On January 30, 2023 the Cochrane collaboration “published an incredibly thorough and comprehensive review of the masking literature.” Their systematic review paper looked at physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. They conclued that “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks…[or] …the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks”. [1, 2, 3, 4]
This is an update of a November 2020 review and lead author Professor Tom Jefferson said “the evidence really didn’t change from 2020 to 2023. There’s still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic.” [5]
The WHO already knew this as they published a systematic review in September 2019 effectively concluding mask are ineffective for stopping the spread of influenza or preventing, a respiratory virus.