Essay
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Evaluating Masks Through the Lens of Evidence-based Medicine
Version 1
: Received: 28 March 2024 / Approved: 29 March 2024 / Online: 9 April 2024 (16:48:26 CEST)
How to cite: Spira, B. Evaluating Masks Through the Lens of Evidence-based Medicine. Preprints 2024, 2024040614. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0614.v1 Spira, B. Evaluating Masks Through the Lens of Evidence-based Medicine. Preprints 2024, 2024040614. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0614.v1
Abstract
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, masks have been promoted as an important tool for reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, even though masks are plausible experimental interventions, their mechanistic effectiveness has not been validated by randomized clinical trials (RCTs), with reduction risks of just 1.1-fold (11%) or less. Several meta-analyses have suggested that masks effectively reduce viral transmission, but all of them rely heavily or exclusively on observational data. Indeed, there is a strong inverse correlation between the effectiveness of masks and the number of RCTs included in the meta-analysis. RCTs on alternative therapies often show similar low levels of effectiveness. Thus, masks can be compared with potential new drugs or therapies that failed clinical trials despite showing mechanistic evidence.
Keywords
COVID-19; evidence-based medicine; randomized clinical trials; masks; alternative therapies; condoms
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public Health and Health Services
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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