Do N95 Respirator Masks Provide Superior COVID-19 Protection for Clinicians?

To receive AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™, you must receive a minimum score of 75% on the post-test.

1. You are a member of the healthcare team advising a large health maintenance organization about protecting clinicians from COVID-19. On the basis of the multicenter, randomized, noninferiority trial by Loeb and colleagues, which one of the following statements about whether medical masks are noninferior to N95 respirators to prevent COVID-19 in health care workers providing routine care is correct?
   Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 occurred in 10.46% of the medical mask group vs 9.27% of the N95 respirator group
   HRs for COVID-19 in the medical mask group vs the N95 respirator group were very similar among countries
   Subgroup analyses showed great variation in HRs based on seronegativity at baseline and reported household or community illness exposures
   Intervention-related adverse events (AEs) were significantly and markedly worse in the medical mask group
2. According to the multicenter, randomized, noninferiority trial by Loeb and colleagues, which one of the following statements about the clinical and public health implications of whether medical masks are noninferior to N95 respirators to prevent COVID-19 in health care workers providing routine care is correct?
   The study proves that medical masks are noninferior to N95 respirators in preventing COVID-19 in health care workers providing routine care
   Overall estimates are generalizable to individual countries
   The findings mandate use of N95 respirators vs medical masks when caring for COVID-19 patients, whenever N95s are available
   The findings suggest similar effectiveness of medical masks and N95 respirators in Omicron-era settings with high COVID-19 rates