1 April 2020
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www.thevillagenews.co.za
To mask or not to mask Writer Hedda Mittner
T
he appeal issued by the Head of the Western Cape Health Department, urging healthy members of the public NOT to wear masks and gloves has led to much confusion among local residents and heated debates on social media. The Health Department’s reasons for the appeal include “the risks these items pose in spreading the Coronavirus, if not used properly”. The statement goes on to say, “Scientific evidence proves that by wearing a mask, if it is not needed, you may put yourself at higher risk because you fiddle with the mask and then transfer germs from your hands to your face. Wearing a mask or gloves when going to the supermarket or pharmacy to buy essentials is ineffective, unnecessary, and will not protect you from the Coronavirus. In fact, it can spread infection faster.” It also stresses that “Healthcare professionals who are in direct contact with, or caring for a person who is confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19 must make use of masks and gloves and other personal protective equipment”. Even the Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA) has boldly declared: “DO NOT wear a mask if you do not need one!” The important thing to remember is that the main concern of health
authorities in all countries battling this pandemic is the limited supply of surgical masks and gloves for frontline health care personnel. For that reason, both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have also stated that only people with COVID-19 symptoms and those caring for them should wear masks. The same applies to South Africa. On Monday, the Business for South Africa (BSA) Public Health Workgroup issued an urgent call to all businesses to divert personal protective equipment (PPE) for use in the national healthcare sector, where it is “critically needed to protect frontline doctors and health care workers, and to keep them healthy in their fight against the pandemic”. It therefore makes sense that the general public is discouraged from using PPE and exhausting limited supplies, which could lead to a dire shortage at hospitals, where they are most needed. But, as Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong pointed out in an article recently published in Science magazine, this does not, however, mean that the practice is not useful at all for the general public. In other parts of the world such as most Asian countries, health authorities have encouraged all citizens to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the virus, regardless
of whether they have symptoms or not. And the Czech Republic took the uncommon step last week of making nose and mouth coverings mandatory in public spaces, prompting a grassroots drive to produce handmade masks. The same article (Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic? by Kelly Servick) quotes KK Cheng, a public health expert at the University of Birmingham as saying that social distancing and staying at home as much as possible are still the best practices to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus. However, when people do venture out and interact, they are likely to spread droplets of saliva, not only when they cough or sneeze but also when speaking, singing or just breathing in close proximity to others. Masks are “a perfectly good public health intervention that’s not used,” he says. “It’s not to protect yourself. It’s to protect people against the droplets coming out of your respiratory tract.” This is why Cowling and others argue that the greatest benefit of masking the masses, likely comes not from shielding the mouths of the healthy but from covering the mouths of people already infected. While people who feel ill aren’t supposed to go out at all, data from contact-tracing efforts suggest that nearly half of COVID-19 transmissions occur before
Diane and Robyn Forster made 71 masks for Traffic & Law Enforcement, and refuse removers in one day.
The bottomline is that, if you feel more protected wearing a mask, even if it’s a homemade one, then do.
Masks need to be used carefully and safely; wash your hands before you put a mask on, before you take it off and after you’ve taken it off. The mask also needs to be washed thoroughly after use and allowed to dry completely, in the sun, before reusing it.
There are several local initiatives that you could join or support, and online tutorials, complete with patterns and instructions on how to make your own mask. The best fabric to use is a tightly-woven, 100% cotton fabric and good options include denim, bed sheets and pillow cases, dish towels, heavyweight T-shirts and vacuum -cleaner bags.
And don’t let it give you a false sense of security, as homemade masks are definitely not as effective as surgical masks and wearing one is not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get sick. Remember that social distancing and washing your hands often, and properly, remain the first and most important lines of defence against infection.
the infected person shows any symptoms and is therefore unaware that they are contagious.
