Masks in Medical Facilities
The County of Santa Cruz, California is enacting a face mask mandate “during respiratory virus season” for “all individuals who are not patients” in medical facilities.
IN FACT, studies have shown for decades that contagious respiratory diseases are mainly spread by microscopic aerosols that easily penetrate cloth and surgical masks, and no RCT has ever found that face masks have clinically meaningful benefits. Here’s a small sample of the facts:
- A study published by the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research in 1975 found that the number of microbe colonies “jumped” by 34 times when people wearing surgical masks entered empty operating rooms, and the increase “was no different than” when no one in the room wore masks.
- A similar study published by the same journal in 1999 found that regardless of whether everyone or no one wore surgical masks in an operating room and in the hallway outside of it, there was “no effect on the bacterial counts in either the hallway or the operating room.”
- A study published in 2003 by the Journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology, and Management found that the pore sizes of surgical masks were 17 to 147 microns. This is at least 17 to 147 times larger than the vast bulk of virus-carrying aerosols, more than 90% of which are less than 1 micron.
- A “systematic review” published in 2011 by the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses examined 8 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the “use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza” and found that “none” of them “established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection.”
- A study published in 2019 by the journal PeerJ found that the pore sizes of cloth masks were 80 to 500 microns. This is at least 80 to 500 times larger than the vast bulk of virus-carrying aerosols, more than 90% of which are less than 1 micron.
- A systematic review published in 2019 by the World Health Organization examined 10 randomized controlled trials and found “there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
- A study published in 2021 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the “majority of particles exhaled” by humans and primates are “small respiratory droplets” that “transmit through conventional masks.”
- A study published in 2021 by the Annals of Internal Medicine found “a large cluster” of C-19 infections among staff and patients in a Boston hospital “despite a mature infection control program that included policies” like “universal masking of providers.”
The lone RCT which found that masks slow the spread of contagious respiratory diseases in community settings was conducted in Bangladesh and is plagued by fatal flaws.
In stark contrast, ultraviolet disinfection systems are highly effective at killing airborne microbes, and they have been successfully used for more than 80 years to control the spread of contagious respiratory diseases in hospitals and schools.
