Last week it seems the West decided that we should all wear masks and wear cloth masks if we don’t have proper masks.
As Scott Alexander pointed out, Macintyre et al 2015 seems to be a only controlled trial of cloth masks and it writes:
For example, a contaminated cloth mask may transfer pathogen from the mask to the bare hands of the wearer. We also showed that filtration was extremely poor (almost 0%) for the cloth masks. Observations during SARS suggested double-masking and other practices increased the risk of infection because of moisture, liquid diffusion and pathogen retention. These effects may be associated with cloth masks.
I’m not on record for being the biggest fan of evidence-based medicine, but getting everybody to take use a medical intervention based on pathotheoretical reasoning when the paper that provides out best evidence cautions against that intervention is risky.
Why does Macintyre et al 2015 come to so different conclusion about the ability of cloth masks to filter then other studies?
What action could people take to reduce the potential increase risk that Macintyre sees when they don’t have better masks?
[Question] What to draw from Macintyre et al 2015?
Last week it seems the West decided that we should all wear masks and wear cloth masks if we don’t have proper masks.
As Scott Alexander pointed out, Macintyre et al 2015 seems to be a only controlled trial of cloth masks and it writes:
I’m not on record for being the biggest fan of evidence-based medicine, but getting everybody to take use a medical intervention based on pathotheoretical reasoning when the paper that provides out best evidence cautions against that intervention is risky.
Why does Macintyre et al 2015 come to so different conclusion about the ability of cloth masks to filter then other studies?
What action could people take to reduce the potential increase risk that Macintyre sees when they don’t have better masks?