Beaumont research shows masks lower virus risks

Study on COVID-19 antibodies shows face coverings play ‘vital role’

Masks have been the subject of some debate since the COVID-19 pandemic blazed across the country in March.

A new study on COVID-19 antibodies by the Beaumont Research Institute should end that debate.

“It’s nice to have proof masking really works,” said lead author of the research paper, Dr. Matthew Sims, director, Infectious Diseases Research, Beaumont Health. “Masks play a vital role in protecting people and can dramatically reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19.”

In the study, blood samples were collected from 20,614 employees across Beaumont Health,

which includes eight hospitals in Southeast Michigan. A total of 1,818 or 8.8 percent of participants were seropositive between April 13 and May

28. Seropositive means they were previously exposed to COVID-19 and antibodies were present in their blood.

Dr. Sims said, “There are three key takeaways from the data collected.

• Masks do play a major role in protecting people and dramatically reduce the risk of infection.

• For frontline caregivers, job duties played a significant role in defining who was at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

• People with higher levels of exposure were more likely to get it.”

For Beaumont staff, the impact of mask wearing was statistically significant. Research showed that people who were exposed to COVID-19 patients with no masks on had an 18 percent risk of getting sick. That dropped nearly in half, down to 10 percent, for people wearing N95 masks. And for those who did wear masks, but got infected, nearly 30 percent were asymptomatic – a total reaching nearly 40 percent for those wearing N95 masks.

The three job categories who had a higher rate of infection were: Nurses who spend time with multiple patients each day and were in direct contact; phlebotomists, many of who were infected before universal masking and testing for all hospital patients; and respiratory therapists who intubate patients and came into heaviest contact with patients’ airways and exhalations..

“The more time a person spends in close contact with an infected individual, the higher the risk of that person contracting the virus themselves. For example, doctors displayed a relatively low incidence of infection most likely due in large part to the fact that while they were working with patients, the duration of their direct contact with patients was limited,’’ Dr. Sims said.

The Beaumont Research Institute’s first findings have been published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEAUMONT HEALTH Rebecca Bacarella, from Beaumont Laboratory, was the first employee to register and have blood drawn for the test. Rita Hanna, phlebotomy, does the blood draw.