The Great Mask Debate: A Debate That Shouldn't Be a Debate at All

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology
• Respiratory Medicine

Background:

• Ongoing public debate regarding the efficacy of community face coverings in mitigating COVID-19 transmission.
• The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for effective non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the scientific literature on the use of face coverings for preventing coronavirus spread.
• Focus on SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) transmission and prevention through masks.

Main Methods:

• Semi-structured literature review.
• Searched for studies on "COVID19" or "SARS-CoV-2" combined with "mask/s" or "face covering/s."
• Included primary references, cited references, and media-identified sources up to October 30, 2020.

Main Results:

• Strong evidence supports community face covering use to reduce COVID-19 spread.
• Evidence derived from laboratory, epidemiological, clinical, and economic studies.
• Limited high-quality randomized controlled trials available at the time of the review.

Conclusions:

• The evidence strongly favors community face coverings for slowing COVID-19 transmission.
• Face coverings primarily protect the community and bystanders.
• Face coverings offer some protection to the wearer, potentially reducing infection risk and illness severity.