A new article published in The New England Journal of Medicine points out that the main benefit of masks is that it eases anxiety of some people, which JAMA points out "may not be strictly logical." Here are some key excerpts from the New JAMA article: "We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures...fear and anxiety are better countered with data and education than with a marginally beneficial mask, particularly in light of the worldwide mask shortage, but it is difficult to get clinicians to hear this message in the heat of the current crisis.