As pretty much everyone can well remember, the CDC’s shifting stance on face masks in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic was almost comical. It first claimed that face covering weren’t needed, then made a sudden about-face and demanded that everyone wear one – including kids as young as two years old.
CDC Director Robert Redfield insisted that “face masks are the most important powerful health tool we have” to fight the pandemic, and even suggested that they are more important than vaccines.
But a new scientific review published by Cochrane University finds that the CDC was dead wrong. Led by 12 preeminent researchers from across the world, the study found that masks did little, or perhaps even nothing, to help curb transmission of the virus.
The study considered whether “physical interventions” like masking and hand-washing made any noticeable difference. Turns out, it didn’t.
When comparing wearing a medical/surgical mask to not wearing a mask, the review found that “wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (nine studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (six studies; 13,919 people).”
But wait. The fancy N95 respirators that medical experts said would surely help were effective, right? Nope.
“Wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (five studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (five studies; 8407 people), or respiratory illness (three studies; 7799 people).”
Kudos to all the people that won’t give up on those masks and still wear them religiously.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
23 Responses
Can Yw post full scientific findings
They’re effective at making people docile. That’s why they mask captives at Gitmo.
Keep wearing those masks and driving 35 mph in the left lane. What is the connection? I’m not sure, but every slow driver in the left lane is wearing one based on my observation.
From the conclusions of Cochrane Library article CD006207:
“The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.”
“There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect.”
“There is a need for large, well-designed RCTs addressing the effectiveness of many of these interventions in multiple settings and populations, as well as the impact of adherence on effectiveness, especially in those most at risk of ARIs.”
Source?? Reference??
Oh where, oh where has Fauci gone, oh where oh where can he be????
They forgot to mention that criminals still need this to cover their faces when committing a crime.
These masks are very effective in hiding your identity when committing theft, burglary and assault.
1. What study are you citing? Saying something is “science” without giving details of who did the research and how it was done is usually a warning not to take it seriously.
2. Since there were great differences in masking based on subculture, geographic areas or jurisdiction, if the masks made any difference it would have been apparent (e.g. few people dying in places that were fanatical about masks such as New York, and many people dying in places that weren’t such as South Dakota or Florida — but that didn’t happen!!!).
That’s why Sweden 🇸🇪 which never had any Mandates didn’t suffer any higher rate of Corona incidents
Please note:- This article not discussing jabs, because these jabs most definitely did help, and even a vaccinated person who contracted Corona, it was so much milder than would have otherwise been
The debate is not settled. This article gives the results in more detail: https://slate.com/technology/2023/02/masks-effectiveness-cochrane-review.html
Basically, this study was trying to answer if previous studies prove that mask mandates help reduce a populations likelihood of getting COVID. The answer was mostly no. But, it doesn’t answer if it helps individuals. It also doesn’t look at how masks work and how the virus works to answer why they work or don’t work.
Science always changes. It’s supposed to change as we learn more about something. Even if the science proves that masks are useless it doesn’t mean people who wore them were stupid or wrong. Those people were working with what we knew then, not what we know now.
147 I disagree.
The “vaccines” did not help. This article is written about masks because that is the focus of this article. A separate article would need to be written about the COVID “vaccines” which scientifically don’t even qualify as vaccines because they don’t prevent transmission and they don’t prevent a person from getting COVID and they don’t lesson symptoms. They had to change the definition of vaccine in order to be able to call these vaccines. They aren’t they are poisonous shots that can potentially kill or at least call health issues. If people didn’t have side effects they either received a placebo or they got very lucky and their dose wasn’t heavily concentrated. Or perhaps their immune system was strong enough to fight these toxins. But they wouldn’t be able to fight it forever. With each additional dose their chance of major health problems and death increase.
