The Most Important Mask Studies: A Reference

Published medical research on the [lack of] effectiveness of masks, mask mandates, and mask harms.

First, a primer on the levels of the different levels of quality of research and the “Hierarchy of evidence.” Not all studies are equal in their level of certainty or quality, but the absolute most reliable and most certainty we can get usually comes from Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Control Trials. See the chart below from the Center for Evidence Based Medicine:

Luckily we have the highest possible evidence we can get on the effectiveness of masks. A Systematic Review of Randomized Control Trials. Cochrane Library (widely considered a gold standard in evidence based medicine and medical research), was actually censored for posting their own link to their Systematic Review of Mask evidence.

Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews: Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses

“We included nine trials (of which eight were cluster‐RCTs) comparing medical/surgical masks versus no masks to prevent the spread of viral respiratory illness (two trials with healthcare workers and seven in the community). There is low certainty evidence from nine trials (3507 participants) that wearing a mask may make little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI) compared to not wearing a mask (risk ratio (RR) 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to”1.18. There is moderate certainty evidence that wearing a mask probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza compared to not wearing a mask “

Of course this research was collected in the “pre-Covid” era, so some would criticize it just for that reason. However, as much as social media and government sources might want to claim otherwise, there is a boat load of published research on the ineffectiveness of mask mandates, cloth masks, and medical masks, and even mixed results on N95 masks. There’s also a lot of published medical research on the harms and downsides of masks, particularly to children.

As far as the evidence for masking, there have been a lot of very bad “studies” that offered no control group or any comparison group at all that have been published during Covid to try to “prove” masks work (Not to mention the mechanistic studies performed in a lab with mannequins). Perfect example would be the recent CDC Studies that were so poorly designed it was pathetic- you might hear people reference these. However, they are easily refutable- here is a concise refutation from Dr Vinay Prasad on the CDC study, and you can find my previous post with my criticism of the Pediatrics Mask Study here.

Below you will find 10 papers that describe the lack of effectiveness of Masks and Mask mandates, and 14 papers on the harms and potential harms of masks. I hope these links and summaries can be a valuable reference to my subscribers, and that as we finally move past this massive psychological experiment, we can finally address the secondary effects that masks have had on our society, especially our children, and one day actually insist that our government and public health leaders commit to risk/benefit analysis instead of blindly following the urge to “do something.