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    • Jun 21, 2020
    • 4 min read

The mask debate - there’s nothing light about it.

The COVID-19 pandemic that started in December 2019 has affected many things around the world. There are virtually no places on the planet which have not been affected by the virus in one way or another. First of all, and most importantly, many people have died from the infection and they keep dying. The magnitude of this first fact is so extreme that everything else pales in comparison.


Nevertheless here are other examples of what COVID-19 has caused:


Protective guidelines recommended by various health organisations include: (i) social distancing (even now), (ii) frequent hand washing, and (iii) wearing protective masks in public. The latter has been a subject of debate from the beginning of the pandemic and the effectiveness of this action remains unclear today. In this post we are discussing what science tells us about masks. Should we or should we not wear them? Even at the time of writing this post (mid June 2020) there’s no definite answer to this question. Which surprises many, because this topic has been discussed and commented on by everyone, from prominent scientists to tv personalities. It’s obvious that we should not be taking scientific advice from non specialists, but even scientists who work on this very topic have come to ambiguous conclusions.


Science - slow and steady.


We discussed in our previous post that the official recommendations about wearing masks have changed during the pandemic. Back in March 2020 we were told that we should not wear them. Later on the paradigm shifted and the officials told us that wearing a mask “should be a very regular part of how we prevent the spread of infection”. Now some people say that masks are crucial to stopping the virus while others insist that masks are absolutely useless. Who is right? And why haven’t we still figured it out?


Science isn’t fast, it takes time, resources, precision, and replicates - lots of replicates.

The reality is that we still don’t have robust scientific studies which conclusively support one argument or the other. Science isn’t fast, it takes time, resources, precision, and replicates-lots of replicates. There is a huge difference between being able to make an educated guess and be able to say something for certain. Sometimes it is better to admit that we don’t know something, that the data is inconclusive than to state something with confidence which may end up being incorrect. Overconfidence may lead to unnecessary complications and most importantly it may cost human lives.


Types of masks


Studies have demonstrated that medical masks, if worn correctly, are effective at preventing transmission of the virus (additional studies here and here). However, there is currently a serious shortage of these masks and healthcare organizations strongly recommend that we leave these masks for medical professionals who have to deal with the highest viral pressure and they need all the protection available to do their jobs. This means the most responsible option for non-healthcare workers would be to wear cloth masks and here’s where the data gets less clear. Reports on the usefulness of cloth masks are extremely inconclusive. Some experts suggest that they do work (link1, link2), but not as well as medical masks. Others argue that homemade fabric masks are entirely useless (link, link).

In addition to the actual scientific studies on the potential of masks to reduce the virus threat, people are also discussing the social and psychological aspects of mask-wearing. Some experts believe that wearing any sort of mask will remind you not to touch your face which is certainly a good thing. Other scientists suggest that in certain situations wearing a mask may be worse than not wearing one. Having a cloth mask may give people a false sense of protection which leads to not following the social distancing rules and being less aware of the situation in general. On top of that, most of us are just not used to wearing masks in our day to day lives. Which means that they make us uncomfortable. There is evidence that the coronavirus can survive on/in a mask for up to 7 days. After wearing a mask for a prolonged period of time, we may touch it for some adjustments, then we may touch our eyes because a bug flew in there and then BAM, before you know it, the virus is in our system.


The most sensible approach would be to keep wearing a cloth mask … but act like you’re not wearing one.

Conclusions


Given all this inconclusive and sometimes contradictory information, should we be wearing a mask and if so, which one?


If we imagine a hypothetical situation with unlimited medical masks available, then yes, everyone should probably wear one. It has been scientifically proven that medical masks do prevent the spread of the virus, so if there were plenty of them available, there would be no reason to go without wearing them. However, this is not the case. The supply of these medical masks is very limited and they obviously should go to those who need them most - health workers.


Based on what we know today, cloth masks appear not to do much. To the best of our knowledge there are no studies that prove that wearing a cloth mask is inherently harmful. However, given their relative ineffectiveness at filtering viral particles, we should assume that they can’t protect us. This is why we believe that the most sensible approach to this would be to wear a cloth mask … but act like you’re not wearing one.


Social (physical) distancing > cloth masks


Science Vs advises to assume that wearing a mask won’t prevent you from getting infected, and keep following other implemented guidelines, i.e. social distancing, not touching your face, and washing hands. This approach seems to be the most reasonable under current circumstances.



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