Official advice on benefits of face masks ‘too wishy-washy’
THE Government has been accused of being too ‘wishy-washy’ over its advice on the wearing of face coverings in public, according to a public health expert.
Concern has been raised over speeding through the roadmap while Covid-19 is still circulating.
Experts have highlighted that this will ‘increase the complexity’ of contact tracing, a key aspect of controlling the spread of Covid-19.
The WHO changed its advice to recommend the wearing of face masks in public places where social distancing was not possible.
It said information now showed they provided a ‘potential barrier for infectious droplets’.
Prof Anthony Staines of DCU told the Irish Mail on Sunday he believes clearer guidance is needed.
Mr Staines said: ‘Face masks don’t particularly protect you – they protect other people. The advice has been vague and wishy-washy. My own view is that we should be wearing them consistently in offices, shops, public transport.
‘The plan seems to be at the minute to push ahead even though we still have the virus circulating within the community. It’s not the best plan, but it is the plan. We’re going into winter with lower bed capacity, we’ve already trolley numbers over 100 this week in Tallaght Hospital.
‘We will have our flu season starting in a few months time and, frankly, some of us don’t see how the health service will cope. We need to bring the number of the cases down to zero.
That means bringing in masks and probably slowing down the roll-out in certain aspects. Really, if we don’t bring our numbers down to zero we’re in serious trouble.’
According to Dr Ultan Power, professor of micro-virology at Queen’s University Belfast, we are still at the ‘foot hills of this disease’ and there is a long way to go despite our considerable drop in numbers.
However, the evidence he has seen on the benefits of using face coverings is still ‘circumstantial’ and should never be considered a replacement for social distancing.
A recent study from the
University of Edinburgh suggests that face coverings could reduce the spread of Covid-19. Research found that wearing a face covering can reduce the forward distance of an exhaled breath by more than 90%. Scientists testing the effectiveness of seven different types of face coverings, including medical grade and home made masks, said they could all potentially limit the spread of coronavirus.
Felicity Mehendale, a surgeon at the Centre for Global Health at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, has said: ‘It was reassuring to see the handmade mask worked just as well as the surgical mask to stop the wearer’s breath flowing directly forwards.’
However, Dr Power said: ‘There are very few studies that have really looked at this directly. There’s clear evidence that respirator masks work which is why they’re given to frontline staff dealing directly with Covid-19 but for others the evidence is scientifically not that clear.’ Commenting on the reopening of the country, Dr Power said: ‘The three-week lag in reopening is to enable quick identification of a surge of cases, so we can close down the cause. They recently reopened nightclubs in South Korea, then there was a surge of cases, so they closed the clubs again.’
‘Some of us don’t see how the health service will cope’