These studies have been examined and addressed previously and are inconclusive. Sure, YWN should post links or a least full citations to the source materials. However, they are readily available if you search through the Cochrane website. And again, this is NOT an original study but a compilation of other studies…some really good ones and others of dubious scientific value. Bottom line is that they didn’t have the basis to conclude one way or another based on sample size, timelines and other statistical parameters normally used in efficacy experimental work. Logically, we have vast amounts of peer reviewed studies showing the efficacy of surgical quality (N95) masks in limiting viral transmission, NOT the rates of serious infection/mortality/morbidity. There is no demonstrated research showing that the early Covid variants acted different on physical airborne transmission than other viruses.
Think about all the times you wore a mask to go to shul or yeshiva or day school, if you were even allowed to go there! If people just washed their hands, like we are commanded to do anyway, it may have done more good.
Let’s see.
People infected with Covid-19 give off the virus in their saliva and mucus droplets.
Other people get infected with Covid-19 from the droplets given off by infected people.
Masks block the spread of these droplets.
Wouldn’t common sense then tell you that masking stops the spread of Covid-19?
But some people think they know better.
Bronxyid, what happened to the virus being airborne
BronxYid: Those who grew up in proximity to Pelham Parkway or the Grand Concourse have a considerably higher level of intuitive understanding then those unfortunate Yidden who grew up off the coast (reminder that THE Bronx is the only Borough that has a “THE” before it and is the only portion of NYC that is part of the mainland (and NO, the United States is not an island of the coast of Brooklyn).
Thank you, Captain Hindsight!
Do keep in mind that this study was published now, not 2 years ago…
This paper is a meta-review of papers by Cochrane Review (there is no Cochrane University). They also bunched up together results for COVID and other respiratory diseases and look at reported and self-reported sick reports. This buries the main issue with early Covid – high asymptomatic transmission, that is less present with known viruses – among unrelated data.
Then, they showed several comparisons – no mask v. any mask, and then mask v. N95 respirators (?). Most of comparisons have little data that they are able to accept (that is “low confidence”) and usually show little decrease, I think 5-10% that is then declared below threshold. Not sure, why they did not use the numbers to compare no mask v. N95 – tat would be 10-20% presumably, maybe because there were no direct comparisons.
If I recall correctly, they show positive effect of hand washing – so those here who believe in natilas yadaim, pls continue doing it!
Also, everyone here who did not follow mask mandates “contributed” to some of these studies that conclude
that mask mandates do not work with obstinate people.
How about all those electric bikes driving in wrong lanes and in all illegal directions without stopping or looking, BUT WITH MASKS!
The only thing I get out of these posts is getting closer to the identity of the self-proclaimed Gadolhadorah.
Its last comment was perfect.
Thank you.
Y.U. Grad. Five-Towns perhaps. Leaning more towards left-leaning Manhattan elite. Doctor or lawyer. Holier than thou for certain. Without a doubt the highest command of the English vernacular here. Supplanted by the “Frum” elite. Mask away, “Gadol”.
Although i personally found the masks torture to wear, and it shouldn’t have been forced on people, especially children, I would like to mention my own personal observations. i am in my 60’s and during the height of the pandemic before the vaccines, i went shopping, saw lots of people including my grandchildren. What i did do was wear the mask and wash my hands after going out. During these two years, i never got sick with anything, and this is unusual for me. My husband who happens to be a physician working in a Jerusalem hospital also didn’t get sick, BH. he claims that there is research to show that masks do prevent exposure to germs, not necessarily COVID,but he did feel it helped.
Did the study take into consideration that wering them around your neck, or not even having one on isn’t considered wearing a mask? Because people claimed to wear a mask when they weren’t. Whereas in countries where they adopted mask usage, saw immediate drops in disease transmission, as has studies for well over 60 years have shown. But the trick is, the mask has to cover certain area’s. Not just be near you to work.
It’s amazing how so many Yehudim can microanalyse a subject that the scientists & Doctor’s are uncertain about till today.
The fact is that the Mask(ing) up is just one part of the Covid protocols.
Some Covid Protocols
1) wear an N95 mask or better
2) get vaccinated, boosted and tested. As suggested. Repeat.
3) practice good hygiene
4) have fresh air circulation in rooms
5) stay 6 feet away from other people
6) stay out of crowds when feeling ill
Just wearing a mask won’t protect a person.
No study needed to prove that.