Can masks help with reopening the economy? SIEPR policy brief Polyakova, Maria A. (Maria Alexandrovna) author. Andrews, Jason, author. Luby, Stephen, author. Goldhaber-Fiebert, Jeremy, author. Coronavirus Infections -- prevention & control Disease Transmission, Infectious -- prevention & control Masks Economic Recession Pandemics Key Takeaways. (1) The United States, China, Austria, Germany and some other countries are now starting to consider recommending or are already requiring that people wear medical masks in public. But the WHO still recommends against wearing them as long as you're feeling well. (2) Evidence from existing observational studies and randomized trials supports the effectiveness of medical masks in reducing transmission of respiratory infections in a variety of settings. (3) Revising recommendations for expanding the use of masks in public areas is justified and may eventually help the economy with transitioning into the post-COVID world. Stanford, CA : Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), April 2020 Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (4 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-101772294-pdf 101772294 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101772294 English United States Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0