Mask skeptics have questions. PolitiFact has answers

Plus: Fact-checking immigration

This week:  How do we know masks work? … The numbers at the border … Trump's calls to Georgia officials, corrected … How European fact-checkers are handling vaccine rollbacks … Our 15 wackiest COVID-15 fact-checks A weekly note from the editor-in-chief of    St. Louis Cardinals fans wearing masks stand for the national anthem during a spring training baseball game on March 15, 2021, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP) Mask skeptics ask questions. PolitiFact answers With vaccination rates climbing, it seems like we're drawing nearer to the light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel. But it's unlikely that mask-wearing will go away any time soon. It's still unknown whether vaccinated people can spread the virus to others, so public health experts stress that everybody, including those who have been inoculated, should continue to wear masks in community spaces.  Still, not everyone is sold on masks, and some states are rolling back mask mandates. We've been reviewing mask science since the start of the pandemic, and we're persuaded that mask wearing is a good idea. But if you're not, we wanted to address your questions head on.  Do masks really prevent you from getting the virus? Masks are most effective as "source control," which means preventing infected people from spreading the virus to other people.  Respiratory droplets with the virus are expelled into the air when infected people cough, talk, sneeze, or breathe. These droplets quickly evaporate and shrink to become tiny airborne particles.  But if an infected person is wearing a mask, it will catch and contain the larger droplets in the humid space between the person's mouth and the mask. In this environment, droplets take nearly a hundred times as long to transform into airborne particles. So masks reduce the spread of infectious particles. Can't the virus slip through cloth?  Yes, it's true that face masks do not block some very fine particles. That means if coronavirus particles are in the air, the masks aren't a reliable way of preventing infection (although there is some evidence that they are better than nothing). But experts say masks filter out enough particles that they do have some effect. If everybody is wearing a mask, your odds of infection will go down by quite a bit.  I read that there are no studies on masks to prove they work. Public health experts have based their guidance on a variety of scientific studies.  Systematic reviews are papers that pool existing research and try to answer a narrowly defined question using a larger data set than any of the studies had individually. These reviews show that masks stop the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases. There have also been a wealth of ecological studies on masks and COVID-19. These papers have consistently found that local mask mandates cause sharp declines in coronavirus case rates.  Finally, scientists have studied the spread of coronavirus particles in laboratory settings and found that masks are effective at stopping them from dispersing into the air, suggesting that they also function that way in real world settings. Okay, so why are there no randomized controlled trials showing that mask use stops the spread of COVID-19? A randomized controlled trial is a scientific study that randomly sorts participants into an experimental group and a control group to study the effect of a particular variable on the outcome. They're considered the gold standard of scientific study. But when it comes to COVID-19, there are important ethical considerations that bar scientists from running these types of studies right now. Practically, there is no way that scientists could run a study like this during a global pandemic without endangering trial participants and other people they encountered out in the world. Aren't some masks — the hard-to-get ones — much better than others?  Tight-fitting N95 masks (also known as respirators) are more effective than surgical masks, and surgical masks are generally more effective than homemade masks. However, due to a persistent supply shortage in N95s, the Food and Drug Administration still recommends that members of the general public forego them. Instead, they should be reserved for medical workers and other first responders.  The most effective homemade masks are made of thick cloth and make a tight seal around the wearer's face. So at best, using thick or layered fabric to make a homemade mask could be as effective as using some surgical masks. At worst, it prevents at least some of your respiratory droplets from spreading to others while in public. Didn't the government flip-flop on masks? Why should we believe them now? Early on in the pandemic, public health officials and organizations consistently advised against people wearing face masks unless they had COVID-19, saying that masks had little value in preventing the general public from contracting the disease. However, many of these experts also noted that masks should be reserved for health care workers, who were running low on critical medical supplies. This guidance struck many people as contradictory: How could it be true that masks offer health care workers protection but not ordinary people? On April 3, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course. The reason for this was that scientific studies cleared up some of the unknowns about mask wearing as the pandemic progressed. Aerosol studies of the virus appeared to show that it was airborne, studies found that asymptomatic people could still spread the virus to others and large-scale ecological studies seemed to show that mask mandates effectively decreased case rates.  