Fact check: Do 85 per cent of people who wear masks get coronavirus in US?

Washington, Oct 16: US President Donald on Trump Thursday made a dramatic claim about Covid-19 infection spread.

Trump said the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 85 per cent of all people who wear masks get coronavirus.

"Just the other day, they came out with a statement that 85 per cent of the people that wear masks catch it," Trump said.

Trump had made a similar claim two times earlier in the day, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the source for that number.

Trump's claim is false.

A CDC study released in September, did not say that 85 per cent of people who wear masks get infected with coronavirus. In fact, it did not even attempt to figure out what percentage of people who wear a mask get infected with the coronavirus.

Rather, the study looked at the behavior of 154 symptomatic people who had tested positive for the coronavirus in July around the country and 160 people who reported symptoms but tested negative in July.

The study found that, of those 154 people, 85 per cent said they had worn a mask either always or often over the 14 days prior to the onset of their illness. That's where the 85 per cent figure comes from.

Of the 160 people in the study who had tested negative, however, 88.7 per cent said they had worn a mask either always or often. So there's really no difference between people who wore masks and those who didn't.

Meanwhile, US continues to lead the COVID-19 infected tally in the world with 8.02 million affected people and 2,18,000 deaths.