Surgical masks are not inferior to N95 masks for health-care workers providing routine Covid care
Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, at 5 p.m. ET
Hamilton, ON (Nov. 29, 2022) – Surgical masks are not inferior to N95 masks for stopping the spread of COVID-19, says a study led by McMaster University researchers.
The results follow the tracking of 1,009 health-care workers providing COVID-19 patient care at 29 sites in Canada, Egypt, Israel and Pakistan between May 2020 and March 2022. Study participants were randomly assigned either a surgical mask, which was already the standard used at all of the study sites, or a N95 respirator. As with all clinical trials, study participants were volunteers who could exit the study or switch to an N95 at anytime.
“The surgical masks were not statistically less effective than N95s in preventing COVID-19 infections in health-care providers looking after patients with COVID-19,” said lead author Mark Loeb, professor of McMaster’s Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and a Hamilton infectious disease physician.
“The major thrust of this study is that there have been no other rigorous comparisons of surgical masks to N95 respirators. This was also the only randomized clinical trial – offering the highest standards of evidence – relating to this question throughout the pandemic.”
Loeb said a systematic review of four previous randomized controlled trials on masks done between 1990 and March 2020 shows the use of surgical masks did not increase viral respiratory infection or clinical respiratory illness.
He added that there have been conflicting recommendations on the use of N95 masks during the pandemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended N95s for routine care of patients with COVID-19, while the World Health Organization and Canadian Public Health Agency recommended either surgical masks or N95 respirators.
The study comes as low and middle-income countries are still struggling to procure N95 masks due to their high cost. Loeb said many of these same countries faced an acute shortage of N95s throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
External funding for the study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the World Health Organization and the Juravinski Research Institute.
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s).View in full here.
Related News & Content
-
How to optimize ‘select found_rows()’ query? Several ‘high load average’ alerts daily
How to optimize 'select found_rows()' query? Several 'high load average' alerts daily,I have 5,000 regular posts, 6,000 posts in one post type and 2,000 posts in another post type. Needless to say, that has made the wp_posts table quite large. Not to mention, I have custom taxonomie... -
How to Use JSON With AJAX?
How to Use JSON With AJAX?,I've defined a PHP callback function to handle the communication between server-side and client-side: function json_render_modal_body() { check_ajax_referer( THEME_PREFIX . '-modals', 'nonce'... -
Filtering context for render_block function
Filtering context for render_block function,I am trying to use render_block within a function called from the WP admin via AJAX The render_block returns null/empty however if I run my function using the wp hook returns the rendered HTML for ... -
How do I hide submenus from the top menu bar?
How do I hide submenus from the top menu bar?,My website is wiki-style and has a lot of pages that should only be reached through links on other pages. Having these all accessible from the top menu bar under their respective headings leads you... -
Register users without confirmation
Register users without confirmation,I'm looking to register users without requiring confirmation of their emails (and even better, no password when they register). Basically, I want them to subscribe their mails using wp registration -
How to use AJAX in wordpress front end?
How to use AJAX in wordpress front end?,I have two inputs in an HTML Widget block on a post. What I need to do: send the inputs (from the html widget) value to AJAX, construct and execute a query, render a table with the results back on ... -
Display posts from Custom Post Type, group by term, arrange term groups and arrange items within groups by menu order
Display posts from Custom Post Type, group by term, arrange term groups and arrange items within groups by menu order,I have a Custom Post Type 'my_cpt' and a custom taxonomy 'types' which has several terms, all of which have posts. I want to do is be able to control both the order of the groups (terms from my cus... -
How do I know if the custom theme is a child theme or a full-custom theme?
How do I know if the custom theme is a child theme or a full-custom theme?,Inherited a custom built WordPress site. How do I know if the theme it uses is a child theme or a full-custom theme? I would like to delete the unused themes for security and to free up space, but ... -
getEntityRecords/useEntityRecords: How to use CPT metadata?
getEntityRecords/useEntityRecords: How to use CPT metadata?,I use getEntityRecords as described in the official data API tutorial (https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson/retrieving-wordpress-data-records/). I.e.: const [searchTerm, setSearchTerm] = useState... -
Carol Kirkwood stuns in figure-hugging dress amid BBC Breakfast technical chaos
Carol Kirkwood stuns in figure-hugging dress amid BBC Breakfast technical chaos,CAROL Kirkwood stunned in a figure-hugging dress amid a technical blunder. BBC Breakfast was flung into chaos this morning after a string of sound issues. However Carol, 61, was all smiles as she p… -
Families ‘to sue prison’ where loud inmates ‘terrorise kids’ with screaming
Families 'to sue prison' where loud inmates 'terrorise kids' with screaming,Residents living next door to a new prison who say their kids have to sleep wearing headphones and some leave during weekends due to the racket are threatening to sue the prison service -
Doctor Strange’s Secret Wars Role May Be More Important Than You Thought – Looper
Doctor Strange's Secret Wars Role May Be More Important Than You Thought - Looper,According to entertainment leaker Alex Perez, Doctor Strange will find himself confronting his inner struggles as he headlines "Avengers: Secret Wars." -
I’m a clown for not trying Korean beauty secret for glowy skin sooner – don’t worry, I’m not putting cheese on my face
I’m a clown for not trying Korean beauty secret for glowy skin sooner – don’t worry, I’m not putting cheese on my face,A BEAUTY influencer has regrets about not trying out Korean beauty advice for glowy skin sooner. Although the trick can look a little strange at first, she assured viewers that she was not putting … -
“Not every artist deserves to be rich”: Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows on Spotify revenue and why Web3 is the future
“Not every artist deserves to be rich”: Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows on Spotify revenue and why Web3 is the future,Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows has shared his opinion on the difficulty of making money through streaming platforms as an artist, arguing that “not every artist deserves to be rich”. -
‘We are at risk’ – health expert in urgent warning for Irish people over Easter
‘We are at risk’ - health expert in urgent warning for Irish people over Easter,AN URGENT warning has been released to those jetting off over the Easter break. With measles already on the rise, there is an increased risk of a more widespread outbreak in the coming weeks. Trave… -
Black Holes Are Even Weirder Than You Imagined
Black Holes Are Even Weirder Than You Imagined,It’s now thought that they could illuminate fundamental questions in physics, settle questions about Einstein’s theories, and even help explain the universe. -
The odd history of on-hold music
The odd history of on-hold music,We've all been put on hold when we've tried to reach someone. Have you ever thought about the music that plays while you wait? -
‘What Jennifer Did’: Netflix doc explores shocking Ont. murder-for-hire case
'What Jennifer Did': Netflix doc explores shocking Ont. murder-for-hire case,Most of Jennifer Pan's entire life was made up of lies. When her parents began to catch on, she decided to bring in hired hitmen. -
How Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentence stacks up against the century’s biggest fraudsters
How Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentence stacks up against the century’s biggest fraudsters,SBF, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange FTX, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison. Here’s how he compares to Bernie Madoff, Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Allen Stanford, and Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling. -
Life and death on America’s deadliest road
Life and death on America’s deadliest road,Being a pedestrian in the US was already dangerous. It’s getting even worse.
