“Countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage,” found a new study, whose data and analysis instead discovered a “moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths.”
The peer-reviewed study – “Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe” – was authored by Beny Spira, an Associate Professor at the University of São Paulo whose research focuses on the molecular genetics of microorganisms.
Published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science on April 19th, 2022, the paper describes its purpose as “analyz[ing] the correlation between mask usage against morbidity and mortality rates in the 2020-2021 winter in Europe.
Beyond finding no benefit to mask mandate compliance in curtailing the spread of COVID-19, the paper found a “moderate positive correlation” between the use of masks and COVID-19 deaths.
“Moreover, the moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe also suggests that the universal use of masks may have had harmful unintended consequences,” it asserted based on the following figures: