Masks crucial to prevent infection spread: scientists

Masks crucial to prevent infection spread: scientists

Face covers reduce transmissibility per contact

15/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Well shielded: Children wearing masks and travelling in an autorickshaw in Puducherry on Thursday.S.S. Kumar S.S. Kumar

In light of convincing research evidence that face masks are a great tool to stop community spread of COVID-19, a group of scientists across the world have come together to issue an open letter promoting the use of masks by members of the public.

Arguing that the simple task of wearing a mask reduces transmission and thereby, mortality, the scientists have pressed for wearing masks, even defining it as any face covering, as a key public health intervention.

The coordinators of the statement are Jeremy Howard, research scientist, University of San Francisco, co-founder fast.ai, member World Economic Forum Global AI Council, and Vincent Rajkumar, Editor-in-Chief, Blood Cancer Journal. The signatories are from North America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Europe.

The statement said: We have an urgent message about some critical new scientific research. It strongly suggests that requiring fabric mask use in public places could be amongst the most powerful tools to stop the community spread of COVID-19.

An international cross-disciplinary review of the scientific research by 19 experts and other recent research shows that:

People are most infectious in the initial period of infection, when it is common to have few or no symptoms.

Cloth masks obstruct a high portion of the droplets from the mouth and nose that spread the virus.

Non-medical masks have been effective in reducing transmission of coronavirus.

Cloth masks can be washed in soapy water and re-used.

Places and time periods where mask usage is required or widespread have been shown to substantially lower community transmission. Public mask wearing is most effective at stopping spread of the virus when the vast majority of the public uses masks.

Laws appear to be highly effective at increasing compliance and slowing or stopping the spread of COVID-19.

Effective but low cost

The preponderance of evidence, in both laboratory and clinical settings, indicates that mask wearing reduces the transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected droplets. The decreased transmissibility could substantially reduce the death toll, other harms to public health, job losses and economic losses. The cost of such masks is very low by comparison.

Modeling suggests that widespread public mask use, in conjunction with other measures, could bring the effective reproduction number (R) beneath 1.0, thus halting the growth of the pandemic.

Therefore, we ask that government officials require cloth masks to be worn in all public places, such as stores, transportation systems, and public buildings as soon as possible. This action will prevent people who are infectious from unknowingly spreading the disease.

We also ask business leaders who offer products and services to the public to require their employees and customers to wear masks whether or not it is required by local law. This vital step will help protect workers and customers.

Such requirements will greatly increase the rate of mask wearing. This should be done in conjunction with, not as a replacement for, hand hygiene, physical distancing, testing, and contact tracing strategies.

This requirement should be introduced alongside clear guidelines for the production, use and sanitization or re-use of face masks. We urge you to also consider their distribution as shortages allow.

There is no need to wait for availability of medical-grade masks; any face covering, including a piece of cloth, a scarf, or bandana, appears to be effective.