Do Masks Mitigate the Spreading of Coronavirus?

'Is the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 reduced if most people in a community wear masks? If most people do not wear masks but some do, are the mask wearers protected? These are among the most critical public health questions of this moment, but they are very different questions,' stated researchers in an editorial published by the Annals of Internal Medicine on November 18, 2020.

Mask wearing is just one of several interacting strategies to reduce viral transmission, with each reinforcing the others. The recent DANMASK-19 trial was designed to examine only the masks' protective effect, not source control.

This study reported a total of 3,030 participants were randomly assigned to wear masks, and 2,994 were assigned to control; Infection with SARS-CoV-2 occurred in 42 participants recommended masks (1.8%) and 53 control participants (2.1%). Indicating the difference observed was not statistically significant.

'We need to gather many pieces of evidence to solve the puzzle of how to control the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. For this reason, we thought it important to publish this study's findings and carefully highlight the questions that the trial does and does not answer,' concluded this editorial.