June 21 2020
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... -heres-why
Yes, Wearing Masks Helps. Here's Why
Featured articles include
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140 ... 9/fulltext
Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Chu et al
pub online June 1 2020, in print only on June 27 2020
172 studies identified.
So, only SUGGESTING... and what happened to goggles for the eyes? Kicked into the long grass.The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis support physical distancing of 1 m or more and provide quantitative estimates for models and contact tracing to inform policy. Optimum use of face masks, respirators, and eye protection in public and health-care settings should be informed by these findings and contextual factors. Robust randomised trials are needed to better inform the evidence for these interventions, but this systematic appraisal of currently best available evidence might inform interim guidance
distances of 2 m could be more effective.
These data also suggest that wearing face masks protects people (both health-care workers and the general public) against infection by these coronaviruses, and that eye protection could confer additional benefit
The word 'might' appears 24 times.
And of course we need a MODELLING study which appeared around the same time
Stutt et al June 21 2020 Proc Roy Soc A
A modelling framework to assess the likely effectiveness of facemasks in combination with ‘lock-down’ in managing the COVID-19 pandemic
job done. Everybody live forever and a day thereafter all masked up even in summer.Our intention here is to provide a simple modelling framework to examine the probable effectiveness of facemask wearing in combination with lock-down periods on the dynamics of COVID-19 epidemics. This involves scaling from individual behaviour to the level of populations to enable conclusions to be drawn about the effectiveness, or otherwise, of wearing facemasks to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2.....
Potential extensions....include...the incorporation of human behavioural shifts dependent on an individual's perceived risk of disease, adoption fatigue or inconsistent adoption. ***
A key message from our analyses to aid the widespread adoption of facemasks would be: ‘my mask protects you, your mask protects me’.
** or by increased level of threat - scaremongering stories in the MSM or levels of punitive fines threatened.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ ... .2020.0376