Take away: Though not a guarantee of health, wearing masks reduces the number of respiratory infections compared to no/inconsistent mask wearing.

The claim: Masks are protective against clinical respiratory illness.

The evidence: The authors performed a meta-analysis of random controlled trials and observational studies examining mask use in health care workers. The results showed that wearing masks resulted in fewer infections compared to people without masks. These results agree with other publications (1, 2). One pre-print article which performed meta-analysis showed inconclusive results concerning the effectiveness of masks (3). Based on these meta-analyses, mask wearing results in fewer respiratory infections, though it will not prevent all infections when used as the sole protective measure.

Sources:

1) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32497510/

2) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27632416/

3) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047217v2

Facebook, Twitter, options, S. more sharing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Email, URLCopied!, C. L., & Print. (2020, July 21). Wearing masks could help you avoid major illness even if you get coronavirus, experts say. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-21/masks-help-avoid-major-illness-coronavirus

Gandhi. M., Beyer. C., Goosby. E., (2020). Masks Do More Than Protect Others During COVID-19: Reducing the Inoculum of SARS-CoV-2 to Protect the Wearer. SpringerLink. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06067-8

WearingisCaring {@WearingisCaring} (2020) How can you safely take off your mask? Simply follow these four easy steps to prevent catching the virus! Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/WearingisCaring/status/1295707116880134145

Liebst, Lasse Suonperä, and Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard. ‘Face-Touching as a Possible Correlate of Mask-Wearing: A Video Observational Study of Public Place Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. Preprint. PsyArXiv, 22 August 2020. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/u6wcp.

Rigby, Jennifer. ‘Masks, No Assembly and No Choir: The Science behind Reopening Schools Safely’. The Telegraph, 6 August 2020. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/masks-no-assembly-no-choir-science-behind-reopening-schools/.

‘Coronavirus Cases Surge as France Goes “Wrong Way”’. BBC News, 11 August 2020, sec. Europe. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53745481.

AP NEWS. ‘Health Officials Are Quitting or Getting Fired amid Outbreak’, 10 August 2020. https://apnews.com/8ea3b3669bccf8a637b81f8261f1cd78.

Oxford COVID-19 study: Face masks and coverings work – act now | University of Oxford. (n.d.). Retrieved 27 July 2020, from https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-07-08-oxford-covid-19-study-face-masks-and-coverings-work-act-now

It sounds like it's recommended because a significant portion of people with coronavirus are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, and the virus can spread through speaking, coughing or sneezing.

There's no "proof" that these work, but there's a hope that it helps along with hand washing and a distance of six feet.

Interesting that he uses this quote to begin his monograph as physical masks have been linked to hooliganism. Young boys and men are more likely to wear a mask at Halloween than girls and most of their costumes are designed that way. I think this article that looks at the power of masks, both with in a theatre context and online context is useful. The idea that a mask can transform the wearer into something else, potentially violent, also happens online is frightening. https://aeon.co/essays/how-masks-explain-the-psychology-behind-online-harassment

A short film captures how social interactions influence our complex relationships between self-presentation, self-esteem and self concept in a unique way.