Masks don’t work. At least a dozen scientific studies have shown that masks do nothing to stop the spread of respiratory viruses.
One meta-analysis
published by the CDC in May 2020 found
“no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks”.
Another
study with over 8000 subjects found masks
“did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections nor against clinical respiratory infection.”
There are literally too many to quote them all, but you can read them: [
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10] Or read a summary by SPR
here.
While some studies have been done claiming to show mask do work for Covid, they are all seriously flawed. One relied on
self-reported surveys as data. Another was so badly designed
a panel of experts demand it be withdrawn. A third was withdrawn after its predictions
proved entirely incorrect.
The WHO commissioned their own meta-analysis in the Lancet, but that study looked only at N95 masks and only in hospitals. [For full run down on the bad data in this study click
here.]
Aside from scientific evidence, there’s plenty of real-world evidence that masks do nothing to halt the spread of disease.
For example, North Dakota and South Dakota had
near-identical case figures, despite one having a mask-mandate and the other not:
so
South Dakota....no mask mandates.
In Kansas, counties without mask mandates actually
had fewer Covid “cases” than counties
with mask mandates. And despite masks being very common in Japan, they had their
worst flu outbreak in decades in 2019.