When public health officials know more they offer better advice. In the case of masks, they made a new call as new research showed that their old guidance was outdated. ​ Read a longer version of this report on our website >>. — Noah Y. Kim Share Tweet Forward Fact-checks of the week: Immigration Border numbers then and now. Fox News commentator (and former White House press secretary) Kayleigh McEnany recently slammed President Joe Biden for the influx of migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico: "They refuse to call it a crisis, though apprehension numbers are worse than the 'crisis' Biden/Obama/Pelosi acknowledged in 2014!" We rated this Mostly True. Border officials recorded more cases in which someone was caught trying to cross the border illegally this January and February than they did during the peak months in 2014.   Increases started under Trump. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said, "We saw the increases (of unaccompanied minors at the southern U.S. border) dating back almost a year." We rated this Mostly True. The rise started in spring 2020, during the Trump administration. But it's worth noting that there was a sharp increase this year from January to February.   Facebook post wrong on stimulus. "Illegal aliens will receive $1,400 stimulus checks," according to a recent Facebook post. That's Mostly False. With some exceptions, only people who have a Social Security number can receive a $1,400 stimulus check for themselves. The vast majority of immigrants who are in the country illegally don't have one. The law would pay $1,400 for each of their dependents who has a Social Security number. Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help   Yes, I support PolitiFact! Make a tax-deductible donation to make this message go away. What Trump told Georgia election officials Donald Trump's multiple phone calls to election officials in Georgia are still grabbing headlines, weeks after he's left office.  The Washington Post recently had to issue a high-profile correction to January reporting about one of two known calls in which the former president urged Georgia officials to find evidence to overturn the state's election results.  The newspaper initially said Trump told an elections investigator she should "find the fraud" and that she would be a "national hero" if she did so. But a newly surfaced recording of the call shows he didn't use those words. Instead, he told her to uncover the "dishonesty" and that "when the right answer comes out, you'll be praised." The Post did not retract its story, as some people on social media claimed. The correction did not involve its Jan. 3 reporting about what Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during another phone call. The Post published the full audio and transcript of that call. The correction is warranted, though. The Post relied on one source, and it turns out that the person didn't hear the call firsthand. Other news outlets that followed the Post's reporting and used the same quotes also had to correct their stories and include the New York Times and CNN.  Read our full story for more details>>. In other fact-checking news: Europe's vaccines European fact-checkers are trying to thread the needle between debunking falsehoods about the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and explaining why several European countries have paused its distribution. Most fact-checkers say they're putting a greater emphasis on explainers, but they acknowledged the lack of scientific evidence for the pauses is putting them in an awkward position. The lack of evidence justifying the move is also giving oxygen to conspiracy theories. Read more in a report from the International Fact-Checking Network >> Help shape our future fact-checking! We value what you have to say, so we're conducting a major reader survey to hear from you on a large-scale basis. Your answers here will help us understand how we are meeting your information needs today and how we can improve in the future. We're asking about your thoughts on newsletters like this one, and which topics in the news you'd like to hear about. I know it's easy to get survey fatigue. But you'd be doing me a favor if you took a few minutes for this one: Take PolitiFact's reader survey now >> Quick links to more fact-checks & reports  15 of our wackiest COVID-19 fact-checks   Half True: Nancy Pelosi repeats incomplete talking point on 2017 GOP tax bill   We're seeing repeated false claims that Biden is causing gas price increases   No, small-dollar donations are not the same thing as 'dark money'   Iowa state legislators debate: Tenure does not guarantee faculty a job   No, Biden didn't promote 'mandatory' COVID-19 vaccines in primetime address Do you smell smoke?  Here's your Pants on Fire fact-check of the week:  No, Vice President Kamala Harris did not suggest closing the Veterans Administration See what else we've rated Pants on Fire this week.  Have questions or ideas for our coverage? Send me an email at holan@politifact.com. Put "Fact-checking" in the subject line. Thanks for reading! Angie Drobnic Holan  PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief  Send this link to your friends so they can sign up for this email! Copyright © 2021 PolitiFact, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website, attended one of our events, or communicated with us. Our mailing address is: PolitiFact 801 3rd St S 33701 St. Petersburg, FL 33701 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list. Subscription Information This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally