Maintain a safe distance between people of between 1 and 2 meters , wash your hands frequently with soap and water or disinfectant gel and, of course, stay at home. Those are the, so far, fundamental measures that the Spanish health authorities recommend to stop the advance of the new coronavirus.
When the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared the coronavirus pandemic on March 11, hysteria seized many, who ran in search of masks. Together with the disinfectant gel and the surgical alcohol (that of the wounds), the masks of the types FFP3 and FFP2 became the best sellers of pharmacies and online stores. Soon, all kinds of masks began to be sold like donuts and the shortage arrived.
At this point, and even before, things got even more difficult as the medical staff did not have protective equipment to care for a number of infected that did not stop growing. It was found (and still is) unprotected against the coronavirus. Experts recommended wearing a mask only to those people showing symptoms of COVID-19 or caring for people with the disease. The rest of the citizens had to continue with the aforementioned protection measures.
March 14 came and the declaration of the state of alarm, even more hysteria. Now, when you go out to do the shopping quickly and running, a good number of the people you see wear a mask, of whatever type. You can see how many touch the front part (where the virus would be) with their hands, from time to time they lower it by feeling, again, the front part … These erroneous behaviors in the handling of a mask are the result of ignorance of the general population on how this product is used. In addition, the use of a mask can generate the dreaded false sense of security , that is, that by wearing it you think that you are totally protected and neglect such important protection measures as frequent hand washing and maintaining a safe distance between people. .
But are masks really unnecessary for the asymptomatic population ? An article published in the journal Science on March 28 includes several statements by international experts who affirm the opposite. “It’s really a perfectly good public health intervention that is not used,” argues KK Cheng, a public health expert at the University of Birmingham. “It is not to protect yourself. It is to protect people from the droplets that come out of your respiratory tract .”
On the other hand, those who are in favor of the population wearing masks say that their impact on the spread of the disease is probably modest. Many also fear promoting the purchase of masks amid a major shortage in hospitals . In this regard, Mark Loeb, a microbiologist and infectious disease physician at McMaster University, says: “I don’t think it’s good public health policy for people to go out and buy medical masks and N95 respirators and wear them on the street.”
However, as the pandemic spreads, some public health experts believe that government messages discouraging its use should change.
The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention believes that not wearing a mask is a mistake. In fact, health authorities in some parts of Asia have encouraged all citizens to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the virus , regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. The Czech Republic made their use mandatory in public spaces, promoting a campaign to make them at home.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recognizes that making homemade masks can be the last resort for healthcare workers who lack other protection. However, there is a lack of rigorous studies comparing cloth masks with surgical ones or investigating the ideal material for homemade masks.
Although there is some evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can persist in aerosols, fine particles that remain suspended in the air are likely rare, says Arnold Monto, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It is spread primarily by larger droplets “and we know that standard surgical masks will have a modest effect on that type of transmission,” he says. “When you combine [the masks] with other approaches, then they can make a difference.”
Despite messages from some healthcare workers to the contrary, it is likely that a mask can help protect a healthy carrier from infection, says Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong. Both surgical masks and more protective N95 respirators have been shown to prevent various respiratory infections in healthcare workers; There has been some debate as to which of the two is appropriate for different types of care for patients with respiratory infections. “It makes no sense to imagine that … surgical masks are really important to healthcare workers but then they are not useful at all for the general public ,” says Cowling. Masks may work better at preventing infections in hospitals than in the public, he says, in part because healthcare workers are trained in how to use them and because they take other important safety measures like thorough hand washing. “I think the average person, if taught to wear a mask correctly, would have some protection against infection in the community.”
As we already know, there are infected people who do not show symptoms , so they feel well and continue to go out to do the shopping, to work if they do not have the option of teleworking or taking the dog out and that they can transmit the coronavirus without being aware. Cowling and other experts point out that the benefit of using masks correctly (putting them on and taking them off according to rules, washing hands frequently, not touching the front, etc.) would protect those who are not infected . The objective, therefore, of covering nose and mouth would not be, therefore, to protect oneself from the coronavirus but not to infect others.
Data from contact tracing efforts – in which researchers monitor the health of people who have recently interacted with someone who has been confirmed infected – suggests that nearly half of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions are they occur before the infected person shows symptoms. And some seem to contract and clear the virus without ever feeling sick. “If I knew who is asymptomatic and presymptomatic [for COVID-19], I … would classify the masks for those individuals,” Monto says. Unfortunately, he adds, “We don’t know who these are.”
Cheng hopes that masks will become more important in the United States and Europe once the peak of COVID-19 cases passes and social distancing restrictions are eased. “Imagine you’re riding the New York subway on a busy morning. If everyone wears a mask, I’m sure it would reduce transmission,” he tells Science, adding, “Don’t ask me to show you a clinical trial that it works. “.
