Thread by @FineTunedFoto

Thread: 45+ Mask Studies

The medical literature for the past forty-five years has been consistent: masks are useless in preventing the spread of disease and, if anything, are unsanitary objects that themselves spread bacteria and viruses.

1. Peer reviewed study showing masks injure every bodily organ that research team studied:
pdmj.org/papers/masks_f…

2. Director of Infection Control at Kingston Health Sciences Centre - Ontario, Canada
thewhig.com/news/local-new…

3. Danish Study on Mask Wearing
acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M2…

4. Cloth masks fail to prevent spread of COVID-19
cebm.net/covid-19/maski…

5. Cloth masks increase likelihood of infection
bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e0…

6. Ritter et al., in 1975, found that “the wearing of a surgical face mask had no effect upon the overall operating room environmental contamination.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1157412/

7. Application of human albumin microspheres to the interior of surgical masks in 20 operations. At the end of each operation, wound washings were examined under the microscope. “Particle contamination of the wound was demonstrated in all experiments.” europepmc.org/article/med/73…

8. Laslett &Sabin, in 1989, found that caps & masks were not necessary during cardiac catheterization. “No infections were found in any patient, regardless of whether a cap or mask was used,” they wrote. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…

9. 1991 study, a gen surgery team wore 0 masks in half of their surgeries for 2 years. After 1,537 operations performed with masks, the wound infection rate was 4.7%, after 1,551 operations performed with 0 masks, the wound infection rate was only 3.5%. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

10. A review by Skinner and Sutton in 2001 concluded that “The evidence for discontinuing the use of surgical face masks would appear to be stronger than the evidence available to support their continued use.” journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…

11. Lahme et al., in 2001, wrote that “surgical face masks worn by patients during regional anaesthesia, did not reduce the concentration of airborne bacteria over the operation field in our study. Thus they are dispensable.” europepmc.org/article/med/11…

12a. Webster et al., in 2010, reported on obstetric, gynecological, general, orthopaedic, breast and urological surgeries performed on 827 patients. All non-scrubbed staff wore masks in half the surgeries, and none of the non-scrubbed staff wore masks in half the surgeries. ...

12b. ... Surgical site infections occurred in 11.5% of the Mask group, and in only 9.0% of the No Mask group. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

13a. Surgeons at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, recognizing the lack of evidence supporting the use of masks, ceased requiring them in 2010 for anesthesiologists and other non-scrubbed personnel in the operating room. “Our decision to no longer require routine surgical ...

13b. .... masks for personnel not scrubbed for surgery is a departure from common practice. But the evidence to support this practice does not exist,” wrote Dr. Eva Sellden. pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology…

14. Bahli did a systematic literature review in 2009 and found that “no significant difference in the incidence of postoperative wound infection was observed between masks groups and groups operated with no masks.” semanticscholar.org/paper/Does-evi…

15. Figueiredo et al., in 2001, reported that in five years of doing peritoneal dialysis without masks, rates of peritonitis in their unit were no different than rates in hospitals where masks were worn. advancesinpd.com/adv01/21Figuei…

16. Facemasks and similar barriers to prevent respiratory illness such as COVID-19 medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

17. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Part 1 - Face masks, eye protection and person distancing: systematic review and meta-analysis medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

18. Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

19. Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in protecting health care workers from acute respiratory infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis cmaj.ca/content/188/8/…

20. The use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: a systematic review of the scientific evidence ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

21. Comparison of Filtration Efficiency and Pressure Drop in Anti-Yellow Sand
Masks, Quarantine Masks, Medical Masks, General Masks, and Handkerchiefs aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-…

22. Use of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of the common cold among health care workers in Japan: a randomized controlled trial pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/

23. Comparison of Filtration Efficiency and Pressure Drop in Anti-Yellow Sand
Masks, Quarantine Masks, Medical Masks, General Masks, and Handkerchiefs aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-…

24. A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

25. Effectiveness of Masks and Respirators Against Respiratory Infections in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis academic.oup.com/cid/article/65…

26. Comparison of filter efficacy of Medical Non-Woven Fabrics against Three Different Microbe Aerosols jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bio/23…

27. Postoperative wound infections and surgical face masks: A controlled study link.springer.com/article/10.100…

28. Is a mask necessary in the operating theatre? ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

29. COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…

30. Rapid Expert Consultation on the Effectiveness of Fabric Masks for the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 8, 2020) nap.edu/catalog/25776/…

31a. 3 of 5 NIH studies from 2004-2020 all finding verifiable health effects from wearing a face mask, including
scientifically verified reduction is blood oxygen level:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29395560/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15340662/

32a. 2 of 5 NIH studies from 2004-2020 all finding verifiable health effects from wearing a face mask, including
scientifically verified reduction is blood oxygen level:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26579222/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31159777/

33a. Lipp and Edwards reviewed the surgical literature in 2014 and found “no statistically significant
difference in infection rates between the masked and unmasked group in any of the trials.” .....

33b. Vincent and Edwards updated this review in 2016 and the conclusion was the same.
cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.10…

34. Carøe, in a 2014 review based on four studies and 6,006 patients, wrote that “none of the four studies
found a difference in the number of post-operative infections whether you used a surgical mask
or not.” europepmc.org/article/med/25…

35. Salassa and Swiontkowski, in 2014, investigated the necessity of scrubs, masks and head coverings in
the operating room and concluded that “there is no evidence that these measures reduce the
prevalence of surgical site infection.”
journals.lww.com/jbjsjournal/Ab…
_Role_in.11.aspx

36. Da Zhou et al., reviewing the literature in 2015, concluded that “there is a lack of substantial
evidence to support claims that facemasks protect either patient or surgeon from infectious
contamination.” journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…

If anyone is interested I could put all of these links together on my website as a blog post so they are in one place. If you'd be interested in having that as an extra resource to refer to, let me know!