Government must never impose compulsory mask wearing on the public again – following a review which found they make little or no difference to the spread of a disease, an MP has warned.
Shipley MP Philip Davies pointed to an update from the Cochrane review into masks published this week as evidence face coverings should not be reintroduced in future given the little effectiveness they have.
The report said it looked at 12 trials, 10 randomised controlled trials and two trials with healthcare workers comparing medical and surgical masks versus no masks and its impact on preventing the spread of viral respiratory illness.
It said: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks”.
Mr Davies said: “This review has concluded face coverings have little or no effect, something many of us have been saying for a long time. This vindicates all of us who said it at the time and were chastised for having a different view.
“Mask wearing was one of the worst examples of the suffocation of our basic freedoms. For the Government to make something compulsory - enforceable by law - there must be an overwhelming case for doing so. There was never this evidence and previously government admitted this. Now we have evidence carried out on thousands of people which has concluded masks are ineffective or make very little difference. Government must never force people to wear a face covering ever again.”
The Cochrane Review said it wanted to assess the effectiveness of physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of acute respiratory viruses given the global threat they pose.
