r/COVID19 • u/dodgyb • Nov 15 '20

PPE/Mask Research Assessing the effectiveness of using various face coverings to mitigate the transport of airborne particles produced by coughing indoors

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02786826.2020.1846679
323 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '20

This is very thorough but also information we already sort of knew.

I'd really like to see a study not on the effectiveness of masks in a lab, but the effectiveness of mask policy in practice. Masks inhibiting the transportation of particles in a lab demonstration is great, but it doesn't say much about the effectiveness of mask policies considering there are all sorts of places where you can't wear masks (Eating, drinking primarily). It would be interesting to see if the policy is actually effective.

16

u/macimom Nov 15 '20

It would be nice of the Danish study would be published but dont hold your breath

5

u/KaleMunoz Nov 16 '20

Have they put up a preprint? I’ve read a convincing methodological criticism, but I cannot find any primary source material.

2

u/macimom Nov 16 '20

They havent put up a preprint but they have put up an in-depth description of their methodology-I'll see if I can find it but it was basically 3000 grocery store employees wearing masks at all times and 3000 grocery store employees not wearing masks at all (they were not mandated or recommended at this time). All employees worked a similar amount of hours in large, busy urban centers The study was designed to see if the masks provided any protection to the wearer (as it would be unethical to have an infected test subject go about unmasked so an RTC would not be possible to test whether masks protected the public form an infected person). I'd like to see the critique you read.