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Reuters / Andrew Parsons Media
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson recently wore masks in public.
In recent days, both the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, have been seen wearing masks in public for the first time.
It’s a dramatic change: Trump previously mocked others for wearing masks and suggested that some might wear that PPE to show their disapproval, even after the US Centers for Disease Control recommended covering their faces. .
Meanwhile, the UK government was initially reluctant to advise the general public to wear face covers, even as other countries in Europe did.
He introduced rules requiring people to wear face covers on public transport in June, and now says that people in England must wear face covers in stores or face a fine.
Globally, many authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO), initially suggested that the masks were not effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. However, they now recommend facial coatings indoors, and many governments have even made them mandatory.
What has changed and why?
The number of governments recommending facial coatings has increased significantly in the past six months.
In mid-March, about 10 countries had policies that recommended covering their faces, now more than 130 countries and 20 US states do, says Masks4All, an activist group of researchers who advocate the use of homemade masks during the pandemic.
Some studies also suggest that people’s attitudes have changed.
“Countries with no history of wearing face masks and coverage among the general public quickly adopted the use, such as Italy (83.4%), the United States (65.8%) and Spain (63.8%),” says a report by the Royal Society. – one of the leading scientific bodies in the United Kingdom.
The changes appear to be due in part to a better understanding of how Covid-19 extends.
Initially, the WHO said the masks should only be worn by medical workers or people who have symptoms like coughs and sneezes.
However, in recent months, there has been increasing evidence that many people with the virus have no symptoms, but can still be contagious, and masks can prevent them from passing it on to others. WHO changed its orientation in June.
Meanwhile, there is increased awareness that the risk of transmission is higher in poorly ventilated indoor spaces, and evidence suggests that the virus could be spread by small airborne particles.
This means that if everyone wears face covers, “it will protect against the most common mode of transmission, drops, and to some extent, aerosol drops,” says Kim Lavoie, president of behavioral medicine at the University of Quebec in the department of Montreal psychology.
Professor Lavoie adds that “research” on facial coatings has increased, including observational studies that “countries with high mask use appear to have lower infection rates.”
Furthermore, several scientists now say there is “some evidence” that the masks can protect both the wearer and those around him.
There is also a growing acceptance that the pandemic could continue for a long time, and if so, face linings could be seen as necessary to help people adapt and reduce risks as businesses and schools reopen.
“Covid is not going anywhere, we will probably have a vaccine in years, not months,” says Professor Lavoie, who has led iCARES, an international study on Covid-19 related behaviors. “Therefore, all these principles must be integrated and adapted to the new normal life.”
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Why do countries have such different attitudes?
Although government policies have changed, there is a large gap in people’s willingness to wear masks.
According to the Covid-19 Behavior Tracker, about 83% of people in Italy and 59% in the US say they would always wear a face mask outside of their home, but only 19% of people in the Kingdom United they say the same. project led by the Institute for Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London with the survey company YouGov.
“The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have been relatively slow to accelerate the use of masks compared to, for example, Spain, France and Italy,” says Sarah P Jones, health behavior researcher at Imperial College London , and one of the creators of the tracker.
She says the use of masks can vary based on people’s vulnerability to disease, whether they believe the costs outweigh the benefits, and how easily masks are available.
In countries with strong increases in mask use, people may have experienced “rapid increases in perceptions of severity and vulnerability”, “rapid changes in policies requiring the use of face masks”, and the feeling that “I see to many other people doing it. ” wearing a mask shouldn’t be much of a problem. ”
Professor Lavoie agreed that places that “were hit hard and fast”, such as Italy, may have adopted a mask more easily.
Finally, people in countries that experienced the Sars pandemic in 2003, or other respiratory outbreaks, were more willing to start wearing masks.
“In East Asia, there are many recent memories of respiratory pandemics and a cultural awareness that masks are a good idea,” says Jeremy Howard, a research scientist at the University of San Francisco and one of the founders of Masks4All.
Rather, “there is simply no recent history of respiratory pandemics in the West,” and many Western and international institutions have “almost completely ignored East Asian scientists,” he argues.
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Many populations in East Asia quickly started wearing masks
Many countries were particularly cautious in recommending face masks due to a lack of clinical trials proving their effectiveness, says the report from the Royal Society.
However, “there have been no clinical trials of elbow cough, social distancing, and quarantine, yet these measures are considered effective and have been widely adopted,” he adds.
Why are some still reluctant to wear masks?
Most countries now recommend or require facial coatings in some situations.
However, most people still appear to be much more willing to use hand sanitizer, social distance, or regular hand washing than to wear face masks, according to data from the Covid-19 Behavior Tracker and iCARES.
People feel that washing their hands and social distancing are things they can easily control, says Professor Lavoie.
On the contrary, “the use of masks is a little more complex: you have to find and buy a mask, put it on and get rid of it in a certain way, and they are uncomfortable to wear.”
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And the changing orientation of WHO and many governments could have caused difficulties.
Many experts believe that governments were reluctant to recommend face coatings because they feared there would be a shortage of PPE equipment for medical workers, but by suggesting that they were ineffective at preventing transmission, they now sound inconsistent.
“Mixed messages, not being transparent about the data, or how the government makes certain policy decisions, can undermine confidence” and make it harder to convince people to now cover their faces, says the professor. Lavoie.
Howard believes that many governments in the West were slow to act on the masks until they were severely affected by the pandemic.
However, he thinks Boris Johnson and Donald Trump can have a positive impact now by wearing masks publicly.
“The role models are absolutely real,” he says, and since Trump wore a mask, “many people who were previously anti-mask now say it was patriotic for him.”
This is especially important now that the United States is experiencing a new wave of infections, he adds.
