Paper from April 22nd, 2015 in Science Daily:
Cloth masks: Dangerous to your health?
The widespread use of cloth masks by healthcare workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections and their global use should be discouraged, according to a UNSW study.
The results of the first randomized clinical trial (RCT) to study the efficacy of cloth masks were published in the journal BMJ Open.
The trial saw 1607 hospital healthcare workers across 14 hospitals in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, split into three groups: those wearing medical masks, those wearing cloth masks and a control group based on usual practice, which included mask wearing.
Workers used the mask on every shift for four consecutive weeks.
The study found respiratory infection was much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks.
1607 is a solid sample size - good p-value. Makes a lot of sense - bacteria like thrive in a warm moist environment and here you go keeping God's own petri dish a few millimetres from your nostrils taking in an aerosolized dose with every breath.
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