ScienceToday

Masks of all types are effective

Masks inevitably reduce the spread of droplets from the nose and mouth, says Pekosz. Researchers recently showed this when they recorded high-speed videos of people utilizing simple phrases, both when wearing and not wearing cloth masks. Almost all the speakers’ droplets were prevented from passing through the slightly damp washcloth. Another study concluded that “the odds of developing an infection with a coronavirus were reduced by 78 percent when wearing any mask.”

Even at less than 100 percent effectiveness, “you don’t throw up your hands,” Peter Chin-Hong, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told UCSF News in June. “That’s silly. Nobody’s taking a cholesterol medicine because they’re going to prevent a heart attack 100 percent of the time, but you’re reducing your risk substantially.”

Coronavirus stats are lower where masks are required

A recent study compared the death rates in countries where citizens were forced to wear masks with those in countries where masks were optional, and the differences were significant. The mortality rate increased by an average of 43 percent per week in countries where people were not asked to wear masks, compared with a 2.8 percent rise in countries where people wore masks.

Major differences have been seen in the United States. In a study of the first 15 States requiring masks in public (between 8 April and 5 May), researchers found a “major decrease” in the regular growth of cases until masks were mandated and the effect increased every day after the orders were signed. The researchers found that up to 450,000 cases may have been prevented as a result of these mandates.