Is Masking Still Best Practice to Reduce COVID-19 Transmission in Clinical Settings?

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1. You are a member of the healthcare team advising a large health maintenance organization about COVID-19 prevention in their clinics. On the basis of the updated evidence synthesis by Chou and Dana and the accompanying opinion article, which one of the following statements about N95, surgical, and cloth mask effectiveness in community and healthcare settings for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection is correct?
   Mask use vs no mask use in community settings is associated with a large reduction in risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection
   In routine patient care settings, surgical masks and N95 respirators may be associated with similar risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection
   N95 masks were associated with a significant 10% increase in risk for mask-related adverse events
   Cloth masks were significantly inferior to KN95 masks in health care settings
2. According to the updated evidence synthesis by Chou and Dana and an accompanying opinion article, which one of the following statements about clinical and public health implications of N95, surgical, and cloth mask effectiveness in community and healthcare settings for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection is correct?
   Masking should be suspended to promote the return to the appearance and feeling of normalcy
   Healthcare personnel have been at far greater risk of acquiring COVID-19 from occupational than community exposures
   Evidence supporting masking is limited to that from randomized clinical trials
   Exposing patients unnecessarily to infections that are preventable by masking seems directly contrary to the principles of patient safety