We tried to tell them-
So, what did the studies find?
For starters, hand-washing was effective in stopping the spread of these illnesses. That’s not surprising.
But here’s the most eye-opening finding: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness/COVID‐19-like illness compared to not wearing masks.” In other words, masks didn’t do much — if anything.
It’s possible that a community could drive down spread if everyone wore well-fitted high-quality masks such as N-95s or respirators, but there is no conclusive evidence that it does.