Love Bug

New study in @JAMANetworkOpen shows that the reintroduction of universal #masking in Ottawa #schools in spring 2022 reduced student absenteeism. Students gained nearly 2,000 days of learning in the schools studied. The study likely considerably underestimated the real benefit of masking and enormously underestimated the potential benefit of masking. Real Benefit: Often, schools that have stronger masking policies are lower socioeconomic status. They don't have high-level ventilation and HEPA filters, so masking becomes more important. Moreover, at the lower-socioeconomic status schools, families are more likely to be multi-generational, have higher occupational exposure, and more in-home exposure (smaller homes, more people, less ventilation). Since it's not randomized which schools mask, the schools with good masking policies are up against many other obstacles. It's truly remarkable to see the pro-mask schools actually perform better against all of these other obstacles, so the real benefit of masking is likely underestimated. Potential Benefit: Under universal masking policies, most children wear poor-fitting low-quality masks, such as low-filtration cloth masks or baggy blue procedure masks. There are also frequent mask breaks for snacks, lunch, and water. There has been very little emphasis on helping children wear masks that excellently fit their faces without gaps, and very little emphasis on high-quality masks like KN95s, KF94s, CAN99s, Flo Masks, and N95s (for teens). There's often very little serious consideration surrounding how to mitigate during meals and snacks. Distancing itself has very limited benefit in settings with low ventilation and filtration, which is often the case in schools. Well-designed masking programs would have a much more powerful benefit. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam…