Wearing surgical masks in a hospital made no discernible difference to reducing hospital-acquired Covid infections, a study has found, casting further doubt on masking policies deployed throughout the pandemic.
The study by St. George’s Hospital, carried out during the first 10 months of Omicron, looked at infection rates between December 2021 and June 2022 when staff and visitors were required to wear masks in both clinical and public areas compared with after the policy was ended in June 2022. The analysis found that despite a Covid surge in June the rate of infections was no higher. The research will be presented later this month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“Our study found no evidence that mandatory masking of staff impacts the rate of hospital SARS-CoV-2 infection with the Omicron variant,” said lead author Dr. Ben Patterson, from St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London.
“That doesn’t mean masks are worthless against Omicron, but their real-world benefit in isolation appears to be, at best, modest in a healthcare setting.”
Sound pretty worthless to me. And the evidence is in line with the other studies recently reviewed by the Cochrane collaboration that likewise found no evidence of benefit in numerous randomised controlled trials.
Dr. Aodhan Breathnach from St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London. Added: “Many hospitals have retained masking at significant financial and environment cost and despite the substantial barrier to communication. We hope this empirical evidence can help inform a rational and proportionate mask policy in health services.” Well said, Dr. Breathnach.
It comes as separate research has confirmed the role of surface transmission in spreading COVID-19 – a related finding, as a contaminated mask is of course a surface held in front of the mouth and nose, and the frequent touching of a mask (and of the face while wearing a mask) will contaminate it.
In the study, published in the Lancet Microbe, researchers at Imperial College London, the UKHSA and the University of Oxford monitored 414 people living with an infected person between August 2020 and March 2021. They found that healthy householders were 70% more likely to pick up the virus when it was present on surfaces or hands. Around 90% of people who had the COVID-19 virus on their hands ended up picking up an infection compared with just 30% of those whose hands were clean. Similarly, in households where COVID-19 was found on surfaces (like kettles and fridges) more than half of people caught the virus compared with around a third in homes where the virus wasn’t found there.
The presence of virus on the hands of an infected householder was associated with a three times greater risk of contacts in the household also having a positive hand-swab, while contacts with the virus on their hands were twice as likely to become infected with COVID-19.
If virus was found on frequently touched surfaces, contacts were nearly four times more likely to have detectable virus on their hands and 1.7 times more likely to be infected.
Whole genome sequencing confirmed that the household contacts were infected with the same strain, and so likely caught it from each other.
Professor Ajit Lalvani, lead author of the study and Director of NIHR Health Protection Research Units, said this finding “helps to rebalance the pendulum” by showing the virus does not only spread through the air.
The accepted wisdom and consequently policy as to whether transmission in hand-surface or aerosol/airborne has swung like a pendulum during the pandemic. At the beginning the authorities mistakenly pronounced that the virus was not airborne, but it is. Then by 2021, the widely held belief had become that not only is the virus airborne but that that is the only or at least predominant route of transmission. Our study helps to rebalance the pendulum by showing that hand-surface transmission in households, which is where most transmission occurs, contributes significantly to spread.
Oddly, despite not studying the question, the researchers claimed their findings showed that masks were important for preventing touching of the nose and mouth. Which only shows they have no idea how most people use masks. The evidence that masks significantly reduce transmission is non-existent, of course – and the role of surface transmission is part of the reason why.
Masks have been ubiquitous throughout the pandemic, nowhere more so than in healthcare settings. Will evidence now at last prevail on this costly, harmful, pointless policy?
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Why do they always find conclusive evidence that the masks are s**t, that lockdowns did f**k all, that vaccines are useless then appease the blob by saying something like “but that’s not to say they don’t help in some way!”
They are grasping at straws.
Covering their backsides to get more grant money to study the blindingly obvious
Yes, no matter how much evidence there is that masks are absolutely useless, they still have to add: “That doesn’t mean masks are worthless against Omicron” grrrgrrr….
Amazing, what a revelation! The fact that for the better part of 3 years billions of people were strapping cotton or plastic rags across their gobs, yet the lurgy spread and ebbed and flowed across the world in the same pattern over 3 years was evidence enough that they don’t work – not to mention all the decades, centuries before now where people believed a bit of cloth would save them.
As for the surface contamination – indeed, it is proof that the initial statement by the health authority here that masks would have people touching their mouth far more often than normal and would therefore be counter-productive, was correct. To say nothing of breathing in lurgy (and other germs) that was happily colonising on your face rag.
