Venki Ramakrishnan pointed out how effective masks are if they are worn by most people (Performance)
Paris:
People who refuse to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic should be stigmatized in the same way as drink drivers, said the director of the prestigious scientific journal of the Royal Society on Tuesday.
Venki Ramakrishnan’s comments come as two new peer-reviewed studies have shown how wearing face covers can help significantly reduce the spread of viruses like COVID-19.
“Before, it was perfectly normal to have a few drinks and go home, and it was also normal to drive without a seat belt,” Ramakrishnan wrote in an article.
“Today, these two people would be considered anti-social, and not wearing a face covering in public should be treated the same way.”
Ramakrishnan pointed out that masks are only really effective if they are worn by most people.
“If we all wear one, we protect each other and thus ourselves, reducing transmission,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread at different speeds around the world and there are a number of public health interventions that appear to have flattened the curve for new localized infections, including blockages and social distancing.
Estimates vary, but it is thought that about 40 to 60 percent of transmissions occur when carriers are pre- or asymptomatic – that is, they may not know they are sick but that they are still capable of infecting others.
A study by teams from the universities of Pennsylvania and Cambridge analyzed pregnant women admitted to childbirth in New York who were screened for COVID-19.
They found that 13.7% of women carried the virus, of which 88% had no symptoms.
Fabric face masks reduce the dispersion of oral particles by 50-100%, depending on a number of factors, the researchers wrote.
In pre-symptomatic people, studies have shown that viral droplets are emitted not only by sneezing and coughing, but also by speech and breathing, which means that massive blankets of the face would significantly reduce the risk of further infections.
– Exceptional Brittany –
Another study published Monday in the Royal Society found large disparities in mask wearing rates among wealthy countries.
In late April – when COVID-19 was raging across Europe – the mask use in Britain was around 25%, according to the study.
This compares to 83.4% in Italy, 65.8% in the United States and 63.8% in Spain.
The authors stated that while none of the countries studied had a mask-wearing culture, those with a clear and established public orientation had much higher adoption.
“It’s not the public’s fault for not wearing masks in the UK,” said Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science at Oxford University and lead author.
“On the contrary, consistent policies and effective public messaging are vital.
“People in countries like Italy, the United States and Spain … quickly adopted face covers largely because the authorities provided them with clear guidelines as to why they should wear them. “
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
