The Norwegian Institute of Public Health writes in the description of the study that, as far as they know, there are no clear results showing that masks effectively protect against corona or other respiratory infections. FHI will now try to get a final answer to this through a large mask study. The usefulness of masks – It has been uncertain throughout how effective it is to ask people to use masks in order to prevent the spread of infection. And after three years we are still unsure. So this is an attempt to get more and better knowledge about how useful it is to ask people to wear a mask. That’s what Atle Fretheim, head of FHI’s Center for Research on Epidemic Measures, says. He says that there is a good deal of evidence that masks have a certain effect. THE EFFECT OF MOUTH GASKET: Head of FHI’s Center for research on epidemic measures, Atle Fretheim says it is uncertain how effective masking protects against infection. – But there is a great deal of uncertainty about how good the effect is. It may be very small, and that is what we will try to find out, says Fretheim. There are several international studies that have been carried out on the effect of wearing a mask. – But no one has properly concluded whether it works or not. In order to carry out a proper study, there must be enough infection in society. – Our figures indicate that there are enough people who have respiratory infections now that we can do such a study, says Fretheim. Need 5,000 participants Through various campaigns, including a campaign at Ruter, FHI wants to reach parts of the population who want to take part in the study. – We need 5,000 participants, 2,500 in each group. One group will wear a mask for 14 days, the other will not. That’s what researcher at FHI, Rune Solberg, says. FHI CAMPAIGN: This poster is hung on buses, trams and subways. Photo: FHI – We are going to ask people if they want to take part in a study that will evaluate the protective effect of masks in public spaces. I hope people want to be involved in order to improve the knowledge we have today, and to find out whether the use of masks is an important measure or not. He hopes that enough people will be interested in participating. – Those who wish to join can register with us. They will be randomly placed in one of the two groups. FHI’s study comes after we have had several orders to use face masks during the years with corona. Isn’t that a bit strange? FHI has always been clear that we are uncertain about the effect it has. Now that there is a lot of infection in society, and there is no mandate, we think it makes sense to start at the time we do, says Solberg. The study will be completed during the spring.
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FHI will investigate the effect of face masks – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
