Study on effectiveness of medical masks amid COVID draws harsh criticism
The study found no significant difference in rate of catching the virus between those who wore masks and those who didn't.
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIPEOPLE ON Jaffa Street in Jerusalem wear masks on Sunday.(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
A new Danish study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has sparked massive outrage for suggesting that medical masks do not protect people from contracting coronavirus.The study, according to the Washington Times, found that coronavirus infection rates were practically identical between randomized groups. One group were told to wear masks outside their homes and the other were not told to. This new study comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that masks are effective in both protecting those surrounding the wearers as well as the wearers themselves.The research looked into the effectiveness of protecting those wearing the masks from contracting the virus and did not look into how wearing a mask may protect those surrounding the mask-wearers from catching it. It further stated that it is not meant to be construed as a recommendation stating that mask-wearing is ineffective in reducing the spread of coronavirus.The study looked at 6,000 participants in Denmark who were found to have "similar rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection in those who did and those who did not receive a recommendation to wear a surgical face masks when outside the home," said the study's lead author, Henning Bundgarrd of the University of Copenhagen, according to the Times.The study led to an uproar by those who oppose the wearing of masks and the coronavirus restrictions worldwide, which are oftentimes perceived as overtly harsh. The clapback to those has been even more massive.One of those "anti-maskers," Alex Berenson, told Fox News: “There’s just no evidence that masks protect the wearer.""Now, we can discuss this other issue of source control, we can discuss ‘my mask protects you’ — there’s not very good evidence for that, but that’s much harder to test in a big randomized trial," he added.
