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but I wanted to read all the other responses, especially those from Baron and Mark, which I'll address with them separately, and of course I spent time doing a little extra research that addresses your concern as well as theirs...

One more thing...before going into your post, let me say that I read your comments and entire link...so, I'm hoping that the same consideration will be returned...deal?...let's hope so...

The first thing I did upon reading your linked study is make sure it's from a reputable source...did a little research and found just a few complaints regarding bias on the part of some editors, but nothing outrageous...I also, sought out the Cochrane Review's "Impact Factor", which is a measure of its 'value' to the medical community...and found an IF = 9.2....then I searched for the rating of all medical journals and found The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)'s #2 among all journals with an IF = 91.2...so I went there in search of any studies regarding mask wearing, and found the attached link that deals with school system experiences in Massachusetts.

Now, wrt the Cochrane study, without getting into the weeds of Confidence Intervals, etc...the impression I got was that there was great "Uncertainty" regarding the RCTs themselves as well as the reported results...
>many studies conducted during non-epidemic influenza periods as opposed to COVID-19 conditions
>in many studies 'Harms' were rarely measured and poorly reported
>for N95 vs Surgical Masks, there was great uncertainty in the comparison

In short the word "Uncertainty" crops up all through the report...which doesn't give me much confidence in their findings, and frankly, IMO there is no clear statement that masks don't work...or they would have said so.

Now let's go to the NEJM study that I found...it is based on actual records of COVID infections among the thousands of students and staff in the State of Massachusetts' School Districts during 2021 and compares districts that stopped requiring 'Universal' mask wearing vs. those that continued the practice...here's what they found...
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A study by Cowger and colleagues, the results of which are now reported in the Journal,8 provides new evidence that the REMOVAL OF UNIVERSAL SCHOOL MASKING POLICIES IN MASSACHUSETTS WAS ASSOCIATED WITH AN INCREASED INCIDENCE OF COVID-19. The study used difference-in-differences methods, a rigorous form of causal inference for policies that are infeasible or unethical to assess in a randomized trial. During a 15-week period (March to June 2022), Covid-19 cases in school districts that had ended universal school masking policies (70 districts for most of the 15-week period) were compared with cases in school districts that sustained universal masking policies (2 districts for most of the 15-week period). The removal of universal school masking was associated with an additional 2882 Covid-19 cases among 46,530 staff (an estimated 81.7 cases per 1000 staff) and an additional 9168 Covid-19 cases among 294,084 students (an estimated 39.9 cases per 1000 students) during the 15 weeks. In school districts that had ended universal masking, approximately 40% of 7127 staff cases and 32% of 28,524 student cases were associated with the removal of universal masking policies. (emphasis mine)
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No 'If, Ands or Buts' about it...clear evidence that Universal (i.e. mandatory) Masking in schools REDUCED the spread of COVID-19...published in the very well respected NEJM that accepts only 5% of submittals from the very best research teams...btw, the findings jibe very well with the earlier posting on this board of the "MIT Study" dealing with masks for schools and nursing homes.

Look for other posts/links from me in this thread...history shows that the odds are low for an end to this debate, but I'm feeling very good about my position.


Link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2213556