KUALA LUMPUR: Should everyone don a face mask in efforts to combat the spread of Covid-19?
This seems to be the hot topic on social media in recent days following the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recent take on the issue.
On Monday Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme had said there is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit.
However, on Friday, he said: “We can certainly see circumstances on which the use of masks, both home-made and cloth masks, at the community level may help with an overall comprehensive response to this disease.”
This appears to be a U-turn from the organisation's initial advice to only wear a mask if one was sick and there was no need for people who were healthy to wear them.
WHO had said only medical and care workers should wear face masks and the emphasis earlier was solely on maintaining social distancing and practising good hygiene.
This comes amid a changing Covid-19 situation, where there is now evidence that an asymptomatic person can still pass on the virus to others.
Besides, there are scientific research that shows positive effect of wearing masks in preventing the spread of the virus.
WHO, however, stressed that surgical and medical masks and masks like N95 should be prioritised for the frontliners, like medical personnel.
The CDC, on its website, suggested wearing simple homemade cloth face coverings while out in public where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain - such as at the grocery stores and pharmacies - especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
This, it said, could help slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.
“Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure,” it wrote.
Local medical experts, weighing in on this issue, have encouraged people to use face masks while out in public.
Renowned medical virologist Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Lam Sai Kit advised Malaysians to wear masks even if it is not a three-ply surgical mask.
“Remember that the wearing of masks is not so much to prevent yourself from getting infected, but not to spread the virus to others should you be infected but without symptoms.
“It is now proven that an infected person can spread infection two to three days before the onset of symptoms, and there are many who do not show symptoms of infection and therefore spreading the virus without knowing that they are doing so,” he told the New Straits Times.
Dr Lam said the wearing of masks, regardless of its type, will reduce droplet spread, as the major route of spread is still person-to-person via droplets.
Maintaining social distancing is still the number one measure in preventing spread, besides maintaining personal hygiene like washing hands, he said.
“Home-made masks are still better than no masks at all.. Wearing home-made masks and giving 50 per cent protection is still better than no masks.
“Remember the principle of wearing masks is to prevent others from getting infected by us, not so much in protecting ourselves. If we go out to buy groceries, wear a mask, but still remember to maintain social distancing,” he added.
Infectious disease consultant Datuk Dr Christopher Lee, who is also the former Health deputy director-general (Research and Technical Support) when contacted said to mask or not is a personal choice at the moment in Malaysia.
“To ensure we don't compete with mask demands of our health care workers, if you are asymptomatic and in public, use reusable cloth mask as per the US CDC and WHO recommendations.
“How much benefit it has to oneself, the data is uncertain. But perhaps it protects others from us (if we're infected and not aware of it, for instance being asymptomatic and untested).
“However, the other practices are more important like social distancing and hand hygiene,” he said in a Whatsapp reply.
Meanwhile, countries like Singapore, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have recently encouraged the public to use masks in places such as supermarkets.
Read more on cloth face covering at HERE for the article