Just the News posted an article today about the changing positions on mask wearing by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The article reports:
A 2019 World Health Organization review of numerous studies testing the efficacy of face coverings to stop the transmission of influenza found “no evidence that [wearing a mask] is effective in reducing transmission” of the virus. The organization has further discouraged individuals from using cloth masks to cover their faces during pandemics, though at times that advice has appeared to shift.
The 2019 review was part of a larger study examining “non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza.” That paper effected a “systematic review of the evidence on the effectiveness of [non-pharmaceutical interventions], including personal protective measures, environmental measures, social distancing measures and travel-related measures.”
…The document reviews 10 separate randomized, controlled trials examining the effectiveness of face masks in stopping flu transmission. There was “no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza” found in that survey.
The article includes an amazing statement:
Though the organization conceded little evidence for the effectiveness of face masks, in an overview of the paper they nevertheless “conditionally” recommend them for the broader public in the case of “severe epidemics or pandemics.”
“Although there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission, there is mechanistic plausibility for the potential effectiveness of this measure,” the overview reads.
The article continues:
Yet the World Health Organization itself gives shifting advice on cloth masks. In its 2019 literature review it stated bluntly: “Reusable cloth face masks are not recommended.” In its guidance over the summer, however, it gave detailed technical standards by which individuals might fabricate their own cloth face coverings. Yet in that document it also stated that the “limited available evidence” in favor of cloth masks made them inadvisable for health care workers.
On its website, meanwhile, the WHO states that it “does not recommend [the] widespread use [of cloth face masks] among the public for control of COVID-19.” Yet in the same paragraph it argues that governments should “encourage the general public to use non-medical fabric masks” in “areas of widespread transmission, with limited capacity for implementing control measures and especially in settings where physical distancing of at least 1 metre is not possible.”
I think we can safely conclude that they have no idea what they are talking about. If wearing a mask makes you feel better, wear one. It may ultimately have a negative impact on your health, but go ahead. Just don’t decide to preach to those of us who avoid wearing one.