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You do understand that "masK" is a generic term and not all masks are meant to stop germs and viruses. Some filter large particulate from coming in, others from them going out. Some both.
So while we know how bacteria, viruses and other contaminates can spread it's pretty likely that wearing a mask is not going to protect you from the Rona.
And to quote Fauci... “From a broad public-health standpoint, at the population level, masks work at the margins — maybe 10 percent. But for an individual who religiously wears a mask, a well-fitted KN95 or N95, it’s not at the margin. It really does work.”
It's pretty clear that like many things sold as a panacea, the definition of "working" is pretty narrow.
No, not 100% protect, but reduce the risk. The mask must be properly fitted and used properly. That is what Fauci was saying. Too many people have not done that.
Why, in that case he is 100% correct. It's also what a lot of sales engineers say when their product or methodology doesn't produce the results they promised.
Fauci, like a lot of people in STEM, often don't account for humans being humans. Sometimes it's because they just don't think that way, sometimes it's because humans are an inconvenient variable to their plan. And sometimes they do it so they can hide their failures as human behavior is a wonderful scapegoat.
Proper use of a mask includes not wearing a dirty one.
There's really no such thing as a clean mask. Even if it's sterile you contaminate it as soon as you touch it, much less breath through it.
Part of an old article from NYMag that shows doctors aren't as informed as we think as cloth masks don't work...
Cleaning your cloth mask
First things first: All of the doctors we spoke to agreed that you should wash your mask daily. “We recommend cleaning the mask at least once a day,” says Dr. Lindsey Gottlieb, director of infection prevention at Mount Sinai Morningside. “A reason for cleaning it more than that would be if it got really wet or dirty before the end of the day — for instance if you sneeze into it and it gets visibly wet, or if for some reason you walk by something that sprays on the outside of it, then I would clean it sooner. Otherwise, daily should suffice.” Dr. Elizabeth Mullans, a dermatologist at Uptown Dermatology in Houston, agrees: “If someone runs a quick errand, then goes home and doesn’t go out again, I recommend they wash the mask when they get home,” she says. “If you’re doing multiple errands at one time, then I wouldn’t wear different masks into each store, just wash it when you are done with errands for the day.” Gottlieb suggests having a few cotton masks on hand at home so that if you forgot to wash your mask at the end of the day (or simply don’t feel like it) you’ll have a clean one ready to go.
No, not 100% protect, but reduce the risk. The mask must be properly fitted and used properly. That is what Fauci was saying. Too many people have not done that.
Which, as Fauci pointed out, "From a broad public-health standpoint, at the population level, masks work at the margins — maybe 10 percent."
So in practice, masks of all sorts were a pretty big fail.
There's really no such thing as a clean mask. Even if it's sterile you contaminate it as soon as you touch it, much less breath through it.
Part of an old article from NYMag that shows doctors aren't as informed as we think as cloth masks don't work...
Cleaning your cloth mask
First things first: All of the doctors we spoke to agreed that you should wash your mask daily. “We recommend cleaning the mask at least once a day,” says Dr. Lindsey Gottlieb, director of infection prevention at Mount Sinai Morningside. “A reason for cleaning it more than that would be if it got really wet or dirty before the end of the day — for instance if you sneeze into it and it gets visibly wet, or if for some reason you walk by something that sprays on the outside of it, then I would clean it sooner. Otherwise, daily should suffice.” Dr. Elizabeth Mullans, a dermatologist at Uptown Dermatology in Houston, agrees: “If someone runs a quick errand, then goes home and doesn’t go out again, I recommend they wash the mask when they get home,” she says. “If you’re doing multiple errands at one time, then I wouldn’t wear different masks into each store, just wash it when you are done with errands for the day.” Gottlieb suggests having a few cotton masks on hand at home so that if you forgot to wash your mask at the end of the day (or simply don’t feel like it) you’ll have a clean one ready to go.
Masks being used by the general public are not sterile out of the box, even if it is unopened. They are clean.
No, not 100% protect, but reduce the risk. The mask must be properly fitted and used properly. That is what Fauci was saying. Too many people have not done that.
Not to rain on your parade but here's a recent study. (Please note that studies are often wrong but I checked Cochran's reliability on NIH and they were rated pretty good by NIH NLM).
Do physical measures such as hand‐washing or wearing masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory viruses?
Key messages
We are uncertain whether wearing masks or N95/P2 respirators helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses based on the studies we assessed.
Hand hygiene programmes may help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses.
How do respiratory viruses spread?
Respiratory viruses are viruses that infect the cells in your airways: nose, throat, and lungs. These infections can cause serious problems and affect normal breathing. They can cause flu (influenza), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and COVID‐19.
