A German study: masks reduce the risk of corona infection by 45%

A recent German study revealed that masks reduce the risk of infection with the emerging corona virus by nearly half, with an average of about 45%.

"This means 55 instead of 100 new injuries ... or more clearly: instead of 20," Klaus Felde, an economist in the German city of Mainz and one of the authors of the study, which was published in the journal "Bans", told the German news agency (dpa). "A thousand new infections a day, we will have about 38 thousand injuries without masks .. Everyone must wear masks to protect themselves and others from infection."

And Velde, along with three other economists, analyzed data from a special study conducted in the German city of Jena and compared it with data from similar German cities.

In the city of "Jena" in the state of Thuringia, the obligation to wear protective masks - accompanied by a public advertising campaign - was applied on April 6, about three weeks before most other German regions and cities.

"It was a stroke of great luck that one would often wish to be able to actually see the paths of infection," Felde said.

Scientists have compared Jena to cities such as Trier, Darmstadt, Klubenburg and Rostock.

The infection rate, population density, average age, the proportion of the elderly, and the availability of doctors and pharmacies in these cities were similar to those in “Yina.” And Feldah continued: “We monitored what was happening in (Yina) and the comparison areas after three weeks of the enforcement of the obligation to wear masks.” .

To rule out other influences, the scientists took into account other rules applied in Germany during this time.

“There were no changes in the regulations in (Jena) and Turingen eight to 12 days before and after April 6 in the same period ... It became clear that we are targeting the effect of masks,” Velde said.

We cannot completely exclude other changes in behavior through the so-called signal effects, ”explaining that one of these effects is that people generally act with greater caution in the presence of masks.

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