To wear or not to wear? That has become the key question during the pandemic as the face mask has become a symbol of our changed lives under coronavirus. Still, months after the pandemic began to spread, many people still remain unsure about whether a mask is essential to keep them safe.
A World Economic Forum report says messages differ from country to country. The US surgeon general pleaded with the public in February to stop buying masks, while countries such as South Korea and Japan distributed them to the public. Recently the Czech Republic and Slovakia even made them mandatory.
But, the report says, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officials helped clarify how they recommend masks can best be deployed at a briefing on 30 March.
Who should wear a mask:
Those who are sick. WHO officials recommended those infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus to wear masks to prevent spreading it to someone else.
Those who are home caregivers for those who are sick. People caring for the sick should wear masks to protect themselves and to prevent further transmission throughout a family unit. Mask wearing has become critical in these situations, thanks to lockdown, said Michael J Ryan, CEO and director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, since most of the new transmissions are happening at the family level. “In some senses,” he said, “the transmission has been taken off the streets and pushed back into the family unit.”
Those who are frontline healthcare workers. Right now the people most at risk from this virus are frontline healthworkers who are exposed to the virus "every second of every day", Ryan also said.
WHO officials were careful to say that the agency does not criticise countries who advise wearing masks. But at the same time, the agency was quick to stress that masks are commonly misused, and as a result, won't offer the intended protections. For instance, wearing a mask can provide a false sense of security, say experts, leading some to become less vigilant in more important hygiene measures, such as hand washing. Additionally, removing a mask so it no longer covers your nose, or touching the outside of the mask can make it less effective.
Key to remember, say WHO officials, is that coronavirus is spread by droplets and not airborne transmission. “The most likely person to become a case is someone who has been in significant contact of another case,” said Ryan.
The global shortage of personal protection equipment underscored the need to carefully deploy masks where they would do the most good, said Ryan. “One can argue that there’s a benefit of anything,” he said, “but where does the given tool have its most benefit and right now the people most at risk from this virus are frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus every second of every day.”
The shortage is not the primary reason the WHO does not recommend mass mask wearing. But Ryan said: “The thought of (health care workers) not having masks is horrific.”
To be sure, as the agency noted, there are psychological and social benefits to mask wearing. For instance, in some countries, mask wearing helped to prevent stigmatising the infected.
Still, mask wearing by the general public is not among the WHO’s recommendations. “We don’t generally recommend the wearing of masks in public by otherwise well individuals because it has not up to now been associated with any particular benefit,” said Ryan.
South Africa's Health minister Zweli Mkhize at an update on the COVID-19 pandemic, discussed the use of masks as protective gear and said the implementation of the lockdown was showing signs of improvement in flattening the curve, reports The Times. The minister recommended the use of masks for protection against coronavirus.
“COVID-19 is a droplet infection which means it can spread among people in close proximity or within a metre. It also spreads from surfaces for 10-12 hours. Masks are still very useful and must be used as much as possible.”
There are several misconceptions about face masks that might put everyone at higher risk, writes Piet Streicher, the MD of BulkSMS in a Mail & Guardian report. He writes that some of these misconceptions are well intended, in that they aim to maximise the availability of medical masks for medical personnel. It has also been observed that non-medical people do not know how to wear and handle face masks, putting themselves at higher risk. These factors result in the public being actively discouraged to wear all types of masks.
But, writes Streicher this is a fatal mistake. By limiting medical face masks to be used exclusively by medical personnel, the availability problem is addressed, but there are other benefits that are missed out on. Although non-medical people may currently not know how to wear and handle homemade face masks, they can learn to do so. He writes that we will soon have a situation where an increasing number of non-medical people will have to care for COVID-19 positive individuals in their households and training everyone in the best practices is imperative.
Streicher writes that the primary benefit of wearing a homemade facemask is the protection of others. The secondary benefit is the protection of yourself. My mask protects you – your mask protects me. We should all consider the possibility that we might already be infected, but are not showing any symptoms, and that we might actively be infecting others. Any barrier between your hands and your face will have a benefit, according to David Price, an intensive care unit pulmonologist, who is currently treating COVID-19 patients.
Streicher writes that Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan have all been able to contain the virus. In all these countries, people have been wearing face masks for weeks now. The public COVID-19 posters in Hong Kong prominently display the use of face masks when in public. Taiwan is producing 10m masks each workday. Taiwan does not have enough cases to appear on the Financial Times’s graph tracking the spread of COVID-19. Mask-wearing among the general population was not adopted in Italy, the US, Germany, Spain, France and South Africa. In fact, it was actively discouraged in the US, the UK and South Africa.
Streicher writes that by making it compulsory for everyone to wear homemade masks in public and by creating awareness of proper mask-wearing practices, the growth in COVID-19 infections will be slowed down, without putting medical staff at risk due to a shortage of medical masks.
[link url="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/who-should-wear-a-face-mask-30-march-who-briefing/"]World Economic Forum report[/link]
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-04-01-zweli-mkhize-on-extending-the-lockdown-flattening-the-curve-more-testing/"]Full report in The Times[/link]
[link url="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-01-covid-19-a-case-for-why-we-all-should-wear-homemade-face-masks/"]Full Mail & Guardian report[/link]