The face mask suggestion when children returned to varsities amid the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help lower the incidence of infection, in response to a recent Finnish study.

Published in BMC Public Health, the study examined how the suggestion to make use of face coverings amongst children 12 years and above in Finland in autumn 2021 affected the incidence of COVID-19. On the time, the country implemented mandatory masking in schools nationwide to assist curb cases. Some cities prolonged the suggestion to kids aged 10 and 11.

To find out how masking impacted Finnish children and adults in the course of the fall season of 2021, the team collected case number data from the National Infectious Disease Register (NIDR) of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and compared the incidence per age group.

The researchers compared the incidences of infection in 14-day periods for 4 months amongst kids 7 to 9 and 10 to 12, in addition to adults 30 to 49 years of age. They found no significant effect between the younger unvaccinated age groups.

“In line with our evaluation, no additional effect was gained from mandating face masks, based on comparisons between the cities and between the age groups of the unvaccinated children (10-20 years versus 7-9 years),” the study authors wrote.

Unfortunately, the study didn’t determine how rigorously the youngsters used their masks at college and the forms of masks they used in the course of the period. Additionally they noted that the information only reflected positive cases in the course of the delta variant. Thus, their findings won’t be comparable to those from the omicron and other variants, in response to Medical Xpress.

In February, one other study showed similar findings when its authors reported that the masking efforts in the course of the peak of the pandemic didn’t help prevent the transmission of the virus.

“The pooled results … didn’t show a transparent reduction in respiratory viral infection with the usage of medical/surgical masks. There have been no clear differences between the usage of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare staff when utilized in routine care to cut back respiratory viral infection,” the study authors noted.

The meta-analysis involved a review of 78 randomized trials on the effectiveness of physical interventions against respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, particularly their ability to interrupt or reduce the spread of disease.

This photo shows students wearing masks with no smoking signs to support World No Tobacco Day at a primary school in Handan, northern China’s Hebei province, May 30, 2016.
GETTY IMAGES/STR/AFP

Published by Medicaldaily.com