[philliphaydon]

Doesn’t seem like a very ground study. But living in Asia has taught me masks do work, and they work at school. My 3yo doesn’t get a cold when the 1 kid in the class is sneezing and coughing. The 1 case of covid didn’t spread in the school to Teachers or students.

But I get there’s a bunch of adults who can’t wear masks as well as a 3yo so in that case the adults are more likely to catch or spread covid with their inability to wear masks right.

[josephcsible]

Your one anecdote overturns this whole study?

[hetman]

It might illuminate the limitations of the study.

[allisdust]

People want to fit their observations into their belief systems. Whether something is really true is always going to be debated endlessly in this polarised world.

[MuchoMaas]

That's nice. My kids' preschool in a blue state which mandated masks until spring of this year had constantly recurring COVID cases and exposures, including a Delta infection my kids brought home in October last year and passed to me.

[ceejayoz]

A preschool is... not the best-case scenario for proper mask wearing technique.

[nathanaldensr]

I don't think GP was speaking about the technique but rather alluding to the uselessness of the mandates.

[sveng]

This article is a pre-print, not yet peer reviewed. Look closely at the writings and affiliations of the second and third authors.

[amluto]

In Asia, actual decent factory-made masks seem to have been widely available for years. I would believe that the effects of people in Asia wearing masks sold in Asia is not the same as people in America wearing masks sold in America.

[philliphaydon]

I don’t know what the quality of masks is like overseas but one thing you don’t see is cloth masks. If you do see them they are always over the top of an actual mask just for a fancy design. But never cloth only.

[GekkePrutser]

Here in Spain there were lots of cloth masks. And I've never seen people wear two of any type.

[nabakin]

What is considered an actual mask here? N95, surgical, or something else?

[philliphaydon]

Surgical Mask (3ply) and N95.

Pretty much all masks are surgical 3ply now, at the start of covid it was quite hit and miss, alot of 'surgical' were not 3ply.

[GekkePrutser]

I don't know about America but every pack of masks I've bought in Europe has been made in China. Always comes with one of those little white papers with don't Chinese scribbles and a red star stamped on it. Even when the packaging is in the local language.

[barry-cotter]

People do not wear masks with a tight seal. Of the last 20 people I saw there were 19 cloth masks, one that is maybe capable of keeping a seal. Lots of chinstraps too. Shanghai.