I'd agree that this study doesn't tell us much, although I am glad that it was done. There is so little research out there about how regular people can protect themselves during epidemics/pandemics.

There wasn't even much flu in the study population--only three confirmed cases--so I'm not sure how well these results apply to any real flu outbreak. Even without masks and alcohol hand sanitizers, I suspect that if these same students just washed their hands appropriately in the bathroom, avoided touching their hands to their faces, and followed proper cough/sneeze etiquette, there's a good chance the results would have been quite similar.

In another situation, if there was some highly virulent strain of flu circulating, then maybe masks and hand sanitizers would help more, but no one really knows for sure. That's why more of these community-based studies need to be done. I'm curious to see the analysis of the 2007-2008 season.