Refusing to wear a face mask amid pandemic as bad as drink driving, leading scientist says
- If everyone wears a mask, we protect ourselves and each other, reducing threat of Covid-19 transmission, new studies from US and UK show
- Masks block virus particle dispersion, which is key when sick people show no symptoms yet spray droplets when talking and breathing
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People who refuse to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic should be stigmatised the same as drink drivers, the president of Britain’s prestigious Royal Society says.
“It used to be quite normal to have quite a few drinks and drive home, and it also used to be normal to drive without seat belts,” Ramakrishnan says.
“Today both of those would be considered antisocial, and not wearing face coverings in public should be regarded in the same way.”
Ramakrishnan stressed masks are only genuinely effective if worn by most people. “If all of us wear one, we protect each other and thereby ourselves, reducing transmission,” he says.
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Estimates vary, but it is thought around 40 to 60 per cent of transmissions occur when carriers are pre- or asymptomatic – that is, they may not know they are ill but are still able to infect others.
One study by teams from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and Cambridge University in the UK analysed pregnant women admitted for delivery in New York who were screened for Covid-19. They found that 13.7 per cent of the women were carrying the virus, and that 88 per cent of them showed no symptoms.
Cloth face masks reduce oral particle dispersion by between 50 and 100 per cent, depending on a number of factors, the researchers say.
In pre-symptomatic individuals, studies have shown that viral droplets are emitted not only by sneezing and coughing, but also by talking and breathing, meaning mass use of face coverings would significantly reduce the risk of new infections.
Another study published this week in the Royal Society’s journal outlined vast discrepancies in mask-wearing rates among rich nations.
In late April – as Covid-19 raged throughout Europe – mask-wearing uptake in Britain was around 25 per cent, the study says. This compared to 83.4 per cent in Italy, 65.8 per cent in the United States and 63.8 per cent in Spain.
The authors said that while none of the countries studied had a culture of mask-wearing, those with established and clear public guidance had a far higher uptake.
“It isn’t the public’s fault for not wearing masks in the UK,” said Melinda Mills, lead author and director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford. “Rather, consistent policies and effective public messaging is vital.
“People in countries like Italy, the US and Spain … have rapidly adopted face coverings largely because the authorities provided them with clear guidelines to understand why they should wear them.”
