Anyone want to see our latest paper on #masks? #healthpolicy 🧪 www.bmj.com/content/388/... - ThreadSky

trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social • 16 hours ago

Anyone want to see our latest paper on #masks?
#healthpolicy 🧪

https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj-2023-078573.full?ijkey=V1Lg06C5ItmjqT3&keytype=ref

Comments

dizzyonaball.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Something that doesn't always happen: a clear and concise abstract for people who don't have the time or expertise for the full paper.

lizzymee.bsky.social•12 hours ago

📌

simplevisions.bsky.social•11 hours ago

📌

davidepike.bsky.social•6 hours ago

"In conclusion, there is ample evidence on the effectiveness of masks and respirators in community and healthcare settings to inform consistent policy... Strong leadership is required to overcome politicization and polarization around masks..."

davidepike.bsky.social•6 hours ago

In other words: leaders wearing masks consistently can sway organizational policy...imagine that...🤔 ponder emoji

timlagor.bsky.social•6 hours ago

An politicians deciding that a shortage means they should pretend respirators aren't needed isn't a great thing to have happen.

shereesmithaus.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Interesting paper and perhaps another aspect would be a global guideline on mask fit testing. Sasko LM, Oliver B, Smith SM. Fit testing of masks worn by frontline healthcare workers. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023 Apr;44(4):682-684. doi: 10.1017/ice.2022.268. Epub 2023 Jan 3. PMID: 36594247.

trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social•7 hours ago

📌

grumpyparticle.bsky.social•5 hours ago

I'm not sure if this is covered (I don't have access), I recently discovered that most of Europe does not require fit-testing. Anecdotally HCW had higher infection risk here, but I've not actual data to verify :( .

Related:
https://bsky.app/profile/grumpyparticle.bsky.social/post/3lhoimu43cr2a

mommarazzi.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Yes!!

pushkin99.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Interesting read. I wondered whether masks really made much difference. In Scotland, where folk were really strict, infection rates were no better than in England.

queenofland.bsky.social•11 hours ago

I live here. One of the things that brought the levels up from personal observation was English tourists visiting here and not masking. It was a very easy surge to read: half terms, full terms, breaks - two weeks and the numbers would rise. Every time.

otrosdias.bsky.social•14 hours ago

The metric to look at would not be overall infections, but rather nosocomial infections, i.e.: those that happened in healthcare. Hospital patients are specially vulnerable and it's difficult for them to protect themselves from infection in hospital, so those infections are much more dangerous.

pushkin99.bsky.social•13 hours ago

I have often remarked that hospitals are no place for the sick!

otrosdias.bsky.social•14 hours ago

We know that immunodepressed people (cancer patients), pregnant women, very young children, the elderly, etc. are particularly vulnerable to COVID. And health care often involves removing masks, etc. So general masking helps protect them in hospital settings.

pushkin99.bsky.social•13 hours ago

I just remember that when I first started wearing a mask, someone several metres away with a foul-smelling vape, got straight through my mask.

isanthropia.bsky.social•13 hours ago

That’s a failure of public service education. The size of vapour smell molecules are tiny compared to pathogens hitching rides on moisture particles from breath. Respirators such as FFP2 and 3 are designed to block pathogens in breath aerosol. You need P100 with specific filters to block smell.

timlagor.bsky.social•6 hours ago

When were they strict?
I started wearing a mask in Feb 2020.
Were they all wearing respirators? Did they really not take them off to talk (mind boggling behaviour but common)?

The guidelines were extremely bad throughout UK but mostly well followed everywhere.

webrant.bsky.social•12 hours ago

" In summary, extensive evidence generated during the covid-19 pandemic confirms the superiority of respirators and supports the use of masks and respirators in the community during periods of high epidemic activity."

#MaskUpInPublicSpaces

https://bsky.app/profile/trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social/post/3lj6nof3qa22v

jgreen63.bsky.social•14 hours ago

If only people working in healthcare would read the bmj.

totruth.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Masks save lives!!!

appetitedoctor.bsky.social•1 hour ago

I think of you, @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social whenever I get on public transport in a mask, which I still do.
I’m usually the only person wearing one.

saarmuller.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Great work. In particular recommendation 5! Thank you.

otrosdias.bsky.social•14 hours ago

📌

sourcecontrol.bsky.social•14 hours ago

after the pandemic?

it's written there...
we are still in a pandemic 😔

sourcecontrol.bsky.social•14 hours ago

very important point of awareness and communication:

"In community settings, any mask use is protective during epidemics, especially if used early, when combined with hand hygiene, and if wearers are compliant."

timlagor.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Non-Compliance was a a problem almost entirely generated by politicians on the basis that they assumed it would happen.
That and the idiotic guidelines that actively told people they only needed respirators in close proximity with patients.

speckle48.bsky.social•15 hours ago

📌

kumquatpiggie.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Thank you for pushing for commonsense infection control. I'm sorry to pile on, but the pandemic-in-the-past-tense is disappointing.

murtoz.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Thank you for all the work on trying to show people masks work. But "after the pandemic"?? This kind of framing is really damaging for us as it makes people even less likely to mask as 'the pandemic is over'.

But it ISN'T and healthcare is STILL unsafe for so many of us. Please use current tense!

skysmom.bsky.social•6 hours ago

My hubs and I have been wearing masks since covid arrived. Have not been sick at all with anything. We're now wearing masks filling our birdfeeder (plus wearing latex gloves and goggles and cleaning our boot soles off before returning indoors).

sonjahartl7.bsky.social•5 hours ago

📌

timlagor.bsky.social•6 hours ago

I'm glad this work has been done but sad that it was more than an afterthought. The conclusions were obvious in early 2020 and I'm still appalled that they would be news to most people (who also won't read about this paper) but it would have been important to verify them rigorously anyway.

janehobson.bsky.social•10 hours ago

📌

barryjmjones.bsky.social•3 hours ago

Thanks! This has to be the definitive last word on this subject. Those who demanded higher grade research have got it now. If only the AGP nonsense would go full sessional RPE would become the norm outside ICUs where most care occurs.

bobbielynn.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Thank you!

yousitonmyspot.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Gladly. Thank you for all your efforts despite the worst possible timeline which could unfold after the pandemic.

moniquesvw.bsky.social•13 hours ago

📌 Thank you

amythebirder.bsky.social•14 hours ago

📌

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