Next they’ll be saying that stabbing people with a hastily concocted chemical cocktail did not, after all, save millions of lives…
Yes indeed… Mindboggling to consider the damage done globally by the grossly disproportionate and ill-targeted Covid-19 response. To think about the social, political and economic destruction…wow…
So who is responsible?
Bill Gates for instance – see for example his GatesNotes published on 30 April 2020: What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Will evidence now at last prevail on this costly, harmful, pointless policy?”
Will vast swathes of the public change their position on what has become both an article of faith and a belief that bestows membership of the dominant tribe?
I’m going with no.
Rona was a white middle class cult from what I saw. Gave the masses a religion, lurgy, purpose and a clear path to salvation. Interestingly in general, the non whites I know never participated. I think the great majority would happily partake in another scamdemic.
Another small contribution to the mass of confusing research on mask wearing and Covid. I couldn’t find the original paper but the Daily Mail includes a surprising amount of detail and there was also this article by one of the authors on Medscape.
It is not without value but
So interesting but far from conclusive.
Hang on in there, MTF, you never know, maybe one day someone, somewhere will find some evidence that goes the way you want it to. Hold fast! Keep the faith!
LOL! I can only assume he has shares in paper masks, because otherwise it’s hard to figure why someone would try to defend something when the tsunami of evidence says the opposite!?
Obviously I am not going to come across a study that is pro-mask on this site. But I don’t have to look far for other studies that are pro-mask. Here is an old favourite: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118. But there are many others. You will find fault with them and you will be right. Just as I have found fault with anti-mask studies. That’s my point – it is very hard to do a good study in this area and therefore the results are inconclusive.
On balance I would like it if there was conclusive evidence that wearing a mask made no difference as I would prefer not to wear one. However, as Covid has died down it really is only a political issue now, not a health issue. Very few people are wearing them.
Covid has not “died down” – only the worst aspects of the scam (apart from the useless untested “vaccines” which continue to seem as they are causing serious health issues). If Covid exists it is still circulating as much as ever – the difference is that it’s now obvious to everyone that we should have just ignored it – as predicted by nutjob conspiracy theorists here and elsewhere three years ago.
…actually I would like you to find ALL of the pro mask studies, so we can compare them with the, literally hundreds, of ones that say masks don’t work, there is no balance..yours would be a very short list….
In which country (in real world evidence) do you think they ‘worked’ ….as obviously Sweden did the opposite and knocked it out of the park?
More importantly, why do you so badly want to believe that a piece of paper over your nose and mouth can really stop a virus..when you have obviously also had all your jabs and boosters..aren’t they protecting you?
Obviously I can’t find them all but I will supply a list tomorrow provided you promise to read them all (shouldn’t be a problem if there are so few)
The studies took place in many countries. I only have my phone tonight so hard to get a list but if you read all of them you will know the countries.
I don’t want to believe anything about masks but if they even slightly reduce the chance of infection that’s surely worth knowing?
Many people refer to the CDC’s list of pro-mask papers https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.html
LOL…and if that list convinces anyone..I suppose that says it all…
This is obviously a serious scientific study….
Unfortunately we never learn what would have happened if they didn’t wear a mask!! LOL!
I agree, and the other references on that page go downhill from that one. But it’s what people typically refer to when looking for pro-mask arguments.
This wasn’t my list. Most of the anti-mask lists I have seen are also a mixture. I don’t have an answer. If I make up my own list (which would be an hour or two work) would you commit to reading the papers? If not, I won’t bother.
Trouble is – can you believe anything from the CDC?
As long as you know that the physical harms of masks must exceed the benefit of a possible tiny reduction in the probability of infection with a virus that poses an insignificant threat to most people; as long as you know the money spent on masks can’t be spent on anything more helpful; as long as you know about the negative environmental effects of the billions of masks; as long as you know about the destructive effects of masks on child development; as long as you know that masks make it harder for people with hearing problems to communicate; as long as you know that mask wearing is essentially about signalling your compliance to tyranny.
I could go on, but essentially anybody who supports mask wearing sucks Satan’s cock.
“I don’t want to believe anything about masks but if they even slightly reduce the chance of infection that’s surely worth knowing?” (My emphasis.)
What do you want MTF? Do you want everyone wearing masks all of the time, regardless of their risk with ‘Covid-19’?
