Mixed messaging on wearing masks is a major public health failure
The World Health Organization (WHO) unequivocally warns against wearing face masks, unless you are either displaying symptoms or taking care of a patient infected with COVID-19. Full stop. No face masks. No grey area.
If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with COVID-19. Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing.
Masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent handcleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.
If you wear a mask, then you must know how to use it and dispose of it properly. In fact, wearing a face mask may actually increase the risk of infection. Dr. Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer of England, has cautioned that wearing a face mask is not a good idea for the public “… as the virus can get trapped in the material and causes infection when the wearer breathes in.” Harries is quoted in News Medical Life Sciences as saying “For the average member of the public walking down a street, it is not a good idea. What tends to happen is people will have one mask. They won’t wear it all the time, they will take it off when they get home, they will put it down on a surface they haven’t cleaned.”
An April 17 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) advises, “… nonmedical masks may not be effective in preventing infection for the person wearing them.”
Clinical evidence suggests that cloth masks contribute to viral infection, a study of non-medical masks by the University of New South Wales reported in Science Daily. “The widespread use of cloth masks by health-care workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections and their global use should be discouraged. The penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97 per cent compared to medical masks with 44 per cent.”
While the current COVID-19 pandemic has been awash in conflicting and fake news, the lack of consensus on the part of governments and health authorities globally on the issue of face masks is surprising and disturbing.
The WHO cautions against wearing face masks, the CDC recommends them; “CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”
The deputy chief medical officer of England advises against, Health Canada recommends for; “Wearing a homemade non-medical mask/facial covering in the community is recommended for periods of time when it is not possible to consistently maintain a twometre physical distance from others, particularly in crowded public settings, such as stores, shopping areas and public transit.”
Who to believe, then? Why are public health experts not able to agree on this seemingly straightforward issue?
It’s not as though medical face masks are new technology. They have been around for a long time; since plagueridden 17th century Europe. One would think that after 400 years the medical community would have looked into this and decided upon the efficacy of face masks in preventing the spread of infection … but no.
Shame on health authorities. It is an unconscionable breach of public trust. Caught in the midst of a global infodemic, the public is left to decide by throwing darts at a board.