It seems that in the case of consistent mask weares, it was found a higher incidence of covid-19. Check out the latest reports about the matter below.
Consistent mask wearers get sicker
A recent study conducted in Norway found that people who wore protective masks were more likely to contract COVID-19 infections than those who didn’t wear masks.
The study was published on Nov. 13 in the peer-reviewed journal Epidemiology and Infection, and it analyzed mask use among 3,209 individuals.
The researchers followed the participants for 17 days and then asked them about their use of masks. The study found that people who used masks more frequently had a higher incidence of testing positive for COVID-19.
The study revealed that among individuals who “never or almost never” wore masks, 8.6 percent tested positive for COVID-19. This percentage increased to 15 percent for participants who “sometimes” used masks and to 15.1 percent for those who “almost always or always” wore masks.
After taking into account factors like vaccination status, a study found that individuals who wore masks frequently had a 33% higher incidence of COVID-19 compared to those who rarely or never wore masks.
This percentage increased to 40% for people who almost always or always wore masks. However, after adjusting for “differences in baseline risk over time”, the risk of wearing masks became less significant, with only a 4% higher incidence of infection among mask-wearers.
“The results contradict earlier randomized and non-randomized studies of the effectiveness of mask-wearing on the risk of infection,” the researchers wrote.
“Most of these studies reported that wearing a face mask reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection. Some observational studies have reported manyfold reductions while one community-based randomized trial failed to demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in infection risk and one cluster randomized community trial found only a modest reduction.”
It is important to note that the researchers of the study identified a significant constraint, which is that people who wore masks may have done so to prevent others from getting infected by them.
This factor could be the reason for the observed “positive association between risk of infection and mask usage.” Additionally, there may be behavioral differences and a potential for bias due to the survey being based on self-reported data.