People infected with a respiratory virus spread virus particles into the air when they cough or sneeze. Other people become infected if they come into contact with these virus particles in the air or on surfaces on which they land. Respiratory viruses can spread quickly through a community, through populations and countries (causing epidemics), and around the world (causing pandemics).
Physical measures to try to prevent respiratory viruses spreading between people include:
· washing hands often;
· not touching your eyes, nose, or mouth;
· sneezing or coughing into your elbow;
· wiping surfaces with disinfectant;
· wearing masks, eye protection, gloves, and protective gowns;
· avoiding contact with other people (isolation or quarantine);
· keeping a certain distance away from other people (distancing); and
· examining people entering a country for signs of infection (screening).
What did we want to find out?
We wanted to find out whether physical measures stop or slow the spread of respiratory viruses from well‐controlled studies in which one intervention is compared to another, known as randomised controlled trials.
What did we do?
We searched for randomised controlled studies that looked at physical measures to stop people acquiring a respiratory virus infection.
We were interested in how many people in the studies caught a respiratory virus infection, and whether the physical measures had any unwanted effects.
What did we find?
We identified 78 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, epidemic influenza seasons up to 2016, and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We identified five ongoing, unpublished studies; two of them evaluate masks in COVID‐19. Five trials were funded by government and pharmaceutical companies, and nine trials were funded by pharmaceutical companies.
No studies looked at face shields, gowns and gloves, or screening people when they entered a country.
We 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).
We obtained the following results:
Medical or surgical masks
Ten studies took place in the community, and two studies in healthcare workers. Compared with wearing no mask in the community studies only, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu‐like illness/COVID‐like illness (9 studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 13,919 people). Unwanted effects were rarely reported; discomfort was mentioned.
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 (19 studies; 71,210 people), although this effect was not confirmed as statistically significant reduction when ILI and laboratory‐confirmed ILI were analysed separately. Few studies measured unwanted effects; skin irritation in people using hand sanitiser was mentioned.
What are the limitations of the evidence?
Our confidence in these results is generally low to moderate for the subjective outcomes related to respiratory illness, but moderate for the more precisely defined laboratory‐confirmed respiratory virus infection, related to masks and N95/P2 respirators. The results might change when further evidence becomes available. Relatively low numbers of people followed the guidance about wearing masks or about hand hygiene, which may have affected the results of the studies.
How up to date is this evidence?
We included evidence published up to October 2022.
Authors' conclusions
To summarize the findings of the study, the lead researcher Tom Jefferson said when asked: What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?
“There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”
Not to rain on your parade but here's a recent study. (Please note that studies are often wrong but I checked Cochran's reliability on NIH and they were rated pretty good by NIH NLM).
The evidence summarised in this review on the use of masks is largely based on studies conducted during traditional peak respiratory virus infection seasons up until 2016. Two relevant randomised trials conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic have been published, but their addition had minimal impact on the overall pooled estimate of effect. The observed lack of effect of mask wearing in interrupting the spread of influenza‐like illness (ILI) or influenza/COVID‐19 in our review has many potential reasons, including: poor study design; insufficiently powered studies arising from low viral circulation in some studies; lower adherence with mask wearing, especially amongst children; quality of the masks used; self‐contamination of the mask by hands; lack of protection from eye exposure from respiratory droplets (allowing a route of entry of respiratory viruses into the nose via the lacrimal duct); saturation of masks with saliva from extended use (promoting virus survival in proteinaceous material); and possible risk compensation behaviour leading to an exaggerated sense of security (Ammann 2022; Brosseau 2020; Byambasuren 2021; Canini 2010; Cassell 2006; Coroiu 2021; MacIntyre 2015; Rengasamy 2010; Zamora 2006).
To summarize the findings of the study, the lead researcher Tom Jefferson said when asked: What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?
“There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”
From your link:
"The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions."
People who do not want to wear masks do not want to be randomized to use them, and do not. Those who think masks are helpful do not want to be randomized to not use them, and do.
"The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions."
People who do not want to wear masks do not want to be randomized to use them, and do not. Those who think masks are helpful do not want to be randomized to not use them, and do.
The studies he's talking about were the ones used to say masking would work. They were flawed, which means the idea that mask wearing would be effective was flawed.
So what is your basis for saying that they work?
Saying "those who think" is the same as saying "those who don't really know". Words like believe, think, assume are all indicators that someone doesn't know ( I was taught that by a scientist I worked with on a project for the EPA). Even Fauci used those words a lot.
Just wondering, why do you want to believe that they work?
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