384 - COVID-19 Research Update: The Value of Masks & Testing in Schools
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Dr. Josh Sharfstein talks with researchers who break down two papers in the news. Dr. Nikolas Wada talks about a study led by researchers in Bangladesh and the U.S. which tested whether masks really help to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Kate Grabowski discusses a Lancet paper from the U.K. about "test to stay" programs in schools and whether the use of rapid tests is better than quarantining when a child tests positive. These researchers are part of the Hopkins novel coronavirus research consortium, with many summaries of new studies available at http://ncrc.jhsph.edu.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Season 4 of Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:13.0 | I'm Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, and a former Commissioner of Health in Baltimore City. |
| 0:20.0 | Our goal is to bring |
| 0:21.7 | scientific evidence and experience to current topics in public health through engaging interviews |
| 0:27.1 | with scientists, community leaders, policy experts, public health officials, clinicians, and more. |
| 0:32.8 | If you have ideas or questions for us to cover, please email us at public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:40.4 | That's public health question at jhhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:46.5 | Today, it's time to catch up on some of the latest evidence from researchers with the |
| 0:51.3 | novel coronavirus research compendium, available online at ncrc.j.j.sph.edu. |
| 0:59.1 | First, Dr. Nick Wada tells me about a study led by researchers in Bangladesh in the United States, |
| 1:05.0 | which assess whether masks really reduce the spread of COVID. |
| 1:09.1 | Then we turn to schools. |
| 1:10.9 | Dr. Kate Grabowski discusses a Lancet paper from the United Kingdom about what happens |
| 1:17.7 | after a child in school test positive for COVID. |
| 1:21.4 | Should schools send all the close contacts home? |
| 1:24.2 | Or should they adopt a test to stay protocol giving daily tests and allowing kids to keep coming |
| 1:29.8 | to class if negative? Let's listen. Dr. Wada, how are you doing? I hear we're going to talk about |
| 1:36.2 | masks. We are. Yeah, thanks for having me back, Josh. So tell me about this study. I think I've |
| 1:41.7 | been reading about it a little bit in the paper. Yeah, so really high quality evidence on the effectiveness of masks in controlling transmission |
| 1:49.0 | of SARS-CoV-2 has been really hard to come by. And one of the reasons we've heard about this in the news |
| 1:54.0 | is because this is really one of the best large-scale trials of mask wearing that's been done. |
| 2:00.0 | So is it true that they actually randomized people to wearing masks? |
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