According to recently collected data, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world purchased 928 billion face masks at a cost of $389 billion.
With a world population of 8 billion, this means that between 2020 and 2022 about 116 masks will have been purchased for every living person. The news of the massive investment comes amid new research indicating that face masks may not have been effective in fighting COVID.
Statista, an online platform specializing in market and consumer data, estimated that global sales of face masks, including surgical masks and respirators (such as the N95) and cloth masks, rose from 12.5 billion in 2019, when their use was mostly limited to medical personnel to 378.9 billion in 2020, when the pandemic started.
Sales then surged to a peak of 402.1 billion face masks purchased in 2021, before falling to 147.5 billion last year, according to the research from Statista’s Consumer Market Insights team. Only 22.7 billion masks are expected to be sold this year.
A girl is shown wearing a reusable protective face mask while working at her desk at school. (iStock)
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Meanwhile, estimated global sales for face masks rose from $1.4 billion in 2019 to $224.1 billion in 2020. One reason for the notable increase in 2020 was that prices rose as consumer demand outstripped supply and manufacturers struggled to ramp up production of cheap face masks.
Prices then fell in 2021 as more masks became widely available, dropping global sales to $128 billion despite an increase in the number of masks sold. Last year, sales plummeted to $36.5 billion. This year it is estimated at $5.8 billion.
“For 2022, Statista analysts see unit revenue and sales at a fraction of 2020/2021 levels as many countries have dropped mask mandates and many people have returned to their pre-pandemic habits,” the analysis states. “For years to come, Statista expects the number of people wearing face masks to continue to decline and their use to be largely restricted to members of the medical community and the clinically vulnerable. Unless a new dangerous variant emerges or a new epidemic.” /pandemic occurs.”
Statista’s analysis came weeks before a new study found that much of the spending on masks had been for nothing. Published by the prestigious Cochrane Library, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the review delved into the findings of 78 randomized controlled trials to determine whether “physical interventions” — including face masks and hand washing — reduced the spread of respiratory viruses.
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The conclusion on masks: “There’s just no evidence they make any difference. Full stop,” Tom Jefferson, the study’s lead author, said in an interview. When asked specifically about appropriate N95 masks in health care facilities, Jefferson added, “It makes no difference — none of it.”
In April 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called on all Americans, even children as young as 2, to wear masks to protect themselves and others from COVID. In September, then-CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield at a Senate hearing that “face masks are the most important powerful health tool we have.” Dozens of states eventually enacted mask mandates.
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Even last August, Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it is “inexplicable” that some Americans consider mandatory mask-wearing a violation of their freedom.
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
