Masking alone wouldn’t have eased Ontario’s respiratory virus surge in the fall: PHO document

mask mandate when respiratory viruses surged in the fall may not have eased the crush on pediatric hospitals, a Public Health Ontario science brief obtained by The Canadian Press concludes.The brief — which was not proactively made public, unlike the reports done by the now-defunct science table predecessor — provides a glimpse of the evidence on which Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr.

Kieran Moore made his decision to go no further than a “strong” recommendation on masking in mid-November.The effects of masking on the transmission of COVID-19 are strong, the brief from late November notes.

Mandates may not have produced more of a benefit than recommendations, its research suggests.But with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, circulating at the time as well as COVID-19, the benefits of mask mandates became less clear for the group of experts.

Read more: Should I wear a mask? Canadian health officials face questions amid viral surge Read next: How rising food prices make eating healthy a big-time struggle for some Canadians “Current evidence suggests that adherence to masking, in addition to other layered measures such as self-screening, staying home when ill, and vaccination, are likely to prevent transmission of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 in children and youth, especially in indoor community settings where transmission is high,” the PHO document concludes.“Given the number of respiratory viruses currently in circulation, there is less certainty about the potential magnitude of the effect on transmission.“It is also uncertain whether potential decreases in transmission are sufficient to reduce pediatric emergency department visits, hospitalization, and ICU admission to preserve capacity within the.