Prevention methods Prevention methods Wear Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent your respiratory droplets from reaching others. Studies show that masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth. You should wear a mask, even if you do not feel sick • Wash your hands frequently: Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. • Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub remove and kills viruses that may be contaminated from the surfaces on your hands. • Maintain social distancing: Maintain at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing. • Why? When an infected person coughs or sneezes they spray small respiratory droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, or the droplets may contaminate your mucous membranes on of nose, mouth and eyes. • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth • Why? Hands touch many surfaces and can contaminated by the viruses that are discharged from an infected person and staying for a while on the surfaces. The contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and can make you sick. Practice respiratory hygiene: Make sure you, and the people around you, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then safely dispose of the used tissue immediately and clean your whole upper limb or wash the clothes at the earliest. • Why? Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene you protect the people around you from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19. • Practice self quarantine and seek early medical care: Stay home if you feel unwell. If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention as early as possible. Follow the directions of your local health authority. • Why? National and local authorities will have the most up to date information on the situation in your area. Calling in advance will allow your health care provider to quickly direct you to the right health facility. This will also protect you and help prevent spread of viruses and other infections. With a lack of national protocol around when and where to wear a face mask, it's not abnormal to be shamed for wearing one and angry when others don't. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a completely non-partisan health organization, recommends "people wear cloth face coverings in public settings when around people outside of their household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain." So why all the fuss? Basically, though some people simply don't like to be forced to do anything, especially by the government, scientists have proven that taking this extra precaution (in addition to socially distancing) helps to significantly curb the spread of coronavirus. Who should wear a mask? To slow the spread of COVID-19, the CDC recommends almost all healthy kids and adults wear a mask, except for children under the age of 2 or anyone who has trouble breathing, is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance. The World Health Organization (WHO) stress that Americans should not purchase medical-grade surgical masks or N95 respirators, however, which would only deplete dwindling PPE supplies that medical professionals need to protect them from both airborne and fluid hazards. A cloth or fabric mask is what the general public should stick with. Also, if you've seen "Face Mask Exemption Cards" claiming to give people a free pass from wearing a mask for "medical reasons," they're completely fake according to The New York Times. "Wearing a face mask posses a mental and/or physical risk to me. Under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), I am not required to disclose my condition to you,” reads the card—which not only misspells "poses," but also incorrectly names the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to Jim Keany, MD, an emergency physician, patient safety physician champion, and former chief of staff at Mission Hospital in Orange County, California, if your respiratory status is truly that tenuous that you’re not able to breathe through a cloth face covering, you should stay home and not expose yourself to any risk. “If you are truly that fragile, a COVID-19 infection could be a death sentence,” •Surgical or medical face masks are for: •Health care workers •People with COVID-19 symptoms •People taking care of someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 •People who are 60 years old or older (when social distancing isn't possible in areas with widespread COVID-19) •People who have underlying health conditions (when social distancing isn't possible in areas with widespread COVID19 Cloth face coverings or fabric masks are for everyone when: COVID-19 is widespread Physical distancing of at least 6 feet isn't possible (including on public transportation, workplaces, stores, and other crowded environments) Why should you wear a mask? 1. They reduce viral transmission (if worn correctly). “Surgical masks and cloth coverings can reduce viral transmission by 70% if everyone wears them and wears them correctly over [their] nose and mouth,” Purvi Parikh, an allergist with Allergy & Asthma Network and clinical assistant professor at the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine previously told Health, emphasizing the importance of not only wearing a mask, but wearing it properly. According to the CDC, that means washing your hands before putting on your face mask and making sure it covers your nose and mouth once in place. It should also fit snugly against your face and remain there until you leave a public setting. 2. They prevent asymptomatic spread. According to the CDC, an estimated 50% of transmission happens before people develop any COVID-19 symptoms. Wearing a mask is an easy way to reduce the risk of unknowingly spreading the infection, he says, but it’s not a panacea—people also need to observe social distancing rules and practice good hand hygiene. “Masks don’t take the place of these other measures,” "Masks are acts of altruism; you are not protecting yourself by wearing a mask," Rochelle Walensky, MD, chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School told reporters during an April 3 briefing held by the Infectious Diseases Society of American. Masks prevent people who are asymptomatic from spreading the virus to others. It’s also worth noting most cloth face coverings alone won’t totally prevent you from contracting the novel coronavirus. (Only an N95 design, which should be reserved for medical professionals, provides that level of protection.) Rather, face masks prevent the wearer from infecting others when asymptomatic, making it just as important a precaution as social distancing and washing your hands. Why should you wear a mask? 3. You're protecting others from illness. Researchers note that mask-wearing is most effective when it's a communal effort. Consider the fact that the U.S. death toll could reach 211,000 by September 26, according to the CDC, up from the projected 180,000 by a group of Washington researchers. However, it's also been predicted that about many of these deaths could be prevented if 95 percent of the country would wear masks. 