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There seems to be another very important argument in favor of the use of masks in the control of the coronavirus epidemic:
The use of masks may not only reduce the rate of new infections, but also help reduce the severity of the disease and ensure that a greater proportion of emerging diseases are asymptomatic. The latter is believed to be due to the mask reducing the amount of incoming virus particles.
– can be read in Béla Merkely’s summary at semmelweis.hu. If this hypothesis is confirmed, it is possible that the use of an all-encompassing mask is a kind of “variolation” that can generate immunity.
The word variation comes from the Latin name for smallpox and covers a procedure in which an individual exposed to smallpox is “inoculated” with a substance obtained from smallpox into the bladder of a sick person with the intention of surviving the infection with symptoms. mild and develop later. out of immunity to it. The variolation was only used until the smallpox vaccine was discovered, which finally eradicated the disease from the soil, explains the rector.
We already know that the use of masks, by preventing various respiratory virus particles from entering the nasal and oral cavities, can protect the user from possible infection. Recent virological, epidemiological, and ecological data have led to the hypothesis that that a mouth mask can also reduce the severity of the disease in infected people. This hypothesis is consistent with the old theory that the severity of the disease is proportional to the number of viruses entered.
“If the number of viral particles determines the severity of SARS-CoV-2, the hypothesis that the use of masks reduces the number of viral particles that pass through and therefore reduces the subsequent clinical course of the disease is valid. Because masks (depending on type) can filter virus-containing aerosols, they can reduce the amount of virus that an infected person breathes out. “
If this theory is confirmed, the general use of face masks may increase the number of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.
According to the US Epidemiological Institute (CDC), the rate of asymptomatic infections was 40 percent in mid-July but is now higher than 80 percent due to general use of masks, confirming the previous hypothesis.
In countries where the use of a mask is more accepted, the rate of serious infection and death in the population is lower
– writes Béla Merkely.
Cover image source: Getty Images.
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