A Public Health Ontario science brief says introducing a mask mandate when respiratory viruses surged in the fall may not have eased the crush on pediatric hospitals.

The brief provides a glimpse of the evidence on which Chief Medical Officer of Health Doctor 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 R-S-V, circulating at the time as well as COVID-19, the benefits of mask mandates became less clear for the group of experts.

    

Moore says the evidence for strictly introducing a mask mandate was not there.

    

Public Health Ontario concludes that a layered approach with masking, vaccination and staying home when sick would reduce respiratory viral transmission among children.

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