James LE FANU
To mask or not to mask, that is the question. “The chances of catching Covid from a passing interaction in a public space is minimal,” observed Dr Michael Klompas of Harvard Medical School in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 1. Hence the practice of routinely wearing a mask, other than in hospital, “offers little, if any, protection”. Back then with more than 5,000 new cases and almost 1,000 Covid-related deaths being reported daily, the Chief Medical Officer concurred, “wearing a mask reduces the risk almost not at all”. How come then, when the toll is more than 10 times lower, should masks now be required by law?
The rationale for this volte face (as it were) of restoring public confidence in getting out and about, boosting the economy by engaging in retail therapy, is not borne out by the comments of shoppers interviewed by Telegraph writer
Eleanor Steafel: “This is terrible”, “I don’t think I will do it again”, “It is not relaxing”, etc. The more probable explanation then is political expediency, spiking the guns of the Prime Minister’s professional critics that he is “not doing enough”.
The current regulations look set to continue indefinitely but the habit of mask wearing, being a hassle and virtually unenforceable, is likely to peter out – as with the historic precedent of carrying a gas mask, similarly required by law, in the early days of the Second World War. On September 6 1939, a survey on Westminster Bridge revealed that 75 per cent were carrying a gas mask. Two months later that was down to a quarter and by the beginning of 1940 apparently “almost no one bothered to carry their gas mask with them”. We shall see.
Carpal tunnel pain
The conundrum of the woman, recently featured in this column, afflicted soon after waking by painful and persistent pins and needles in her arm has prompted a couple of possible explanations. “When I developed this problem a couple of years ago,” writes a reader from Perpignan, “my doctor diagnosed Carpal tunnel syndrome, explaining that compression of the median nerve at the wrist can cause painful pins and needles both forward into the hand but also back up into the arm.” Most obtain relief by wearing a wrist splint at night but he eventually required keyhole decompression surgery that proved curative.
The further possibility would be arthritic changes in the vertebrae of the neck (cervical spondylosis) pressing on the nerves to the arm as they exit the spinal cord. This is less amenable to treatment though a couple of readers report considerable improvement from wearing a cervical collar combined with stretching exercises and neck massage.
Unwanted fantasies
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of Mrs BC from Brighton, now in her mid-70s and “contentedly sexually inactive for the past 15 years”. Recently, however, she has been troubled by erotic dreams and daytime sexual fantasies that she finds “extremely disturbing”. She is otherwise well and not on any medication besides taking a course of antibiotics for a urine infection a couple of months ago. What, she wonders, might account for these unwelcome intrusions and how best to deal with them?
Wearing them is likely to peter out – as with carrying gas masks in the Second World War