Science shows the benefits of masks

By Letter to the Editor on July 10, 2021.

Editor:
In response to Mr Baiton’s Letter to the Editor of July 7, entitled “Mask mandates sparked by fear, not science” I presume he is referring to a review article published by authors at the Chicago School of Public Health in July of 2020. That is a year ago and shortly after the pandemic really took off. On July 16, 2020, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota published the following in regards to that article: “The authors and CIDRAP have received requests in recent weeks to remove this article from the CIDRAP website. Reasons have included: (1) we don’t truly know that cloth masks (face coverings) are not effective, since the data are so limited, (2) wearing a cloth mask or face covering is better than doing nothing, (3) the article is being used by individuals and groups to support non-mask wearing where mandated and (4) there are now many modelling studies suggesting that cloth masks or face coverings could be effective at flattening the curve and preventing many cases of infection.” Again, this was still a year ago. Much data has been collected and analyzed since then. For instance, in a peer reviewed scientific publication by J. Howard and associates at the University of San Francisco published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Stated of America (PNAS January 26, 2021 118 (4) e2014564118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014564118 they conclude:
“The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected respiratory particles in both laboratory and clinical contexts. Public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high. Given the current shortages of medical masks, we recommend the adoption of public cloth mask wearing, as an effective form of source control, in conjunction with existing hygiene, distancing, and contact tracing strategies. ….. We recommend that public officials and governments strongly encourage the use of widespread face masks in public, including the use of appropriate regulation.”
For those interested, there are numerous other peer reviewed scientific articles that can be found by using Google Scholar.
Just by searching “COVID face masks” Google Scholar provided 2,500 peer reviewed articles published since 2020 to peruse. This is science, not fear!
Mark Goettel
Lethbridge