Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

HIQA released a report last week. NPHET may have had the benefit of it some time earlier. With respect to mask wearing specifically, it said the quality of evidence was low and it concluded: "There is an urgent need for more research, particularly high quality studies that provide direct evidence on the use of face masks by healthy people in the community." The director of the Oxford University Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine addressed the committee two weeks ago. He said there was no evidence whatever that masks did any harm but neither was there any high quality evidence that they were beneficial. Does NPHET share the belief that there is a need for research on the benefit of masks or is it happy that there has been sufficient research on it?