MANY countries around the world recommend that people wear masks in public as part of their strategy to curb the pandemic. We look at why some people do not wear masks and discuss what scientific evidence says about wearing them.
Since the start of the Covid-19pandemic, scientists and other experts have debated whether the general public should wear face masks and whether these masks should be medical grade masks or homemade face coverings.
Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, have made wearing a face covering on public transport mandatory.
The World Health Organization (WHO) long shied away from such recommendations, maintaining that only healthcare professionals, those who currently have the new coronavirus, as well as those caring from them at home, wear medical grade masks.
But in early June, the WHO released a list of recommendations suggesting the most appropriate types of masks to wear in a variety of settings. This included the use of non-medical masks in crowded places and public transport.
These claims represent the essence of the argument around whether to wear a mask. The primary aim of asking the general public to wear masks where physical distancing is not possible is not to protect the wearer.
Instead, this public health measure aims to stop people with a SARS-CoV-2 infection who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic from transmitting the virus. Experts refer to this as source control.
Rather than protecting the wearer, source control seeks to block the release of virus-laden droplets into the air that surrounds the person wearing the mask.
‘NO EVIDENCE’ THAT VITAMIN D CAN PREVENT OR TREAT COVID-19: A review from health experts in the United Kingdom has found no evidence that vitamin D deficiency is an independent risk factor for Covid-19. However, the country’s National Health Service recommends taking a daily vitamin D supplement to compensate for any lack of sunlight exposure during lockdown.
Vitamin D is vital for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. There is also some evidence that it may help protect against viral respiratory infections and play a regulatory role in the body’s immune response.
This has led to a proposal that taking vitamin D supplements could help prevent or even treat Covid-19, the primarily respiratory disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2.
