Firms ignore official advice and buy masks

Oxford epidemiologist suggests they could be an effective measure if used in the right circumstances

Businesses are taking matters into their own hands and giving staff face masks, amid growing pressure on the Government to change its stance on them. Amazon has ordered “millions of masks” for its workers while Sainsbury’s is supplying them for staff who want them. Dr Elaine Shou Feng, an epidemiologist at Oxford University, said: “When combined with social distancing, school closures and working from home, the use of masks could make a difference.”

BUSINESSES have taken matters into their own hands and issued staff with face masks, amid growing pressure on the Government to change its stance on them.

Currently, official advice from the Government and Public Health England states that face masks are not a good way to protect against the virus and not necessary.

Despite the instructions being in line with official guidance from the World Health Organisation, other countries such as Austria and Slovenia have demanded all citizens wear a mask.

Officials in the UK are now facing scrutiny to change their recommendations to protect the public and workers.

This weekend, Marks and Spencer rolled out plastic face shields for all its front-line employees.

Amazon told The Daily Telegraph it had ordered “million of masks” for their workers, which will be available in all locations by early next week, while Sainsbury’s is supplying face masks for employees who want them and Asda is providing them for workers involved in clinical work in its pharmacies or opticians.

Some countries such as the Czech Republic are ordering people to wear masks in crowded places, while the mayor of New York suggests citizens should wear face coverings.

In a comment piece for the The Lancet, Dr Elaine Shou Feng, an epidemiologist in the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, called for the rational use of face masks.

She believes face masks could be an effective measure, which, when combined with a number of other interventions, can help control the spread of Covid-19. She said: “When combined with social distancing, school closures and working from home, the use of masks could make a difference.”

She added: “When we add up all those effects together, there are a lot of deaths avoided and a lot of cases avoided. No single policy is perfect enough or competent enough to control the current situation, and when they combine together, there may be a very large effect.”

Fresh data from scientists in Hong Kong, published on Friday in the scientific journal Nature, suggests that wearing surgical face masks could prevent transmission of viruses.

The study was based on findings from 246 individuals who were suffering from acute respiratory illness. All participants were asked to exhale and the researchers found seasonal human coronaviruses, influenza viruses and rhinoviruses in exhaled breath and coughs of the participants.

When a surgical face mask was worn, there was a reduced amount of the viruses in respiratory droplets and aerosols. The researchers concluded that surgical face masks could prevent transmission of viruses when individuals are showing symptoms.

Dr Shou Feng believes that if people wore a face mask, it would help reduce the transmission by asymptomatic infected people as well.

She said: “I think a good safe mark that would be helpful is for asymptomatic people to wear [face masks] in reducing the community transmission.

“But because we don’t have a test widely available in the UK, some people may have been infected but they don’t know that, so in this case, we think it might be sensible to have everyone wear a face mask.”

Wearing a face mask or not is currently a personal choice but Dr Shou Feng believes it could be beneficial when people have to go to crowded places or go shopping. This chimes with retailers that have decided to take proactive action.

Sacha Berendji, M&S’S retail and operations director, said: “We are actively encouraging social distancing in our food halls, and have already introduced a number of measures to help colleagues stay healthy and enable customers to shop for the essentials they need with confidence – from floor markings to the introduction of sneeze guards at till points. The latest measure is the introduction of reusable face shields, which have been distributed to our hard-working teams.”

Dr Shou Feng said: “Covid-19 might be the most severe epidemic we face in 100 years, so in this kind of situation we should take every possible intervention that we can before we have the vaccine available or before we have the treatment available.

“Every measure we have taken, as well as the face mask, even if there is a very minor effect, could be very helpful. It could help people take one more step to combat Covid-19.”