Face Masks: A 2020 Timeline, Who’s U-turn With Still No High Quality Evidence
Face Masks: A 2020 Timeline, Who’s U-turn With Still No High Quality Evidence
I made this video a while ago, but as it’s going to be featured on the ‘masks matter’ page of the Voices for Freedom website (here:Ā ) I thought I’d make it again and hopefully improve it. So this is a new version of the video.
In the first four months of 2020, we were repeatedly told that cloth/surgical masks are not only ineffective at stopping viral transmission, but that wearing such masks could actually increase a personās chances of infection.
On 17 May 2020, a WHO-commissioned study, published by the CDC, found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks:
It was this study that was instrumental in the shift of global face mask policies. However, this study only looked at observational studies, it didnāt look at any randomised controlled trials. Compared to randomised controlled trials, observational studies are considered to be a lower standard of evidence in the traditional hierarchy of scientific evidence.
And this Lancet study received criticism (see link below)
On 6 June, citing āevolving evidenceā the Director General of the World Health Organisation announced a change in WHO policy on the wearing face masks by the general public:
āWHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult, such as on public transport, in shops or in other crowded or confined environments.ā
Prior to this announcement, the WHO had advised that only people with symptoms should wear masks, and they clearly said that people without symptoms shouldnāt wear them.
It should also be noted that in the W.H.Oās 5 June Interim Guidance Report on mask use in the context of COVID-19 (5 June being just one day before their policy change announcement on 6 June), it is stated:
āMany countries have recommended the use of fabric masks/face coverings for the general public. At the present time, the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidenceā
And while the W.H.O advised that the general public should be āencouragedā to wear masks, governments and police went further than mere encouragement. Masks were mandated in some places, even for people outside (the data shows that outdoor transmission is rare) and fines were issued for not wearing masks.
On July 11, BBC Health Correspondent Deborah Cohen reported:
āThe debate is deeply political. Newsnight understands that the World Health Organisation committee that reviewed the evidence for the use of face coverings in public didnāt back them, but after political lobbying, the W.H.O now recommends themā
Following this change in policy by the W.H.O, for the remainder of 2020, we were told that we should wear face masks, even by those who initially told us that masks are ineffective.
Yet, in the W.H.Oās Dec Interim Guidance Report on mask use in the context of COVID-19, we find the following:
āAt present there is only limited and inconsistent scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. A large randomised community-based trial in which 4862 healthy participants were divided into a group wearing medical/surgical masks and a control group found no difference in infection with SARS-CoV2ā
The ārandomised community-based trial ā mentioned above is the landmark Danish mask study published in November 2020:
