Loading...
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the concept that N95 respirators and surgical masks can lower risk for respiratory virus infections (RVIs). A new Cochrane review on this topic has reported that masking is not beneficial despite the authors' cautions about study interpretation and limitations. In an update of four Cochrane Library meta-analyses on differing physical interventions to limit RVIs, Jefferson and colleagues analyzed 78 randomized controlled trials (RCTs; 6 of which were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic). Study settings included suburban schools, inpatient hospital wards, and inner-city venues; adherence to interventions was often low.
Analysis of 19 trials of hand hygiene (71,210 participants) found a relative reduction…