COVID Inquiry: No ‘Convincing Evidence’ Fabric Face Coverings Worked

The former deputy chief medical officer has said that thin cloth covering was not ‘particularly effective’ in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

A child wears a mask as she has her temperature checked at the entrance to Alton Towers in Alton, England, on July 4, 2020. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

There wasn’t any “convincing evidence” for fabric face coverings used in community settings, the official COVID-19 inquiry has heard.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, England’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic and now head of the UK Health Security Agency, told the COVID-19 Inquiry in her witness statement on Wednesday that the evidence base for using face masks in the community settings “was, and still is to some degree, uncertain.”