New Study Confirms That Masks Likely Don't Work To Stop COVID
Anyone paying attention over the past few years has known that masks don't work.
The evidence base on masking has grown substantially as global governments have imposed mandates with the full support of the public health “expert” community.
Real world data has accumulated from dozens of countries, U.S. states, counties and other jurisdictions showing that mask mandates don’t work.
A number of randomized controlled trials have also been conducted to determine the impact of mask wearing at an individual level.
Now, the gold standard of journal evidence reviews has synthesized the available evidence in a comprehensive update on the impact of masking to stop COVID.
And if experts, politicians and public health agencies were willing to be intellectually honest, it would put a permanent end to any remaining debate.
Despite the best efforts of “experts” and their allies in the media, there are still a few independently minded researchers that examine evidence dispassionately. One such example is the Cochrane Library.
Cochrane presents independent, unbiased reviews of evidence, updated periodically when new, high quality studies are released.
Instead of poorly designed, highly confounded observational "studies" that the CDC frequently references, Cochrane focuses on the gold standard: randomized controlled trials. Trials designed to factor out as many variables as possible and best determine the likely impact of policies on the spread of respiratory viruses.
The exact same trial examinations that authorities like Dr. Fauci used to demand as an evidentiary standard, before abandoning such viewpoints when it became politically expedient for him to push for lockdowns and universal masking.
White House Chief Medical Adviser on Covid-19 Dr. Anthony Fauci (R) looks on as US President Joe Biden tours the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, February 11, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Masks Don't Work And Never Have
Cochrane’s reviews were never particularly optimistic about the impact of masking among the general public, but they’ve now been updated after multiple years of accumulated evidence.
And, in a stunning turn of events, despite the collection of more information, the results are the same.
Researchers examined 12 trials, 10 of which were cluster-randomized controlled trials. These trials were designed to compare the spread of the virus with individuals wearing of medical or surgical masks compared to wearing no mask at all.
Bear in mind that this didn’t include cloth face coverings, the type that Fauci, the CDC and former Surgeon General previously promoted as equally beneficial.
Remember their exhortations to just put anything over your face? Roll up a t-shirt to cover your mouth, as Jerome Adams once suggested?
Far from that low grade level of protection, the Cochrane review focused on “medical/surgical masks,” which are supposedly higher quality.
It still didn’t matter.
"We included 12 trials (10 cluster-RCTs) comparing medical/surgical masks versus no masks to prevent the spread of viral respiratory illness (two trials with healthcare workers and 10 in the community). Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks (risk ratio (RR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84 to 1.09; 9 trials, 276,917 participants; moderate-certainty evidence. Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza/SARS-CoV-2 compared to not wearing masks (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.42; 6 trials, 13,919 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Harms were rarely measured and poorly reported (very low-certainty evidence)."
“Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.”
That’s the sentence that should end all remaining "expert” narratives on universal masking.
Masks, as anyone paying attention has known, do not work. They do not prevent the spread of infections, protect others or protect the individuals wearing them.
The gold standard of evidence reviews, which only examined high quality randomized controlled trials, has now confirmed that glaringly obvious fact.
This answer carries credentialism and authoritative expertise behind it, with eminently qualified individuals coming to an unbiased conclusion. If the media cared about intellectual honesty, this would be front page news.
But intellectual honesty has long since been abandoned in favor of promoting desired outcomes and politically aligned "experts."
Beyond “surgical/medical” masks, the Cochrane review covered the higher quality N95 respirators as well.
The N95 type masks that were tried in countries like Germany and Austria, to no effect.
More COVID Masks Madness
And the results were the same.
"We pooled trials comparing N95/P2 respirators with medical/surgical masks (four in healthcare settings and one in a household setting). We are very uncertain on the effects of N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks on the outcome of clinical respiratory illness (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.45 to 1.10; 3 trials, 7779 participants; very low-certainty evidence). N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks may be effective for ILI (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.03; 5 trials, 8407 participants; low-certainty evidence). Evidence is limited by imprecision and heterogeneity for these subjective outcomes. The use of a N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks probably makes little or no difference for the objective and more precise outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza infection (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.34; 5 trials, 8407 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Restricting pooling to healthcare workers made no difference to the overall findings. Harms were poorly measured and reported, but discomfort wearing medical/surgical masks or N95/P2 respirators was mentioned in several studies (very low-certainty evidence)."
Once again, “the use of N95 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks probably makes little or no difference for the objective and more precise outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza infection.”
They did specify that N95's may be beneficial against an influenza-like illness, but in a separate notation the researchers referenced another important trial which showed that N95’s were no more effective than medical or surgical masks.
"One previously reported ongoing RCT has now been published and observed that medical/surgical masks were non-inferior to N95 respirators in a large study of 1009 healthcare workers in four countries providing direct care to COVID-19 patients."
Which shows, given that medical and surgical masks are shown to be ineffective, that N95’s are ineffective as well.
Every available piece of high quality evidence has consistently revealed that masks do not work to prevent the spread of highly infectious respiratory viruses.
Despite expert messaging, wearing supposedly more protective or effective masks also likely makes no difference whatsoever.
Now the best, non-biased review available has once again confirmed the obvious, along with reinforcing pre-pandemic evidence.
"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," the review explained.
It’s been a recurring hope that further data would permanently end the useless theater of masking to prevent the spread of COVID.
Yet in direct contradiction to reality, authority figures continue to misrepresent the effectiveness of masks.
READ: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION APPEALING RULING ENDING MASK MANDATE ON PLANES
But no matter how hard they try, the truth remains - masks don’t work.