Maintaining face mask use before and after achieving different COVID-19 vaccination coverage levels: a modelling study

The impact of surgical mask-wearing, contact tracing program, and vaccination on COVID-19 transmission in Taiwan from January 2020 to March 2022: a modelling study

“…This is important since drastic interventions such as the lockdown of cities or countries or social distancing, while proven relatively effective to control the spread of COVID-19, are unsustainable in the long-term due to high social and economic costs. One recent study gives strong support for maintaining mask-wearing until and after achieving vaccination since using face masks can be cost-effective and cost-saving [68]. The Omicron variant emergence and the possible new variants in the future that can be more transmissible and reduce vaccine efficiency only increases the value and efficiency of mask-wearing.…”

Quinta arremetida de COVID-19 y el uso de mascarillas en espacios abiertos y cerrados

“…Ante la limitada disponibilidad de tratamientos seguros y efectivos, la alta tasa de mutación del SARS-CoV-2 y teniendo en cuenta que es un virus de transmisión respiratoria, el enmascaramiento universal ha sido beneficioso para su control, incluso con la variante Ómicron (20) , al disminuir la liberación de partículas infecciosas; las mascarillas de algodón y quirúrgicas bloqueando principalmente gotas respiratorias, y los respiradores N95 o equivalentes, bloqueando también los aerosoles (20,21) . En ausencia de medidas 100% efectivas para controlar la pandemia, la integración del enmascaramiento universal en espacios cerrados, la ventilación natural, la higiene de manos, el distanciamiento social y la vacunación, conforman un conjunto de estrategias costo-efectivas para controlarla (18,22,23) .…”

Challenges in specifying parameter values for COVID-19 simulation models

“…One of the biggest challenges in modelling studies is how to reliably choose parameter inputs as their misspecifications can substantially affect the conclusions. 2 Bartsch et al 1 chose over 80 parameter inputs in their model, one of which represented the effectiveness of continued face mask use. The authors referred to a study that analysed temporal changes in the effective reproduction number (R t ) around the introduction of state-level mask mandate policies in the US in the summer of 2020 to find an 18% reduction in R t associated with the policies.…”

“…This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In a recent paper in Lancet Public Health, Bartsch et al 1 used an age-stratified transmission model to simulate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in the US and predicted the cost-effectiveness of maintaining face mask use until a high vaccine coverage (70-90%) is achieved. Their simulations showed that continued face mask use is generally cost-effective and even cost-saving in many of the scenarios considered.…”