Explainer | Surgical masks protect more from germs on fingers than viruses in the air, experts say after panic buying
- Learning more about the deadly outbreak informs who should wear which type of mask, and how
- Demand for masks is up to 100 times higher than usual, with prices up to 20 times higher and backlogs of four to six months, WHO director general says
The primary purpose of surgical face masks is to prevent surgeons infecting patients during surgery, not to protect the wearer, William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said.
“The surgical mask is designed to prevent what is in the surgeon’s nose and mouth from getting into the surgical wound,” he said.
Although medical specialists do not entirely agree on the effectiveness of masks against airborne germs, they do find consensus on the danger from hands and fingers, in spreading disease by touching potentially infected surfaces such as door handles. That information seems to be of greater benefit to the general public and is the reason all health authorities stress the importance of washing hands.
“One of the things [the mask] prevents you from doing is putting your hands, your fingers, on your nose and mouth, and that may help reduce transmission,” Schaffner said.
Why is there a shortage?
Demand for surgical masks has skyrocketed in the two months since the disease now known as Covid-19 started to spread from the city of Wuhan in central China, depleting world stockpiles and causing concern at the World Health Organisation (WHO).