What the science says about lifting mask mandates.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed.

1. Longitudinal association between psychological distress and mask-wearing post COVID-19 among psychiatric outpatients in Japan.PloS one · 2025
   Article
2. Please wear a mask: a systematic case for mask wearing mandates.Journal of medical ethics · 2024
   Article
3. The Impact of Mask Mandates on Face Mask Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Survey Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023
   Article
4. Saving millions of lives but some resources squandered: emerging lessons from health research system pandemic achievements and challenges.Health research policy and systems · 2022
   Article
5. Personal protective equipment (PPE) pollution in the Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed inland water body in the world.The Science of the total environment · 2022
   Article
6. A Data-driven, Dynamic and Flexible Approach to Safely Lifting Mask Mandate: A Proposal.Exploratory research and hypothesis in medicine · 2022
   Article
7. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variants of Concern: A Perspective for Emerging More Transmissible and Vaccine-Resistant Strains.Viruses · 2022
   Review
8. The Relationship between Future Anxiety Due to COVID-19 and Vigilance: The Role of Message Fatigue and Autonomy Satisfaction.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
   Article
9. The impact of COVID-19 vaccination on California's return to normalcy.PloS one · 2022
   Article
10. COVID-19 false dichotomies and a comprehensive review of the evidence regarding public health, COVID-19 symptomatology, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mask wearing, and reinfection.BMC infectious diseases · 2021
    Review
11. Mask Mandates and COVID-19 Related Symptoms in the US.ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR · 2021
    Article

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  Uniting Infectious Disease and Physical Science Principles on the Importance of Face Masks for COVID-19.2021

Authors and funding

1 author.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

Indexed as