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Why a face mask box says it provides no protection to the wearer
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A viral image of a mask package that warns wearers it does not protect against COVID-19 has been making the rounds online, alongside a misleading question asking people why they are bothering with wearing masks.To get more news about Quality Medical Mask, you can visit tnkme.com official website.
What's the point of wearing a mask if even the box it comes in says that it does not protect against COVID-19?
The image reading "will not provide any protection against COVID-19 (coronavirus)" is real. Most masks, if not all, being sold have some sort of label saying that it will not provide any protection against viruses, but that does not mean masks should not be worn.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cloth masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19 from those who without symptoms. This means that although cloth masks do not have the capability to filter tiny particles like an N95 mask, it can still help prevent the spread of the disease by blocking respiratory droplets that leave a person's mouth while coughing, sneezing or talking.
If there is strong direct evidence, either a suitably powered randomized controlled trial (RCT), or a suitably powered metaanalysis of RCTs, or a systematic review of unbiased observational studies that finds compelling evidence, then that would be sufficient for evaluating the efficacy of public mask wearing, at least in the contexts studied. Therefore, we start this review looking at these types of evidence.
Cochrane (7) and the World Health Organization (8) both point out that, for population health measures, we should not generally expect to be able to find controlled trials, due to logistical and ethical reasons, and should therefore instead seek a wider evidence base. This issue has been identified for studying community use of masks for COVID-19 in particular (9). Therefore, we should not be surprised to find that there is no RCT for the impact of masks on community transmission of any respiratory infection in a pandemic.
Only one observational study has directly analyzed the impact of mask use in the community on COVID-19 transmission. The study looked at the reduction of secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Beijing households by face mask use (10). It found that face masks were 79% effective in preventing transmission, if they were used by all household members prior to symptoms occurring. The study did not look at the relative risk of different types of mask.