NDP leader Meili steps into physician role, offers tips and tricks on making homemade facemasks
Before he became leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, Ryan Meili was – and remains – a physician in the province.
And that offered the Moose Jaw native a perfect opportunity to offer some positive advice to residents when it came to the new World Health Organization directives regarding facemasks.
The WHO recently reversed course on the effectiveness of homemade cloth masks, saying they now support the usage of those kind of protective measures while at the same time insisting that surgical masks be reserved for medical professionals. Meili stepped up last week with a press release and a pair of videos explaining how to build a mask yourself and just why they’re becoming more and more important.
“Saskatchewan people are staying home as much as they can, but every day, essential workers are going to work,” Meili said in the release. “Every day thousands of people are going to pharmacies, grocery stores, medical appointments, their jobs. Because they have to. Which is why we have to use every measure available to protect people.
“That’s why we’re now encouraging people to take one additional measure to slow the spread of COVID-19: wearing a non-medical grade cloth mask when you have to leave the house.” Meili carried the same tact as the WHO in emphasizing that protection like N95 and surgical masks should be left for healthcare workers.
“You can easily make a simple mask to help keep yourself and others safe when you need to leave the house,” said Meili. “This is not a replacement for physical distancing. But it can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.”
The first video, Mask Use and COVID-19 and the second, More on Masks and COVID-19 can be found by searching the titles on Youtube.