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In light of compelling research evidence that face masks are a great tool to stop the community spread of COVID-19, a group of scientists from around the world has come together to issue an open letter promoting the use of masks by part of the public.
Arguing that the simple task of wearing a mask reduces transmissibility and therefore mortality, scientists have lobbied them to wear masks, even defining them as any facial covering, as a key public health intervention.
The coordinators of the statement are Jeremy Howard, research scientist at the University of San Francisco, co-founder of fast.ai, a member of the Global Economic Forum’s AI Global Council, and Vincent Rajkumar, editor-in-chief, Blood Cancer Journal. The signatories are from North America, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe.
Full text of the open letter:
We have an urgent message about some critical new scientific research. It strongly suggests that requiring the use of cloth masks in public places could be one of the most powerful tools to stop the community spread of COVID-19.
An international interdisciplinary review of scientific research by 19 experts and other recent research shows that:
- People are more infectious in the initial period of infection, when it is common to have few or no symptoms.
- Cloth masks clog a large part of the drops from the mouth and nose that spread the virus.
- Nonmedical masks have been effective in reducing coronavirus transmission.
- Cloth masks can be washed in soapy water and reused.
- Places and time periods where the use of masks is required or generalized have been shown to substantially reduce community transmission
- Using public masks is most effective in stopping the spread of the virus when the vast majority of the public wears masks.
- The laws appear to be very effective in increasing compliance and slowing or stopping the spread of COVID-19.
The preponderance of the evidence, both in the laboratory and in the clinical setting, indicates that the use of masks reduces contact transmissibility by reducing the transmission of infected drops. Decreased communicability could substantially reduce death toll, other public health damage, job loss, and economic loss. The cost of such masks is very low in comparison.
The modeling suggests that the widespread use of public masks, along with other measures, could bring the effective number of reproduction (R) below 1.0, thus halting the growth of the pandemic.
Therefore, we ask that government officials demand Cloth masks for use in all public places, such as shops, transportation systems, and public buildings, as soon as possible. This action will prevent infectious people from spreading the disease without knowing it.
We also ask business leaders who offer products and services to the public to require their employees and customers to wear masks, whether required by local law. This vital step will help protect workers and customers.
These requirements will greatly increase the rate of use of masks. This should be done in conjunction with, not as a substitute for hand hygiene, physical distance, testing, and contact locating strategies.
This requirement should be introduced along with clear guidelines for the production, use, and disinfection or reuse of face masks. We urge you to also consider their distribution as scarcity allows.
There is no need to wait for the availability of medical grade masks; Any covering of the face, including a cloth, scarf, kerchief, T-shirt, or paper towel, appears to be effective.
To be honest,
Organizing signatories
Jeremy Howard: Distinguished Research Scientist, University of San Francisco, co-founder fast.ai, member of the World Economic Council of the World IA Council
Dr. Vincent Rajkumar: Editor-in-Chief, Blood Cancer Journal
North American Signatories
Dr. Harold Varmus: Nobel Prize-winning virologist; Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine; former Director, NIH and NCI
Dr. Bengt Holmström: Nobel Prize winning economist; Professor of Economics, MIT
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee: Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; Time 100 most influential people; The best-selling author
Dr. Eric Topol: Director, Scripps Research Translation Institute; Executive Vice President and Professor, Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research; The best-selling author
Dr. Robert Wachter: Professor, Chair of Medicine, UCSF; Chairman of the Advisory Board, Healthcare Improvement Studies, Univ of Cambridge; The best-selling author
Dr. Anne W. Rimoin: Professor, Department of Epidemiology; Director, UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health; Director, UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program
Dr. Erik Brynjolfsson: Professor, MIT Sloan; Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; The best-selling author.
Dr. Diana Romero: Editor-in-Chief, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
Dr. Sagar Lonial: President and Professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology; Anne and Bernard Gray, Chair of Family in Cancer; Medical Director, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine.
