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One of the most politicised scientific issues of 2020 was the question about whether face-masks stop the spread of COVID-19. I trust we can agree that this is notable without requiring specific examples.

In particular:

When worn by members of the public who are healthy, are cloth facemasks effective at slowing the spread of COVID-19?

Cloth facemasks refer to the non-disposable, often hand-crafted, masks that have been widely adopted, often in response to government mandates. Their quality may vary; if your evidence is focused on particular specifications (number of layers, material, age, etc.) please make that clear.

Note that this question is about effectiveness (not efficacy), so answerers and voters are invited to weight evidence about the spread of COVID-19 in real-life conditions above evidence from lab experiments, and in turn, evidence from lab-experiments above theoretical models.

This question is one of a number of similar questions on Skeptics.SE. For a master list, see here

Oddthinking
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  • An interesting point, not about Covid but about Rhinovirus... Washing your cloth mask on your own can double your risk of infection. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/09/29/raina-macintyre-cloth-masks-should-be-washed-appropriately-everyday/ You can probably see why this is such pain to study... – Fizz Jan 04 '21 at 20:56
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    @Fizz: My reaction "Nah, can't be true... *reads* OH! Handwashing in a hospital basin! Oh no!" – Oddthinking Jan 04 '21 at 21:47
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    Why are you asking specifically about healthy subjects? Masks are supposed to be worn by all so that when people are infected and infectious but not yet symptomatic, they do not unknowingly infect others. – Ivana Feb 10 '22 at 13:18
  • @Ivana: Because people made this claim. See the master list referenced. – Oddthinking Feb 10 '22 at 14:16
  • @Oddthinking I don't think the basin part matters, but rather the temperature of the wash water. You can't use hot enough water when hand washing to sterilize the mask. – Loren Pechtel Sep 25 '22 at 05:07
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    Is it only I or _are_ the questions in the title and in the post completely different? – Haukinger Sep 27 '22 at 08:50
  • While I missed the question back in the beginning of 2021, I see the absence of answers undoubtedly showing that the premise of the question is wrong. Ironically, the question was asked by the user with a very specific agenda. – dEmigOd Sep 27 '22 at 09:58
  • @dEmigOd: Kindly assume good intentions, and don't malign me with vague accusations. Please clearly state what is the faulty premise; maybe we can fix the question. (At the time of the question, we had a number of poor questions on the topic and its fringes, which allowed a lot of dodging of evidence and complaints. I asked a number of clearly focussed questions. Suddenly, all those arguing went quiet which was disappointing.) – Oddthinking Sep 27 '22 at 13:58

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