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AN IMMUNOLOGIST HAS said the government should reintroduce recommendations on mask-wearing and issue new public health advice to tackle the Covid-19 ‘exit wave’.
Professor Christine Loscher told The Journal’s coronavirus newsletter that no single measure will help end the current spike in case numbers and hospitalisations, but masks would help slow transmission of the virus.
“Let’s avoid going back to mandates, people have a very negative association with them, and let’s just give people really strong information,” she said.
All of this is about reducing risk. Wearing a mask is not going to stop Covid in its tracks, it’s not going to work on its own overnight. What it will do is it will reduce the risk for every individual who wears a mask and is in an environment where other people are wearing masks.
Loscher said a shift in how mask advice is communicated is vital:
Public health advice is taken quite literally by an awful lot of people. If the advice at the moment is ‘you could consider wearing a mask’, people translate that into ‘you don’t need to wear your mask if you don’t want to’. If the public health message is ‘you need to wear a mask because the risk is higher at the moment’, then that will translate literally for people as ‘oh, I need to go back to wearing a mask’.
At the moment the message is very strongly ‘we’re doing nothing, so you should do nothing either’, and I think that’s a really negative message and it’s not really helping people change their behaviour to reduce risk.
She highlighted World Health Organization advice on mask-wearing, arguing that Ireland has previously followed the authority’s advice throughout the pandemic.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said today that a return of mandatory mask-wearing “wouldn’t cut it” as it is “almost impossible” to stop transmission of the highly transmissible BA.2 lineage of Omicron.
Speaking before Martin’s comments, Loscher said this current wave needs to be at least slowed rather than stopped completely:
There’s the suggestion that only a big lockdown would put a dent in this… we don’t need to stop it in its tracks, what we actually need to do is reduce and slow transmission so that the healthcare system doesn’t continue to be overwhelmed.
That’s what we’ve done at every other point in the pandemic, so I’m quite surprised that we’re not trying to do similar in this situation.
She added that not only would mask-wearing slow transmission of the virus, but it would also reduce the viral load that people are exposed to.
While members of government have encouraged the public to wear masks in crowded settings, the official advice relates to only public transport and in healthcare settings and has remained unchanged since 28 February.
Christine Loscher / TwitterIncreased mask wearing will
— Christine Loscher (@celoscher) March 31, 2022
1. REDUCE & SLOW transmission
2. REDUCE risk of getting Covid
3. REDUCE viral loads people are exposed to
ALL this will help the current situation and help reduce pressure on our healthcare system.
Better than doing nothing!@rtenews@TodaywithClaire https://t.co/Bs2Dal0ph6
It is also recommended that people at high risk of serious illness should wear an FFP2 grade mask. Anyone recently infected with Covid is also advised to wear an FFP2 mask during the three-day restricted movement period after isolation.
Despite warnings from healthcare staff that hospitals is ‘the worst many people have seen in their careers’, calls from the HSE to re-introduce public health measures, and disruption to society due to large numbers of people catching the virus, the government has repeatedly maintained that no new action or advice is needed.
Last week a virologist called for free mask antigen testing as a response to this current wave of Covid.
Gerald Barry said: “People are talking about how [authorities] should switch back on PCR testing, but when you think about the cost of that and the time it would take to ramp it up, I would much prefer them to flood the population with free antigen tests.
It would be much more cost-effective and has been proven to help break chains of transmission in a population.
The Journal’s coronavirus newsletter cuts through the noise and misinformation to give you clear, accessible facts about the coronavirus, Ireland’s fight to contain it, as well as developments further afield.
This is your one-stop-shop for Covid news during a time when it can be hard or overwhelming to try and stay up to date with the latest.
You can read the latest full edition in full here, sign up to receive the newsletter here or below.
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It’s no inconvenience to wear one while shopping
@Tom Kelly: it actually is so I’ll pass on it thanks. But you knock yourself out with one!
I wish people would wear the masks as a barrier to catching this virus even though the majority are experiencing mild symptoms. Our A+Es are overcrowded with very sick people ATM. Elective operations are being cancelled due to bed shortage and waiting lists are increasing day by day. Do it for the healthcare staff who are drained from the working conditions from the overcrowding and with more staff off now with COVID-19.
@C_O’S: it’s our health care system that’s messed up and has been for years and me wearing a mask going into a shop isn’t going to change that! So I’m grand thanks without them, and I’m a health care worker!!
