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All your questions about face masks answered.
There is a growing consensus that covering our mouths and noses could be an important weapon in our battle against Covid-19.
Throughout this week, the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has been discussing facial masks before Ireland moves to step one of a five-stage exit from the closure on Monday.
The Medical Director, Dr. Tony Holohan, is expected to recommend that we all start wearing masks while shopping in supermarkets, using public transportation, and perhaps in other situations as well.
Will the Irish public join this?
That remains to be seen. According to a recent opinion poll, 21 percent of us already wear masks, but only 28 percent say we will if the government advises.
However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already promised that it is not that they are mandatory.
Why has it taken Ireland so long to create a mask policy?
According to the Taoiseach, it is because medical experts differ.
The World Health Organization has been lukewarm about masks, claiming that they are necessary only for people who actually have Covid-19 or who are caring for patients with coronavirus.
This is directly contradicted by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which says that masks can also help healthy people.
“It is not one of those direct decisions where science tells you what to do,” Varadkar argued last month.
What is the case of masks?
Simply put, supporters believe they can stop the drops caused by coughing or dry sneezing.
Wearing a mask may not protect you, as particles flying through the air at high speed will often penetrate you.
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Three-day-old Kengo Saito wears a visor to protect himself against the Covid-19 coronavirus while his mother Ayumi hugs him. (Photo by Carl Court / Getty Images)
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However, the cover should protect other people from its drops if you are infected.
Since it can take days for Covid-19 symptoms to appear, many scientists believe it is common sense for everyone to wear masks, whether they feel sick or not.
“You want the closure to finally end, don’t you?” Trinity College biochemistry professor Luke O’Neill asked in a recent article.
“Wear a face mask. Make a fashion statement. Wear one of your team colors. You will care about others and, yes, science says it all: face masks will speed up the end of this block.”
What about the arguments against?
Skeptics point out that there have been very few clinical trials with masks and Covid-19, meaning that their value remains unproven. In fact, the masks could even help spread the virus if users fail to clean them properly or then touch their faces.
Above all, there is a danger that masks may induce people to a false sense of security and cause them to neglect basic precautions: washing hands, cleaning surfaces, and staying within two meters of others.
Are all the masks more or less the same?
No, they fall into three main categories.
Cloth masks are the most basic and can be made at home with old sheets or T-shirts.
Surgical masks contain non-woven fabric for added protection, but should only be used once, making them environmentally friendly.
At the top end of the scale, doctors and nurses often wear N95 respirators while performing difficult medical procedures.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) is encouraging us all to stick with cloth masks and leave others for health professionals who need them urgently.
If I don’t want to make my own mask, how easy is it to buy them?
It’s about to get a lot easier. During the early days of Covid-19, there were reports of price increases in areas where the masks had almost run out.
Now the market is flooding, with Lidl offering them at cost price (€ 43.30 for a pack of 50) and companies like Irish start-up company Measc promising to manufacture tens of thousands at less than a euro each.
For fashionistas, more stylish liners are available from luxury brands like Prada and Gucci.
How does Ireland’s mask policy compare to the rest of the world?
Basically, we are playing to catch up. For several weeks, masks have been used almost universally in Asian countries with low infection rates, such as South Korea and Taiwan.
Europe is moving rapidly in that direction, with Germany, France and Spain making them mandatory in public places. The UK has started recommending people to wear masks indoors, but not for exercise.
In the United States, things are a little more confusing. The country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans wear masks, and they are mandatory for White House staff, where two cases of Covid-19 were confirmed.
President Donald Trump, however, refuses to use one, reportedly because he fears it will make him look ridiculous.
“Wearing a face mask while I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens?” Trump said last month. “I just don’t see it.”
Could the formation of a new government make any difference to mask politics?
If anything, it could make them an even more central feature of Ireland’s fight against this disease. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who is expected to become Taoiseach in a few weeks, has expressed great enthusiasm for the masks, and recently discussed them with her sister-in-law in Singapore.
“He’s been screaming at me metaphorically on the phone, ‘Why aren’t they wearing masks?'” He revealed this week.
Finally, will the introduction of face mask guidelines by Ireland change the game or is it being done primarily for optics?
Like much more to do with this pandemic, it may be years before we know the full truth.
For now, the only certainty is that Covid-19 functions as an invisible assassin, and covering our faces is a powerful symbol of Ireland’s determination to defeat it.
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