4. They're mandated by law in some states. Though there is no national mandate on mask-wearing, some occur on a state-by-state basis. For example, many states such as California, Washington, Utah and North Carolina, decided to enact mask requirements after resisting them earlier in the pandemic. States with mask requirements, like New York and New Jersey, are continuing to see new infections decline, even amid mass protests against systemic racism and police brutality. 5. They're good hygiene in general Medical professionals from surgeons to dentists were wearing masks to protect themselves from droplets, germs, and illness as well to prevent their own germs from spreading, even prior pandemic. In many cultures, wearing a mask when one is ill or has allergies is a sign of respect for others. Wearing a mask to protect yourself is normal, and simply good hygiene when in a high-risk situation. Why should you wear a mask? • Based on our prior work in outbreaks of infectious diseases, we know that clear, consistent messages about what people can do to protect themselves and their community are critical. By that measure, the messaging on masks has been confusing. • Early in the pandemic, the general public was told not to wear masks. This was driven by the longstanding recognition that standard surgical masks (also called medical masks) are insufficient to protect the wearer from many respiratory pathogens, as well as the concern about diverting limited supplies from healthcare settings. • Science is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and it inevitably changes the way we see the world. Thanks to the tireless efforts of scientists everywhere, we have compressed years of research on the COVID-19 virus into months. This has led to a rapid evolution of policies and recommendations, and not surprisingly some skepticism about the advice of experts. Why wearing a mask is the most important thing we can do to stop the spread of COVID19 • Messaging on the importance of wearing a mask during the pandemic has at times been confusing. • Universal mask use can significantly reduce virus transmission in communities. • Masks are not perfect barriers to transmission, and should be combined with other preventative measures such as social distancing and contact tracing. • The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped life as we know it. Many of us are staying home, avoiding people on the street and changing daily habits, like going to school or work, in ways we never imagined. • While we are changing old behaviours, there are new routines we need to adopt. First and foremost is the habit of wearing a mask or face covering whenever we are in a public space. These are some of the things we’ve learned: •Masks and face coverings can prevent the wearer from transmitting the COVID-19 virus to others and may provide some protection to the wearer. Multiple studies have shown that face coverings can contain droplets expelled from the wearer, which are responsible for the majority of transmission of the virus. This 'source control' approach reflects a shift in thinking from a 'medical' perspective (will it protect the wearer?) to a 'public health' perspective (will it help reduce community transmission and risk for everyone?). •Many people with COVID-19 are unaware they are carrying the virus. It is estimated that 40% of persons with COVID-19 are asymptomatic but potentially able to transmit the virus to others. In the absence widespread screening tests, we have no way of identifying many people who are silently transmitting the virus in their community. •Universal mask use can significantly reduce virus transmission in the community by preventing anyone, including those who are unwittingly carrying the virus, from transmitting it to others. Disease modeling suggests masks worn by significant portions of the population, coupled with other measures, could result in substantial reductions in case numbers and deaths. Masks are not perfect barriers to transmission, but they don’t need to be perfect if they aren’t used alone. Universal mask use should be accompanied by other public health measures such as physical distancing, testing, contact tracing and restrictions on large gatherings. Those measures aren’t perfect either, but when many imperfect measures are combined at a community level, they can be very effective at slowing transmission and reducing infections. Masks can also reduce the inequitable impact of the pandemic, particularly for those who live in crowded environments where physical distancing is difficult, and for those who work in frontline roles where there is a greater risk of exposure to the virus. These are some of the things we’ve learned: • Wearing a mask isn’t a restriction of our freedom. Rather, it helps us to regain freedom by reducing virus transmission in a community and making every interaction safer. Freedom for people to go to work, attend school, interact with others, and most importantly freedom from illness and fear. • The best solution for the pandemic is a safe and effective vaccine, and the biopharmaceutical industry is working closely with governments, regulators, the scientific community and non-governmental organizations to develop vaccines at unprecedented speed. • But vaccines are unlikely to be available to most of the world for some time, and we need a way to protect communities and keep society functioning in the meantime. In combination with other measures, universal mask use could help drive virus transmission down to levels we expect to achieve after vaccines become available. • While we live in a globalized world, it is rare that nearly everyone on the planet needs to adopt a common behaviour at the same time. In the words of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Board Chair of Gavi, “No one will be safe until everyone is safe. The time to act is now and the way to act is together.” • These are the reasons the Pandemic Action Network and partners around the world have come together around #WorldMaskWeek to inspire a global movement to #WearAMask. Join us for #WorldMaskWeek by posting a photo and sharing how you #WearAMask on your social media channels. • Our hope is that by creating a week where community, government, business, sports and entertainment leaders send the same message about this critical new behavior, everyone will understand the urgency of changing their behaviour and start wearing a mask, this week and every week.
