles neglects how viruses travel in the real world and how the duration of mask usage makes them exceedingly less effective.
Nature
Medicine
Medicine
CLINICAL EVIDENCE & SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Demonstrating the physiological and psychological damage caused by mask usage
The physiological impact of wearing an N95 mask during hemodialysis.
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Respiratory consequences of N95-type Mask usage in pregnant healthcare workers.
Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control
Protective Facemask Impact on Human Thermoregulation.
The Annals of Occupational Hygiene
Amygdala Responsivity to High-Level Social Information from Unseen Faces.
The Journal of Neuroscience
Rise in childhood mental health issues resulting from the social lockdown.
University of Oxford
Mental health issues in children amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal
Effects of wearing N95 and surgical facemasks on heart rate, thermal stress and subjective sensations.
The International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
Immune cells become overactive when oxygen levels are deranged.
University of Edinburgh
Stress and the Human Immune System.
Journal of Evolutionary Biology – Correction: Psychological Bulletin
CLINICAL EVIDENCE & SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Demonstrating health/immune system/covid-19 relationship and coronavirus susceptibility
Up to 650,000 people die of respiratory diseases linked to seasonal flu each year.
World Health Organization
Characteristics, Comorbidities, and Outcomes Among 5700 Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 in the New York City Area.
JAMA
People with low NK cell counts had much higher rates of severe infections from COVID-19.
Medical Hypothesis
Sleep deprivation effect on the immune system mirrors physical stress.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Mask Facts Companion Video
Learn how to evaluate studies and arm yourself against small-minded cognitive biases
WANT MORE CLINICALLY PROVEN DATA ON COVID-19?
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