Washington – If you are not sick from the new coronavirus, Should you wear a mask in public?
The World Health Organization says no. However, the United States authorities weigh whether, eventually, that indication could change.
The debate is taking place amid such a severe shortage that the Joint Commission, which accredits American hospitals, said Tuesday that if facilities are unable to provide adequate masks, health workers are allowed to wear theirs from their homes.
Frontline health workers have the greatest need for face masks. And when a person is sick, wearing a mask helps reduce the chance of infecting others. In places where family members care for the sick at home, the WHO has also recommended that they wear a mask.
But “there is no specific evidence to indicate that the use of masks by the mass population has any particular benefit ”WHO outbreak director Dr Mike Ryan told reporters on Monday.
“In fact, there is some evidence to indicate the opposite,” he added, pointing out the risks of a poorly fitting mask or touching the face while removing or putting it on.
For months, as the COVID-19 disease crisis grew and the masks disappeared from the shelves, the US health authorities had agreed with the above. The virus is believed to spread more through cough or sneeze particles than smaller particles than health workers can find, and therefore the main advice has been to keep a distance of about 1.8 meters ( 6 feet) between each other.
“Seriously people, stop buying masks!” Public health director Jerome Adams tweeted on February 29. “They are not effective in preventing the general public from contracting coronavirus, but if healthcare providers cannot obtain them to treat sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk.”
But mask use has long been common in some countries during respiratory disease outbreaks, especially in parts of Asia. But as questions grew about whether people can spread the virus before knowing if they are infected – something that is supposed to address social estrangement – a growing group of people wondered what harm it would do to wear some kind of mask in public.
Physician Anthony Fauci, director of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the White House working group to address the outbreak is examining the idea, But first, you must ensure that such action does not take away supplies from health workers.
For now, the recommendation published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is: “If you are not sick: You do not need to wear a mask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and that person cannot wear a mask) “
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