Study: Masks thwart spread amid surge
An early and aggressive mask mandate significantly halted the rate of COVID-19 infection among health care workers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s and other hospitals during the statewide coronavirus surge, according to a new study.
“Our study is the first real data to support that masking reduces the risk of COVID infection,” said coauthor, Brigham Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt. He added that he believes the data can also be applied to “any setting where people can’t socially distance” like grocery stores and pharmacies.
During the week of March 25, officials ordered all health care workers in the Mass General Brigham hospital system to wear surgical masks.
“At the time, the concept of universal masking was new and its potential effectiveness unclear,” a release from the hospitals noted.
But data collected from before the mask policy through the virus’s surge in April showed that the rate of infection among employees dropped once they started wearing face coverings. From March 1 to 24, the rate of infection jumped from 0 to 21%. By comparison, the rate of infection from April 11 to April 30 dropped from 15% to 11%. That means spread inside the hospital among health care workers actually fell while coronavirus surged across the commonwealth.
“If there’s been skepticism about masking, now there’s data to support it. At this point, it’s no longer time to sit on the sidelines. Wear a mask,” Bhatt said.
The data analyzed from the study didn’t come from a randomized trial, but Bhatt said he’s confident that it demonstrates coronavirus can be at least somewhat contained through masking, especially among asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
“The bottom line with this virus is, there can be asymptomatic spread. Hopefully people will now embrace the data supporting masking, and we can move forward in a unified way in this country,” he said.
Employees of Mass General Brigham, which operates dozens of hospitals and health care centers around the region, have continued to follow the universal masking policy. Bhatt said there’s no plan to adjust or end the measure in the foreseeable future.
“Sometimes, some people find that disconcerting to hear,” he said. “The reality is, it depends what happens next. I realize for some people, it’s very uncomfortable to wear a mask, for a variety of reasons. But the reality is, we have to do this, because the consequences are mass spread of the virus, shutdown of the economy, and it’s happening now on a catastrophic scale in places like Florida.”