" Governments around the world - including the UK - have made it mandatory to wear a mouth mask in indoor public places, despite a lack of thorough studies on its effectiveness.
According to new research - more specifically 78 studies on a total of 1 million hospital patients conducted by the Cochrane Institute - masks made "no discernible difference" to the number of Covid transmissions in hospitals ( which have always been identified as hotbeds for virus transmission ).
Infection rates did not rise when mask duty was lifted in NHS institutions during an Omicron surge.
Today, experts say the findings do not mean that mouth masks are "worthless". But they call for a "rational and proportionate" mask policy in hospitals during future Covid flare-ups because the benefits are "modest at best".
Some hospitals still require patients to cover up before going in, although this is no longer a legal requirement.
Researchers at St George's Hospital in southwest London analyzed routinely collected infection control data over a 40-week period between 4 December 2021 and 10 September 2022.
It was the period between the first week Omicron became the dominant Covid variant and the week universal PCR Covid screening tests were abolished for patients who were admitted.
During the first phase of the study - 4 December 2021 to 1 June 2022 - all staff and visitors were required to wear masks in both clinical and non-clinical areas.In phase two, the mandate was removed.
Instead, decisions on mask policy were entrusted to individual hospitals.
High-risk hospitals, including cancer patient wards and intensive care units, retained the mask requirement.
The researchers found that abolishing the mask policy in phase two did not produce a "statistically significant change" in the number of hospital-acquired Covid infections. Nor did they observe a delayed effect on the number of Covid infections after the policy was lifted. This was despite the fact that transmission of the virus increased in the community.
Those on high-risk wards - the control group - who continued to wear masks also "saw no immediate or delayed change in infection rate", the study said.
Although masks were initially seen as a virus prevention measure, they have become a prominent symbol of the Covid culture wars in the UK.
Officials issued mixed messages about their effectiveness at the start of the pandemic.
Studies did not definitively show that masks prevent Covid.
In February, one of the most comprehensive meta-analyses of face coverings to date, by the Cochrane Institute, found that masks made "little to no difference" to the number of Covid infections or deaths. As with any observational study, the researchers behind the new UK study warned of potential limitations."
COMMENT :
It is incorrect that no in-depth studies or surveys existed on the efficacy of oral masks before the pandemic began. Those studies did exist and all showed that wearing disposable cloth and paper mouth masks ( the so-called surgical mouth masks ) were useless since the holes in the fabric of the mouth mask were many times larger than viral molecules and, moreover, did not fit properly on the face. Incidentally, numerous surgeons, worldwide, also clearly conveyed the message that mouth masks were useless. This was also confirmed by state experts in the early days.
More so, until December 2020, there was a warning on the WHO website that healthy people were not advised to wear mouth masks because they are hotbeds for infections. The page was subsequently removed.
Now, three years after the facts, the rabbit finally comes out of the magic hat. Mouth masks did not contribute in curbing infections. In other words,without mouth masks, there would not have been more infections but most likely far less. The fear of dying that has zoomed in on the people combined with the knowledge that mouth masks are hotbeds of infections leads to the conclusion that imposing a mouth mask requirement has made things worse.
Yet another conclusion that can now be drawn is that the Covid infections have not been that serious at all. With or without a mouth mask, only a limited percentage of the population in each country became infected ( at least if we are to believe the results of the PCR tests which is equally questionable ), most of which, moreover, were symptom-free.
The genie always comes out of the bottle. That is just a matter of time but it is earth-shattering to now read the confirmation of what the so-called ' lunatics ' have been preaching for 3 years and for which they have been consigned to hell.
What the governments have done to their entire population and all health workers in hospitals including pregnant women, women in the delivery room, newborns, the elderly, sick people ... is downright criminal.
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