Masks are useless according to new COCHRANE STUDY:
The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection.
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full
With both studies that show an effect and studies that show zero effect I ask the exact same questions:
1. Was the study done sufficiently?
2. Who paid for the study?
3. Did they pay for the study before seeing the results? Or did they buy a study that “proved” their point of view?
If any of these questions are not clearly answered that the study itself can be disregarded in my view 🤔
Don't have to disregard facts, but you can of course pick up and detect biases. Hence why authors have to declare conflict of interest and acknowledgement.
This was a meta-study.
Objectives
To assess the effectiveness of physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of acute respiratory viruses.
Search methods
We searched CENTRAL, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and two trials registers in October 2022, with backwards and forwards citation analysis on the new studies.
Selection criteria
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster‐RCTs investigating physical interventions (screening at entry ports, isolation, quarantine, physical distancing, personal protection, hand hygiene, face masks, glasses, and gargling) to prevent respiratory virus transmission.