Who exactly is at serious risk of Covid-19?
That depends so much on the context and current prevalence. In any case the decision should be taken on the best available evidence recognising that there’s a great deal of uncertainty and, given that, not mocking those who are very cautious and decide to wear one (which doesn’t include me). Also accepting that in a context such as a highly immunosuppressed ward it makes sense to ask people to wear masks, not just for Covid.
I tell you what he/she/it wants.
More of those nice brown envelopes he gets for posting drivel on here.
If only. The only person to offer to fund me was one of the contributors of articles to this site. He offered to pay a year’s subscription so I could keep on providing an alternative voice. I turned it down because I felt that I would be obliged to comment. I will probably stop my comments when this £5 runs out because it goes against the grain to support a source of so much I disagree with – (much as I am sure most people here would not like to support the Guardian) – although the temptation to intervene when something is interesting or clearly wrong is very high.
There are studies that say masks are somewhat effective and others say that masks are not effective in preventing Covid transmission.
Unfortunately most of the media tends to only publish the ‘pro-mask’ studies and ignore everything else that doesn’t conform to their ‘narrative’ or opinion that they want to push.
There was a massive dislocation and interruption to people’s lives and the economy due to the anti-Covid measures and it seems like they were not based upon proven science.
To me that is the main problem.
The authorities should first have proven that masks, isolation, lockdowns were effective then implemented them.
Though at the beginning of Covid I can see the point that they didn’t have time but afterwards the authorities should have only implemented and kept measures that had proven science behind it.
I repeat myself. I don’t care whether masks, lockdowns etc “work” – I will not accept them as a response to a mild virus of the type we’ve coexisted with since the beginning of time. If you want to waste your life on this nonsense feel free but leave me and everyone else out of it. Worrying for more than a few seconds a day about flu like illness is an illness itself.
Hear hear
In the last few weeks we’ve been to the physio, no masks, GP, no masks and sat in outpatients for 1 hour and saw only 2 daft members of staff with face nappies but their colleagues went commando. Not a single member of the public masked up. No signage, nothing. So my conclusion from here in the Netherlands anyway is that the occasional person spotted wearing one in a healthcare setting is doing so due to their own choice, no requirement to do so. I think it’s a small minority that have become so comfortable wearing the damn things that going out without would be like leaving the house without your undercrackers on! It just wouldn’t occur to some to do without. I’d be ashamed to broadcast my mental illness far and wide tbh, but that’s just me…bloody sad sacks.
Yet another study which
a. Is stating the bleedin obvious (to thinking persons)
b. Will make zero difference to shifting the narrative
Well let’s hope this tit comes back straight away with a long awaited “mea culpa.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55479018
I doubt it. He looks pure WEF to me. He thinks climate change is a medical emergency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMqAkV2yDaU&t=1s
And another systematic review shows that they are not just useless but harmful.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1125150/full
Yes but the vaccines saved trillions.
Indeed, if masks don’t even work in a clinical setting like a hospital (where they are inherently part of universal multilayered precautionary measures), they literally do not work, period.
Speaking of masks…
Remember this story in Melbourne, Australia:
‘He’s choking me!’ Confronting moment male police officer ‘STRANGLES’ a woman who refused to wear a mask during a violent arrest on the streets of Melbourne amid draconian lockdown rules, published on the Daily Mail on 11 August 2020.
I did wonder about this…was this an authentic story? Or a set-up to frighten and subdue the populace?
More info in this ABC report:
Victoria Police reviewing alleged ‘choking’ arrest of woman not wearing a mask in Melbourne, 12 August 2020.
Has the woman in the story ever been tracked down? Would be interesting to have her thoughts on the matter now…
Here’s a follow up on the story, dated 23 December 2020: Victoria Police officer in viral ‘choking’ arrest video cleared after internal investigation.
Apparently the officer was given an “internal debrief”.
Re the woman involved, this from the article:
Has anyone seen ” hide nor hair” of Chris Whitty since the Scamdemic was exposed? Is Spandau Prison still operating?
To my great delight, walking back home with the dog this morning, I saw what is now a very rare thing … a man, alone in his car. Masked…
The image below usually shuts people up when they bang on about masks…
“Healthy householders were 70% more likely to pick up the virus when it was present on surfaces or hands.”
So, has the COVID-19 virus now actually been isolated, allowing them to identify for certain what they were looking at?
Expect that study to be ignored and the authors attacked.