|
 The research, led by scientists at the Britain's Cambridge and
Greenwich Universities, suggests lockdowns alone will not stop the
resurgence of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but that even homemade
masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people
wear them in public.
"Our analyses support the immediate and universal adoption of face
masks by the public," said Richard Stutt, who co-led the study at
Cambridge.
He said combining widespread mask use with social distancing and
some lockdown measures, could be "an acceptable way of managing the
pandemic and re-opening economic activity" before the development of
an effective vaccine against COVID-19, the respiratory illness
caused by the coronavirus.
The study's findings were published in the "Proceedings of the Royal
Society A" scientific journal.
At the onset of the pandemic, scientific evidence on the
effectiveness of face masks in slowing transmission of respiratory
diseases was limited, and there was no data on COVID-19 since it was
a previously unknown disease.
But, prompted by some new research in recent weeks, the World Health
Organization said on Friday it now recommends that everyone wear
fabric face masks in public to try to reduce disease spread.
In this study, researchers linked the dynamics of spread between
people with population-level models to assess the effect on the
disease's reproduction rate, or R value, of different scenarios of
mask adoption combined with periods of lockdown.
[to top of second column] |
The R value measures the average number of people that one infected person will
pass the disease on to. An R value above 1 can lead to exponential growth.
The study found that if people wear masks whenever they are in public it is
twice as effective at reducing the R value than if masks are only worn after
symptoms appear.
In all scenarios the study looked at, routine face mask use by 50% or more of
the population reduced COVID-19 spread to an R of less than 1.0, flattening
future disease waves and allowing for less stringent lockdowns.
Experts not directly involved in the latest British study were divided over its
conclusions.
Brooks Pollock, a Bristol University infectious disease modelling expert, said
the likely impact of masks could be much smaller than predicted. Trish
Greenhalgh, an Oxford University professor, said the findings were encouraging
and suggested masks "are likely to be an effective population measure".
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Alex Richardson)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
