Masked Threats? Studies Reveal NO Benefits to Global COVID-19 Facemasks-for-all Policy
I’ve been wearing masks for 25 years in my role as an operating-room nurse. So I have a firm grasp on masks’ risks and benefits and how to use them correctly. I’m having a hard time watching the misuse of masks all around me after the folly of influential public-health officials promote universal-mask-wearing recommendations to control COVID-19.
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But these so-called experts ignore the fact that any benefit of masking is from studies on medical-grade ‘surgical’ masks not cloth ones. Indeed, the only randomized controlled study of cloth face coverings to reduce spread of the novel coronavirus warned against their use because they posed a 13% increased risk of infection to those wearing them.
Ironically, even the CDC states that it is “unknown” whether such masks can protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 and that “currently we are not finding any data that can quantify risk reduction from the use of masks.”
A May 2020 meta-analysis published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that examined studies from 1946-2018 found surgical face masks don’t significantly reduce viral transmission and in fact improper use increases the risk of infection spread. Several trials on masks in community settings, including a 2015 systematic review and a large Australian study, found participants who wore masks had just as many infections as those who did not. Dr. Michael Osterholme, director of the Center of Infectious Disease and Research Policy, has spoken out about the inadequate evidence to support the public use of face masks. In relation to the CDC’s recommendation of cloth masks he stated,
“Never before in my 45-year career have I seen such a far-reaching public recommendation issued by any governmental agency without a single source of data or information to support it.”
Also, experts in masks and protection against infectious aerosols affiliated with the University of Illinois showed in an April 2020 evidence review that masks-for-all COVID-19 policies are not based on sound data.
Closer to home, Ontario Civil Liberties researcher Dr. Dennis Rancourt showed there’s an egregious lack of evidence supporting masking in his paper “Masks don’t work: A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy.”
Also in Ontario, evidence that masks can prevent the transmission of influenza was found to be “scant” in two recent labour arbitrations.
Even in operating rooms the benefit of routine masking of all staff is a hotly debated issue. Several systematic reviews have not found evidence that masks reduce infection rates in surgery. In fact, some studies suggest they may even increase the infection rate.
Masks can harbor harmful contaminants. Bacterial surveillance data found the outside surface of a surgical mask is dirtier than the floor — and the inside 100 times dirtier than that. Indeed, a 2019 paper examining the presence of viruses on the surface of medical masks concluded, “Respiratory pathogens on the outer surface of the used medical masks may result in self-contamination.”
Even among trained medical personnel, contamination caused by the incorrect removal of masks is a persistent problem. Studies show that even under the threat of Ebola, the biggest contamination risk is from the way masks are removed.
Meanwhile, we now see lay people including children routinely wearing masks. People appear unaware they’re wearing a highly contaminated filter on their face that can transmit infection if it’s handled, stored or disposed of improperly.
Their masks are often hanging under their chins or with their noses fully exposed. They’re reusing and repeatedly adjusting their masks and storing them in their pockets and purses. I have yet to see one person sterilize their hands after touching their mask.
Of equal concern, risks of mask-wearing include skin infections and oxygen deficiency. The latter is the reported cause of a car crash involving a masked man who passed out while driving.
In April 2020, leading epidemiologists pointed out in the British Medical Journal that there are other serious potential side-effects of wearing masks. They wrote,
“it is necessary to quantify the complex interactions that may well be operating between positive and negative effects of wearing surgical masks at population level. It is not time to act without evidence.”
In addition, some people can’t wear masks due to anxiety or respiratory conditions. And the hard of hearing may not be able to hear someone who’s wearing a mask – leading potentially to not only alienation, but consequential miscommunication.
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