Masks have been politicized by some and ridiculed by others during the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, US public health officials advised the public not to wear masks to save on personal protective equipment that was rare at the time for frontline workers. They quickly reversed their position and recommended a mask. This still seems to be a problem for many citizens. politician..
But from their early days, scientific research has shown that masks are cloth, surgery, N95 masks, and sometimes Combination of the two — An important step in stopping the spread of COVID-19. The scale of these studies varied, but the results were usually the same. However, in scientific research, the larger the study, the more definitive the results are in general.
Therefore, the medical community is talking about a new study published this week, and the largest study of its kind in history investigating the effectiveness of face masks to prevent COVID-19 infection. The study also investigated interventions and their effectiveness. This means a form of reminder that requires the general public to wear a mask. A Bangladesh-based research project led by the Innovations for Poverty Action Bangladesh provides the most conclusive evidence that widespread wearing of surgical masks can limit the spread of the coronavirus in particular.paper Currently preprinted, Peer-reviewed with the journal Science.
As more contagious delta variants spread around the world, the results of this study ensure that surgical masks are distributed to communities around the world where access to vaccines is currently restricted or mask wearing is not common. It may create an urgency to do.
“Currently, there is evidence from randomized controlled trials that mask promotion increases the use of facial coverings and prevents the spread of COVID-19,” he said. Stephen Ruby, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford University and co-author of the study, In a press release.. “This is the gold standard for assessing public health interventions. Importantly, this approach was designed to be scalable in low- and middle-income countries that struggle to obtain or distribute vaccines against the virus. . “
Researchers enrolled approximately 350,000 randomly assigned interventions from 600 rural villages in Bangladesh to promote the use of surgical masks. People who lived in the villages promoting the strategy were 11% less likely to develop COVID-19 than those who lived in control villages. That is, a village that was investigated but no intervention strategy was implemented during the eight weeks. .. In particular, the reduced likelihood of infection with COVID-19 in randomly assigned villages that promote the use of surgical masks increased to 35% in people over the age of 60. A total of 178,288 people belonged to the intervention group and 163,838 people belonged to the control group.
So what were these intervention strategies? We provide free surgical masks. Remind people directly to mask in public. Inform the public about the importance of covering both the mouth and nose with a mask. Have community leaders act as role models by regularly masking in the community.
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Researchers estimated that in the intervention group, nearly 42% of the villagers wore masks, thanks to the combination of these intervention tactics. After the intervention, mask wear increased by 28.8%. In villages where mask intervention strategies were not deployed, only over 13 percent of the people in those villages were recorded to be wearing masks properly.
The lead author, Dr. Ashley Stytinsky, MD, Fellow of Infectious Diseases at Stanford University, said: In a news release.. “Although less than 50% of people in intervention villages wore masks in public places, the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 was significantly reduced in these communities, especially older and more vulnerable people. Notable. “
Researchers have placed themselves in various public places, both control and intervention villages, to ensure that people are properly wearing masks on both their mouth and nose, and that they are physically separated. We collected the data in real time, recording whether it looked like. During the fifth week of the study, researchers asked people in the community if they had experienced COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, stuffy nose, and sore throat. In the intervention village, about 7.6% reported symptoms of COVID-19. In the control village, researchers recorded that about 8.6 percent of people recorded symptoms.
In particular, the infection rate was low in Bangladesh when the data were collected.
Of those who were symptomatic in both groups, an estimated 40 percent agreed to provide a sample blood test to confirm the presence of SARS-CoV-2. For those who had symptoms and agreed to a blood sample to confirm SARS-CoV-2 infection, the percentage of those who tested positive was 0.76% in control villages and 0.68% in intervention villages. bottom. This means that the overall risk of confirmed symptomatic infections was reduced by 9.3% with any mask and any mask type.
The difference is statistically significant. For surgical masks, the risk reduction increased to 11%.As a salon Reported earlier, All masks are better than no masks, but as this study confirms, surgical masks provide more protection than cloth masks.
As The Washington Post The authors emphasize that the effect of the mask is not only 9.3%. Instead, the risk is reduced. Scientists believe that risk mitigation will be higher if universal masking occurs.
Interventions from this study have been deployed in Pakistan, India, Nepal, and parts of Latin America. Researchers believe that the United States can also benefit from them.
“Unfortunately, many conversations about masking in the United States are not evidence-based,” Ruby said. “Our study provides strong evidence that wearing a mask can prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, and also suggests that filtration efficiency is important. Includes mask compatibility and its manufacturing materials. Cloth masks are certainly better than nothing. But now it may be a good time to consider upgrading to a surgical mask. “
