A meta-analysis conducted by the Cochrane Institute — considered the “gold standard of evidence-based reviews” — has concluded that surgical masks and even N95 or P2 respirators offer little protection against COVID-19, if at all.
The researchers reviewed 78 global studies involving over 600,000 people. Significantly, the studies they looked at were randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, which are considered to be high-quality research and the scientific optimum.
A review of ten RCT studies in communities about the efficacy of wearing medical/surgical masks, results found that “wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu‐like illness/COVID‐like illness . . . and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test.”
Regarding N95/P2 respirators, four studies of healthcare workers and one community study found that “compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu . . . and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu‐like illness . . . or respiratory illness."
The conclusion reached by the Cochran Institute has already been known for two years to many who opposed mask mandates. While low-quality studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that masks offer as much as an 80% reduction in infection rates, both RCT studies conducted in 2021 on mask efficacy showed different findings. One from Bangladesh found that masks provide an 11% infection decrease for older people and no impact on younger people, and one from Denmark showed that masks have no effect on infections at all.
Moreover, Western governments that mandated mask-wearing knew those studies' conclusions.
Israel’s Health Ministry, which mandated masks until April 2022, was made aware of the studies in a Knesset hearing last year. But the health ministry did not need to be told; documents released in December 2021 under Israel's freedom of information act revealed that Israel’s Health Ministry imposed mask mandates to send an “educational” message to increase COVID compliance, knowing masks had “no strong scientific basis” before forcing them upon their populace on the pain of fines and police brutality.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, on the other hand, cited the high-quality RCT studies last year as the reasons he refused to impose mask mandates.
“To the doctors who tell you that these things save lives, ask them what did the two randomized clinical trials that we’ve done during the pandemic, what did they show?” Ladapo challenged. “Ask them that when they tell you that these things save lives. One found nothing. Zero benefit. The other found a small benefit, like a tiny benefit that’s a little bit methodologically shaky.”
Ladapo went on to say that science is conclusive about masks being completely useless for young people.
“And by the way, none of them found a benefit in young people. Not a single one found a benefit in young people. That’s the highest-quality evidence. That’s what it showed,” said Ladapo.
