Why the authors did this Cochrane Review
The authors of this review wanted to find out whether physical measures stop or slow the spread of respiratory viruses.
What did authors do?
The authors searched for studies that looked at physical measures to stop people catching a respiratory virus infection.
They were interested in how many people in the studies caught a respiratory virus infection, and whether the physical measures had any unwanted effects.
Search date: This is an update of a review first published in 2007. We included evidence published up to 1 April 2020.
What the authors found
Review authors identified 67 relevant studies. They took place in low-, middle-, and high-income countries worldwide: in hospitals, schools, homes, offices, childcare centres, and communities during non-epidemic influenza periods, the global H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, and epidemic influenza seasons up to 2016. No studies were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors identified six ongoing, unpublished studies; three of them evaluate masks in COVID-19.
One study looked at quarantine, and none eye protection, gowns and gloves, or screening people when they entered a country.
The authors assessed the effects of:
- medical or surgical masks;
- N95/P2 respirators (close-fitting masks that filter the air breathed in, more commonly used by healthcare workers than the general public); and
- hand hygiene (hand-washing and using hand sanitiser).
What are the results of the review?
Medical or surgical masks
Seven studies took place in the community, and two studies in healthcare workers. Compared with wearing no mask, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness (9 studies; 3507 people); and probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3005 people). Unwanted effects were rarely reported, but included discomfort.
N95/P2 respirators
Four studies were in healthcare workers, and one small study was in the community. Compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (5 studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (5 studies; 8407 people) or respiratory illness (3 studies; 7799 people). Unwanted effects were not well reported; discomfort was mentioned.
Hand hygiene
Following a hand hygiene programme may reduce the number of people who catch a respiratory or flu-like illness, or have confirmed flu, compared with people not following such a programme (16 studies; 61,372 people). Few studies measured unwanted effects; skin irritation in people using hand sanitiser was mentioned.
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub5/full
Eatgrueldog 
GIGO.
This is a study of studies, which is like polling stupid people to assess for intelligence.
I’ll match paychecks with anyone brave enough to forfeit theirs, and assert without any doubt that
1) Not a single one of any of those “studies” isolated the variable of mask wearing, and controlled for all other variables, before making wild-ass guesses unsupported by anything but hunches.
2) In every study, mask-wearing was a “sometimes” affair, meaning that for anything up to 70% of every living breathing day, the persons in the study wore no mask, and had intimate contact with wives, girlfriends, and minor children, let alone strangers.
The technical term for such a study of shitty studies, is horseshit.
3) This doesn’t mean mask wearing works, nor that it doesn’t work. It simply shows that
a) people will cobble together any amount of bullshit to justify a research grant, hence a rent check and food money, and
b) Masking policies don’t work, because people are @$$holes who will ignore proper protocols, hang their noses out, touch infectious surfaces, and then suck their thumbs, pick their nose, or play on their cell phones, and
c) NO ONE wears a mask 24/7, so any “study” that ignores that obvious reality (which is exactly why there’s a flu season every single year, as virus gets transferred from children to parents and partner, like it has since EVER) is a simply a mound of poo cobbled in scientific lingo tall enough to blot out the sun.
Nothing to see here, but people keep quoting this sort of horsecrap because it tickles their confirmation bias, despite exactly none of these studies passing the sniff test for accuracy or reproducibility.
FFS, the editor of the NEJM just said in so many words “medical studies are all full of crap, and have been for as long as I’ve looked at them” this month.
This is another example of that phenomenon.
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
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Hahaha! Matthew gets it!
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It’s all about valadating funding from municipal funding to any organization that rely’s on the public coffer for a means of survival. This sets the case for extreme lieing for survival and thus will say anything. This also is a product of too many papered up idiot’s out there all scrambling for funding for their research. Free and an all inclusive college is a very very bad thing.
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Even more ButtHurt for some, this time with an English accent:
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/uk-study-finds-no-evidence-face-masks-protect-vulnerable-against-covid
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