Dr. Albert Icksang Ko: Professor, Epidemiology and Medicine, Chair, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health
Dr. Christina Ramirez: Professor of Biostatistics, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
Dr. Carlo Brugnara: Editor-in-Chief, American Journal of Hematology
Dr. Michael Picard: Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
Dr. Jeff Drazen: Professor of Medicine, Harvard
Dr. Monica Bertagnolli: President, Board of Directors, American Society for Clinical Oncology; Group President, Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
Dr. Yann Le Cun: Professor of Computer Science and Data Science, NYU; IA Chief Scientist, Facebook; Laureate Turing 2019
Dr. Edith Mitchell: Former President of the National Medical Association; Professor, Thomas Jefferson University
Dr. Corey Cutler: Medical Director, Stem Cell Transplantation, Harvard Medical School
Dr. De Kai: Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Distinguished Academic Researcher, Berkeley; Founding member, Association for Computational Linguistics
Dr. Charles Ericsson: Professor and Head of Infectious Diseases, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas
Dr. Ann Prestipin: Senior Vice President, COVID Response, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Noopur Raje: Professor, Harvard Medical School; Director of the Multiple Myeloma Center, Chair of Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Dr. Navneet Majhail: Immediate Past President, American Society for Transplantation and Cell Therapy
Dr. Christopher Manning: Professor of Linguistics and Informatics, Stanford
Dr. Ruvandhi Nathavitharana: Vice President, TB Test; Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases Division Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School
Dr. Edward Nardell: Professor, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Gregg Gonsalves: Assistant Professor, Epidemiology, Yale; Co-director, World Association for Health Justice; Co-director, Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency
Dr. David McAdams: Professor, Business Administration (Fuqua School of Business) and Economics, Duke University
Dr. Walt de Heer, Regent Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Lin Chen: Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School;, Director of the Travel Medicine Center, Mount Auburn Hospital
Dr. Marc Suchard: Professor of Human Genetics, Biostatistics and Biomathematics, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Marietje Schaake: International Policy Director, Center for Cyber Policy, Stanford; Member of the European Parliament (MEP) 2009-2019
Dr. Michael Joyner: Anesthesiologist and Principal Investigator, Convalescent Plasma Program for COVID
Dr. Jagmeet Singh: Professor, Harvard Medical School
Dr. James Armitage: Professor of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Eric Westman: Professor, Duke University Medical Center, former president of the Obesity Medicine Association
Dr. Chadi Nabhan: Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome Sciences, University of South Carolina; President, Caris Precision Oncology Alliance
Dr. Ik-Kyung Jang: Professor of Medicine, Harvard
Dr. Anas Younes: Professor of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. James Januzzi: Professor of Medicine, Harvard; Professor, Cardiology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Vikas Sukhatme: Dean, Emory School of Medicine; Academic Director, Emory Healthcare
Dr. Barbara Murray: Former President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America; Professor of Medicine, University of Texas.
Dr. Michael Lin: Associate Professor, Neurobiology and Bioengineering, Stanford; Member of scientists to stop Covid-19
Dr. Priya Sampathkumar Infection control and infectious disease specialist
Dr. Mike Thompson: Director, Early Stage Cancer Research, Aurora Health Care
Dr. David Shlim: Former President of the International Society for Travel Medicine; Medical Director, Jackson Hole Travel and Tropical Medicine
Dr. Daniel Morgan: Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Medicine, University of Maryland.
Dr. Lee Ellis: Professor of Surgery, Molecular and Cellular Oncology
Dr. Dawd Siraj: Professor, Infectious Diseases, University of Wisconsin Madison
Dr. Michael Sauri: Clinical Professor, Occupational Medicine, Johns Hopkins and USUHS Bethesda
Dr. Amy Tan: Associate Professor, Medicine, University of Calgary
Dr. Ross Levine: Professor, Economic Analysis and Policy, UC Berkeley
Dr. Netanya Utay: Assistant Professor, Medicine, University of Texas
Dr. Avinash Sinha: Assistant Professor, Anesthesia, McGill University
Dr. Chip Lavie: Editor-in-Chief, Progress Cardiovascular Diseases; Professor and Medical Director, John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute
Dr. Lin Chen: Associate Professor, Medicine, Harvard
Dr. Katrina Armstrong: Chief Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Carlos del Rio: Professor of Medicine, Global Health and Epidemiology, Emory University.
Dr. Jordan Lake: Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, University of Texas
Anna Kaltenboeck: Program Director, Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Krishna Komanduri: President, Stem Cell Transplantation, Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami
Dr. Mark Harrington: Executive Director, Treatment Action Group
Dr. Vishal Sikka: CEO, Vianai Systems. Board of Directors, Oracle and BMW; Former CEO, Infosys
Dr. Joe Vipond: Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, University of Calgary
Dr. Jason Abaluck: Associate Professor of Economics, Yale School of Management
Dr. Miguel Perales: Chief, Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Judith Chevalier: Professor, Economics and Finance, Yale University
Dr. Lawrence Greenblatt: Professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University
Dr. Adriaan Bax: Member, National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Zeynep Tufekci: Associate Professor, Information and Library Science, UNC; Adjunct Professor, Department of Sociology; Writer: The atlantic and The New York Times
European signatories
Dr. Richard Horton: Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet; Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University College London and University of Oslo.
