While computer modeling and epidemiological studies of questionable design keep emerging to support public mask wearing to slow the spread of SARS-COV-2, studies that look at actual real-world experience and the physical science of mask-wearing do not support the practice for the general public or workers.
From an article published June 16, 2020 in the Journal Paediatric Child Health,:
“There is no good evidence that facemasks protect the public against infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID‐19.
However, absence of proof of an effect is not the same as proof of absence of an effect. During the pandemics caused by swine flu and by the coronaviruses which caused SARS and MERS, many people in Asia and elsewhere walked around wearing surgical or homemade cotton masks to protect themselves. One danger of doing this is the illusion of protection. Surgical facemasks are designed to be discarded after single use. As they become moist they become porous and no longer protect. Indeed, experiments have shown that surgical and cotton masks do not trap the SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) virus, which can be detected on the outer surface of the masks for up to 7 days. Thus, a pre‐symptomatic or mildly infected person wearing a facemask for hours without changing it and without washing hands every time they touched the mask could paradoxically increase the risk of infecting others.”
Isaacs D, Britton P, Howard-Jones A, et al. Do facemasks protect against COVID-19?. J Paediatr Child Health. 2020;56(6):976-977. doi:10.1111/jpc.14936
The best protection continues to be a combination of personal responsibility for immune health through good nutrition and healthy habits, proper hygiene, staying home when sick with symptoms, covering coughs and sneezes, and for those at high risk of poor infection outcome, self-isolation as necessary.
What has changed most about human health in recent history is the silence, and silencing, by governmental public health officials and agencies, of the vital role nutrients and non-drug therapies play in prevention and treatment of infectious disease. Please see our COVID19 page for posts about effective treatments and nutrients, and share them with others. Health is not complicated, and we don’t need to wait for any drug company to rescue us. The treatment protocols needed to prevent and treat exist here and now. Empower yourself with the knowledge of the building blocks of health and recovery. Only you can protect your health — somebody wearing a mask at the grocery store can’t — and in fact, they may just be doing more harm than good.