I wear my mask but this week I got covid..only place I can think I got it was from travelling in on the bus to work…. each morning sunce the removal of masks majority of passengers not wearing them and lots of passengers coughing and sneezing etc…no windows open you open a window passenger behind asks you too close it…busy bus no ventilation perfect incubator for covid if a passenger gets on with the virus…reintroduce the wearing of masks especially on public transport it won’t stop you from getting the virus but certainly will reduce the chance of getting it…public need to kop on if you have a cough or sneeze don’t think it’s just a cold…do an antigen test be responsible it may be covid.
@Patrick: yawn
@M:
@Patrick: And you wear your mask? So they obviously don’t work then
On the train yesterday. Completely full. Most people not wearing a mask (grand – I can still wear mine) but 3 separate people were coughing and spluttering all over the place. And I don’t mean a once off. They clearly had some sort of chest infection. Covid aside, manners wouldn’t go astray. Mask up if you’ve got a cough and if you can’t do that then at least cover your gob!
@Sean Ryan: Were you wearing a mask before this pandemic if you had a cold? Not bashing on ya, but serious question. I think this pandemic has made us a little too touchy for our own good.
@Mar Bourne: Yes, because when living in Asia you learn a lesson on etiquette and they have their heads screwed on when it comes to thinking of others. This pandemic showed just how selfish and mé féiners Irish people really are. Can’t even wash hands properly as if the smallest inconveniences to their day will be ‘too hard’.
@Mar Bourne: TBH yes I did but I’m immunocompromised. People should have the cop on to cover their mouth when coughing, regardless of covid.
@Paul Cunningham: Yeah, Asia is great. Especially the way they love those wet markets. Oh wait, hang on..
@JedBartlett: and thats the only argument you can come back with against masks! Anything against the masks themselves by any chance…..nah, didn’t think so
@Sean Ryan: 100% personal hygiene and just being a decent human being is important, but being required to wear a mask when someone had a cold is pushing it. I understand that you’re immunosuppressed, but there is no justification for the rest of the population around you to wear one. I mean this with all due respect. If I’m bad of hearing, I don’t expect everyone around me to speak up and the volume on everything around me to be turned up.
@Joe_X: How are the mask mandates in Scotland and Germany working out?
This wave, like others, will recede. Move on. Let it go.
@Paul Cunningham: Asia is a continent and most certainly majority of the population in Asian countries don’t wear masks. I assume you mean populous cities in China, you’ll find that there are other reason why they wear masks, air pollution such as smog being one of the main reasons. Japan have a culture of obedience. If we did half of the stuff they do right, we’d be in a better place, mask wearing is not one of them just look at the covid numbers there recently.
@JedBartlett: a lot better than we are. But you are right, it will recede, but no thanks to those refusing to wear a mask to prevent the spread, at a cost of millions for rescheduled proceedures, if those people make it to the rescheduled time.
@Joe_X: There are thousands fewer hospital beds in the country than there was in 2008. Blame previous governments and HSE mismanagement for the cancelled procedures. They’re more to blame than COVID is.
@Paul Cunningham: excellently said, and so so true
@JedBartlett: really, how come when my friend woke up this morning he was going spending the day getting stuff he needed for next week, then it was cancelled because of the number in hospital with covid. Did the HSE give it to them.. no it wasn’t . A lot of them picked it up from someone not wearing a mask when they should have been. So no. It isnt the HSEs fault, that hus proceedure was cancelled, it wasn’t even covids fault, to me it’s the fault of those spreading it, and most of those are unmasked because they refuse to put one on
@Joe_X: You’re placing far too much faith in what for most people is a flimsy piece of blue fabric that they’ve paid a few euros for a box of 50, which they’ll then proceed to stuff in their pocket and reuse multiple times. If it’s not in their pocket, it can usually be found dangling from the rear view mirror in the car.
@JedBartlett: as long as it keeps any possible virus containing droplets in the vicinity if their own mouths the flimsy blue fabric is doing its job…..I will agree with you however in the fact of the reusing and where they are bring stored. There is a reason they are called disposable.
@Paul Cunningham: What’s happening in Hong Kong??
People can wear them if they want, they aren’t. I don’t support more government mandates, i’ve had my fill of government coercion. I wear mine, haven’t gotten COVID yet but i’m sure I will.
“people at high risk should wear ffp2 masks”. Great, can we get the HSE to update their website please? They’re still giving vulnerable and high risk people a choice in what kind of mask to wear. Medical mask OR ffp2 masks can be worn. How are they still getting away with making them equal.
It certainly is! You wear one if you like but I’m grand thanks!
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