Which mask is more effective against COVID; cloth or surgical? Study reveals

In light of COVID-19 and never-ending speculation on the same, a study's author in Bangladesh found that surgical masks- but not cloth masks- reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in villages where the research team distributed face masks and promoted its utility. The conclusion of a gold-standard clinical trial in the neighbouring country backs up the findings of hundreds of previous observational and laboratory studies and experiments. 

The latest study improved the assessment of both mask adherence and community-level spread and its features. 

Critics of mask mandates have cited the lack of relevant randomized clinical trials therefore, the latest finding is based on a randomized trial involving nearly 350,000 people across rural Bangladesh.

"This really should be the end of the debate," says Ashley Styczynski, an infectious disease researcher at Stanford University in California and a co-author of the preprint describing the trial. The research 'takes things a step further in terms of scientific rigour', stated Deepak Bhatt, a medical researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Bhatt was responsible for publishing research on masking. 

Which mask is more effective? & Triple mask debate

Styczynski along with her colleagues commenced the study by developing a strategy to promote mask usage, with measures and reminders from health workers in public places to encourage COVID-19 protection. Ultimately, the tripled mask usage, from nearly 13% in control villages to 42% in villages where it was encouraged. The researchers then compared numbers of COVID-19 cases in control villages where it was encouraged. The researchers then compared the numbers of COVID-19 cases in control villages and the treatment communities. 

The team found that the number of symptomatic cases was lower in treatment villages than in control villages. The decline in cases was a notable 9 per cent, but the critics suggest that the true risk reduction is probably much greater, in part because they did no SARS-CoV-2 testing people without symptoms or whose symptoms did not meet the World Health Organisation's definition of the disease. 

Surgical mask or Cloth mask?

The study linked surgical masks with an 11% drop in risk, in relation to a 5% drop for cloth masks. The data further show that even after 10 washes, surgical masks filter out 76% of small particles capable of airborne transmission of contagions of SARS-CoV-2, stated an economist at Yale University in New Haven who is a co-author of the study. 

On the contrary, the team found that 3-layered cloth masks had a filtration efficiency of only 37% before washing or use. Masks will remain a crucial line of defence in Bangladesh and other states, where access to vaccines is limited or minimal.