Make Masks Compulsory in Crowded or Poorly Ventillated Areas
Make Masks Compulsory in Crowded or Poorly Ventillated Areas
Why this petition matters
Masks or Vaccination or Social Distancing
I got this idea from this article about Slovakia on 28th April 2020.
In late February, medical doctors in Slovakia paved the way for a larger, nation-wide debate, depicting the very alarming consequences of a coronavirus pandemic, approaching the subject in several blogs; they actively emphasised that if we all wore a facemask, the effect might be similar to that of collective immunity after vaccination.
The article above therefore reports that doctors in Slovakia equates wearing of masks with vaccination.
Other articles imply the same story on April 11, 2020:
https://www.today.com/health/how-long-will-we-need-wear-masks-t178176
In an interview with TODAY, Soe-Lin, an immunologist by training, elaborated on her comments.
"I think that you're going to need to wear masks for as long as COVID is a threat, and COVID is going to be a threat until you have a vaccine," Soe-Lin said. "If you read different plans for re-opening the economy, the plan is to really put a chokehold on (the virus) and only open the economy when the number of cases has fallen to a level that the hospitals can manage ... but masks would still be an important thing to cut down on transmission until you have a vaccine."
As far as 2015 many hospitals have a policy to allow replacement of vaccination with masks:
2.Do other hospitals have similar policies?
•In 2013, vaccinate-or-mask policies were in place in one of two New Brunswick Health Authorities, all British Columbia Health Authorities, and 13 acute care hospitals in Ontario. •All TAHSN hospitals believe that vaccination is the best way to ensure patients and staff are as safe as possible. However, each hospital is implementing in a way that takes into account its individual circumstances.
Masks can stop Covid 19
In an article in nature on 2 April 2020:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00974-w
“In the mind of scientists working on this, there’s absolutely no doubt that the virus spreads in the air,” says aerosol scientist Lidia Morawska at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. “This is a no-brainer.”
Cautious approach
The assumption should be that airborne transmission is possible unless experimental evidence rules it out, not the other way around, says Tang. That way people can take precautions to protect themselves, he says.
Increasing ventilation indoors and not recirculating air can go some way to ensuring that infectious aerosols are diluted and flushed out, says Morawska. Indoor meetings should be banned just in case, she says.
Meanwhile, Lan and others are calling for the public to wear masks to reduce transmission. Masks are ubiquitous in many countries in Asia. In the United States and some European countries, however, health officials have discouraged people from wearing them, in part because supplies are low and health-care workers need them. The Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, have made it mandatory for people to wear masks outside the home. Tang thinks those countries have taken the right approach. “They are following the southeast Asia approach. If everyone can mask, it is double, two-way protection,” he says
Even opponents admit that masks are effective. The reason for opposing the mandatory wearing of masks is that masks are not sufficient.
But Cowling thinks masks should be recommended for the public only after supplies have been secured for health-care workers, people with symptoms, and vulnerable populations such as the elderly.
That argument is not valid because any mask will reduce infection much better than no masks at all. Even vaccination are not 100% effective as admitted by WHO and US CDC. Similarly for social distancing.
https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/index2.html
First, no vaccine is 100% effective. To make vaccines safer than the disease, the bacteria or virus is killed or weakened (attenuated). For reasons related to the individual, not all vaccinated persons develop immunity.
Masks equal Social Distancing
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/04/15/health-dg-wear-mask-and-practise-social-distancing
The Malaysian Health DG does not appear to equate mask as equivalent to social distancing in the article above on the 15th of April, 2020.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11410043/face-masks-effective-as-social-distancing/
Similar to the opinion of the Health Secretary Matt Hancock's of UK.
However in the same article, an expert disputes that statement.
University of San Francisco data scientists Jeremy Howard, who recently led a global review panel on the effectiveness of masks, said face masks are critical to fight COVID-19.
He told ITV's Peston: "The evidence does not show at all what (Mr Hancock) claimed."
"It actually looks a lot like (face masks) could be one of our most important tools."
