To mask or not to mask?

Dr Linda Calabresi

writer

Dr Linda Calabresi

GP; Medical Editor, Healthed

Dr Linda Calabresi

This week’s expert:
Professor Raina MacIntyre, Head of Biosecurity at the Kirby Institute, University of NSW.

Drawn from an interview with Prof MacIntyre by Dr David Lim on the Healthed podcast Going Viral.

• There is evidence supporting the effectiveness of wearing a face mask for the prevention of contracting and transmitting a viral respiratory infection in three of the following groups:
a. well people in the community
b. sick people
c. health care workers

• There have been no randomised controlled trials specifically looking at the effectiveness of face masks in preventing the transmission of COVID-19, more commonly it relates to the transmission of other viral respiratory infections such as influenza.

PASSWORD RESET

Forgot your password or password not working? Please enter your email address. You will receive an email with the link to set a new password.

Icon 2

NEXT LIVE Webcast

:
Days
:
Hours
:
Minutes
Seconds
Prof Jacob George

Prof Jacob George

Fatty Liver, CV Risk, and Post-Menopause

Prof Sebastian King

Prof Sebastian King

Paediatric Constipation & Related Issues

Hayley Ryan

Hayley Ryan

Management of Skin Tear in General Practice

Dr Katherine Spira

Dr Katherine Spira

Migraine vs Chronic Daily Headache

Join us for the next free webcast for GPs and healthcare professionals

High quality lectures delivered by leading independent experts

Once you confirm you’ve read this article you can complete a Patient Case Review to earn 0.5 hours CPD in the Reviewing Performance (RP) category.

Select ‘Confirm & learn‘ when you have read this article in its entirety and you will be taken to begin your Patient Case Review.

Upcoming Healthed Webcast

New Brain Health Guidelines – What GPs Can Do

Tuesday 4th August, 7pm - 9pm AEST

Speaker

Scientia Prof Kaarin Anstey

Psychologist; Director, UNSW Ageing Futures Institute; ARC Laureate Fellow; Senior Principal Research Scientist, NeuRA

Scientia Prof Kaarin Anstey translates the WHO's updated 2026 dementia risk-reduction guidelines changes into concrete actions for opportunistic risk assessment and targeted advice in everyday general practice.