Dra. Magdalena Skipper: Editor-in-Chief, Nature
Dr. Martin McKee CBE: Former President of the European Association for Public Health; Professor, Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Director of the European Observatory
Dr. Trish Greenhalgh OBE: Professor, Co-Director of Interdisciplinary Research in Health Sciences, Primary Health Care Sciences, University of Oxford.
Dr. Meletios-Athanasios Dimopoulos: Rector, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Dr Jesus San-Miguel: Director, Clinical and Translational Medicine, University of Navarra
Dr. Vladimir Zdimal: Head of the Department of Aerosol Chemistry and Physics; Institute of Chemical Process Foundations of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Dr. Charles Tannock MBE: Member of the European Parliament (MEP) 1999-2019; NHS Consultant
Dr. Keertan Dheda: Professor, Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Director, Center for Lung Infection and Immunity; Head: Division of Pneumology, University of Cape Town; Professor of Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital.
Dr. KK Cheng, Director, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham
Dr. Mario Boccadoro: Director, Hematology, University of Torino
Dr. Adrian Alegre: Head of the Hematology Department, La Princesa University Hospital
Dr. David Wraith: Director, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham
Dr. Anna Sureda: Head, Department of Clinical Hematology, Catalan Institute of Oncology; President, Spanish group for stem cell transplantation and cell therapy
Dr. Miguel Sanz: Researcher Emeritus, La Fe Health Research Institute; Honorary Professor, Medicine, University of Valencia.
Dr. Carlos Solano: Professor of Medicine, University of Valencia; Director, HSCT and immune therapy program, Hospital Clínico Universitario
Dr. Jürgen Kuball: Chair, Department of Hematology, UMC Utrecht
Dr. Catherine Cordonnier: Professor and Head of Hematology, Henri Mondor University Hospital
Dr. Javier Zulueta: Director, Lung Medicine, University of Navarra Clinic
Dr. Anna Rotkirch: Research Professor, Population Research Institute, Family Federation of Finland
Dr. Key Pousttchi: Professor and former President of Business Informatics and Digitization, University of Potsdam
Dr. Chris Papadopoulos: Director of Public Health, University of Bedfordshire
Alexey Morgunov: CEO, Manifold Research; Professor at the University of Cambridge.
Dr. Christophe Rapp: President, French Society of Travel Medicine
Dr. Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen: Oxford University; TB Proof Co-Founder
Dr. Frederik Questier, Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Dr. Lucica Ditiu: Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership
African signatories
Dr. Anneke Hesseling, Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Health, University of Stellenbosch; Center Director Desmond Tutu TB
Dr. Rodney Ehrlich: Professor Emeritus, Principal Investigator, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
Dr. Shaheen Mehtar, (retired) Professor, University of Stellenbosch, President of the African Infection Control Network (ICAN)
Dr. Angela Dramowski: Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Health, Stellenbosch University
Dr. Gavin’s cemetery: CEO, Aurum Institute; Honorary Professor, University of the Witwatersrand; Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine
Dr. Arne von Delft: University of Cape Town; TB Proof Co-Founder
South American signatories
Dr. Guillermo Ruiz-Argüelles: General Director, Puebla Hematology and Internal Medicine Center
Dr. Luis Cordero: Professor, Computer Science and AI, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul; Secretary of State for Innovation, Science and Technology.
Asian signatories
Dr. Lalit Kumar: Professor and Head of Medical Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences
Dr. Lei-Han Tang, Professor, Director, Institute of Computational and Theoretical Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
Dr. Chi Chiu Leung: Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease; Chairman, Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases, Hong Kong Medical Association
Dr. Mammen Chandy: Director, Tata Medical Center
Dr. Tai Hing Lam: Associate Professor, Community Medicine, Professor of Public Health, University of Hong Kong
Dr. Mushfiq Mobarak: Scientific Director, Innovations for Action Against Poverty, Bangladesh; Yale Professor of Economics
Dr. Zhiyuan Li: Professor, Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University
Dr. Hisao Hayakawa: Professor, Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University.
Oceania Signatories
Dr. James Brown: Professor of Statistics, Sydney University of Technology
Dr. Anthony Sunjaya: Scientia Doctoral Researcher, George Institute for Global Health, UNSW Sydney
Dr. Ben Marais: Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Children’s Health, University of Sydney
Dr. Bart Willems: Co-founder, TB Proof; Public Health Medicine Specialist, Nga Tai Ora, Northland Public Health
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