evidence: The Jan. 30 review found that based on existing randomized controlled trials — which tested the effectiveness of interventions encouraging people to wear masks, rather than testing the effectiveness of masks themselves — wearing masks in the community "probably makes little or no difference" to the number of people with influenza or COVID-19-like illnesses. [...] "Many people hate wearing masks, including people who believe that masks are truly very protective. Any intervention that must be sustained for long periods but people find difficult to sustain is not a great intervention," she said. [...] Bundgaard, Henning et al. "Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers: A Randomized Controlled Trial." Annals of Internal Medicine. 18 Nov 2020.