Jeremy Howard, the expert in data, has led a global review panel on the effectiveness of masks.
Jeremy #Masks4All Howard @jeremyphoward
We've just completed a 19-author analysis of the effectiveness of mask wearing, with 84 references. To explain what the science shows, I teamed up with the wonderful Prof @trishgreenhalgh CBE, who just led a British Medical Journal study on this.
The Journal can be read here:
https://www.fast.ai/2020/04/13/masks-summary/
A natural experiment is when we study something that is really happening – for example when a country introduces a policy of wearing masks. South Korea, for example, had rapid community spread that tracked the trajectory in Italy in the initial weeks. Then, in late February 2020, the government provided a regular supply of masks to every citizen. From that point, everything changed. As Italy’s death count accelerated to horrific levels, South Korea’s actually started decreasing. Here’s South Korea’s number of reported cases (red), and Italy’s (blue); take a close look at what happened in early March, as the impact of the mask distribution kicked in (this South Korean analysis is thanks to Hyokon Zhiang and visualization by Reshama Shaikh:
The behavioral science of mask wearing
Some have claimed that making (or strongly encouraging) people to wear masks will encourage risky behavior (Brosseau et al. 2020) (for example, going out more, washing hands less), with a net negative result, and this effect was seen in some experimental trials of masks. Similar arguments have previously been made for HIV prevention strategies (Cassell et al. 2006; Rojas Castro, Delabre, and Molina 2019) and motorcycle helmet laws (Ouellet 2011). However, real-world research on these topics found that even though some individuals responded with risky behavior, at a population level there was an overall improvement in safety and well-being (Peng et al. 2017; Houston and Richardson 2007).
The economics of mask-wearing
Economic analyses consider how much it costs to provide masks with how much value (both financial and non-financial) might be created – and, potentially, lost – if they are provided. Such economic studies (Abaluck et al. 2020) indicate that each mask worn by one person (which costs almost nothing) could generate economic benefits of thousands of dollars and save many lives.
Conclusion
Whilst not every piece of scientific evidence supports mask-wearing, most of it points in the same direction. Our assessment of this evidence leads us to a clear conclusion: keep your droplets to yourself – wear a mask.
There is no evidence that your mask needs to be made with any particular expertise or care to be effective for source control. You can put a cloth mask in the laundry and reuse it, just like you re-use a t-shirt.
Any mask is a replacement for vaccination.
The above journal article concludes that any mask is good for preventive purposes, which is the purpose of vaccination in the first place.
Even CDC of USA recommends wearing of any mask when you are sick on May 2, 2020:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html
If you are sick wear a cloth covering over your nose and mouth
You should wear a cloth face covering, over your nose and mouth if you must be around other people or animals, including pets (even at home)
You don’t need to wear the cloth face covering if you are alone. If you can’t put on a cloth face covering (because of trouble breathing, for example), cover your coughs and sneezes in some other way. Try to stay at least 6 feet away from other people. This will help protect the people around you.
Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2 years, anyone who has trouble breathing, or anyone who is not able to remove the covering without help.
Note: During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical grade facemasks are reserved for healthcare workers and some first responders. You may need to make a cloth face covering using a scarf or bandana.
Because COVID19 does not show any symptom most of the time, wearing of masks during the pandemic is therefore compulsory for preventive purposes, which is the purpose of vaccination in the first place.
According to CDC of USA on April 15, 2020:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-risk-assesment-hcp.html
Recent experience with outbreaks in nursing homes has reinforced that residents and HCP with COVID-19 frequently do not report typical symptoms such as fever or respiratory symptoms and some may not report any symptoms. Unrecognized asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections likely contribute to transmission in these and other healthcare settings.
This observation is also supported by the Health Director of Sabah on May 1, 2020:
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/151749/47pc-sabah-covid-19-patients-get-virus-from-asymptomatic-cases/
Kota Kinabalu: About 47 per cent of COVID-19 patients in Sabah have close contact with asymptomatic cases during the early stage of infection, said Sabah health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.
Decision-Makers
All governments of the world