Norwegian Researchers Find Masks Linked With Covid Infections

BY GUY GIN

A new peer-reviewed study by Norwegian researchers has recently been published titled “Association between Face mask use and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection – Cross-sectional study”. In case you didn’t already know, a cross-sectional study “is a type of observational study that analyses data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time”, in this case early 2022. However, the data were collected during an RCT of wearing glasses. So what kind of association did they find?

We examined the association between face masks and risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 using cross-sectional data from 3,209 participants in a randomized trial of using glasses to reduce the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2. Face mask use was based on participants’ response to the end-of-follow-up survey. We found that the incidence of self-reported COVID-19 was 33% (aRR 1.33; 95% CI 1.03 – 1.72) higher in those wearing face masks often or sometimes, and 40% (aRR 1.40; 95% CI 1.08 – 1.82) higher in those wearing face masks almost always or always, compared to participants who reported wearing face masks never or almost never.

Oh dear. And these are the results after controlling for observable confounders. In the raw data, regular mask-wearers had a 74-75% higher risk of testing positive for Covid.

The crude estimates show a higher incidence of testing positive for COVID-19 in the groups that used face masks more frequently, with 8.6% of participants who never or almost never used masks, 15.0% of participants who sometimes used masks, and 15.1% of participants who almost always or always used masks reporting a positive test result. The risk was 1.74 (1.38 to 2.18) times higher in those who wore face masks often or sometimes and 1.75 (1.39 to 2.21) times higher in those who wore face masks almost always or always, compared to participants who reported never or almost never wore masks.

Well, this is embarrassing for the pro-maskers, isn’t it? Frankly, I think you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh at these results.