The effectiveness of wearing masks for epidemic prevention is still being questioned by many countries. A recent large-scale research report pointed out that wearing a mask can reduce infections, and the effect is more significant for the elderly.
Large-scale mask trials conducted by Yale and Stanford University in the United States
A large-scale mask epidemic prevention study jointly conducted by Yale University, Stanford University and the Innovative Poverty Alleviation Initiative (IPA) explored whether masks can effectively block the virus and reduce the spread of the new crown epidemic.
The study was conducted in 600 villages in Bangladesh, and the number of participants was approximately 340,000. Researchers provided cloth masks or surgical masks to half of the villages, and used various methods to encourage and promote people to wear masks correctly, while people in the other half of the villages did not wear masks. The trial lasted for 8 weeks.
In the public area of the area where masks are distributed, the researcher will send people to observe the proportion of people wearing masks and whether the wearing methods are correct. In the final stage of the experiment, two methods will be used to find people infected with the new crown, one is to find Those who meet the symptoms of the new crown are identified, and the second is to take a blood test for some participants to confirm whether there are traces of infection of the new crown virus in the plasma.
Surgical masks have a significant anti-epidemic effect in people over 50
The results of the study showed that the proportion of symptomatic infections among people wearing different masks, overall, was 9.3% lower than before the test. Among them, the symptomatic infection rate of people wearing surgical masks decreased by 11.2%, while wearing cloth masks hardly decreased.
The protective power of masks increases with age. Among people who wear surgical masks between 50 and 60 years old, the proportion of symptomatic infections decreases by 23%; among people over 60 years old, it decreases by 35%.
However, studies have also found that wearing surgical masks is not effective for people under the age of 50.
The study also pointed out that the test results should not be interpreted as “surgical masks can only prevent about 10% of the new crown diagnosis rate”, because in this test, measures to promote and encourage the wearing of masks have only increased the proportion of people wearing masks. To 42%, it is estimated that more than 10% of the new crown diagnosis rate can be reduced in areas with stricter implementation of mask policies and a higher proportion of mask wearing.
The filtration rate of cloth masks is 37%, while that of surgical masks is 95%. After washing 10 times with soap and water, the filtration rate is still 76%. Surgical masks cost less than cloth masks and have higher protection. Therefore, researchers believe that wearing surgical masks is one of the good options for epidemic prevention.
In the context of Bangladesh’s vaccine delivery rate of only 5%, such results seem to imply that vaccines are not the only answer to epidemic prevention.
However, this study also has its limitations. First of all, researchers must obtain the consent of the subjects before they can draw blood for testing. Therefore, subjects are not fully screened for blood, which may cause researchers to overestimate the effectiveness of masks.
In addition, this study only screened for Alpha variants. Therefore, for the Delta variants that are currently popular around the world, the effectiveness of masks against epidemics is still unknown.
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Editor in charge: Li Qingfeng#
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