Just so we know where the original mask advice and info came from in March and what it said. Basically only the sick and health workers were advised to wear masks.
Should you wear a face mask? WHO officials weigh in
This was as of 30 March 2020. UK was already in lockdown by this date.
- The World Health Organization held a media briefing to update the public on the COVID-19 outbreak. Streamed live Monday, 30 March.
- WHO officials do not recommend mask wearing for healthy members of the general population.
- Masks should be worn by those with the disease or those in close contact with those infected.
- As lockdowns become more prevalent, family spread will become more common.
To wear or not to wear? That has become the key question during the pandemic as the face mask has become a symbol of our changed lives under coronavirus. Still, months after the pandemic began to spread, many people still remain unsure about whether a mask is essential to keep them safe.
Messages differ from country to country. The US Surgeon General
pleaded with the public in February to stop buying masks, while countries such as South Korea and Japan
distributed them to the public. Recently the
Czech Republic and Slovakia even made them mandatory. World Health Organization (WHO) officials helped clarify how they recommend masks can best be deployed at a briefing on 30 March.
Who should wear a mask:
- Those who are sick. WHO officials recommended those infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus to wear masks to prevent spreading it to someone else.
- Those who are home caregivers for those who are sick. People caring for the sick should wear masks to protect themselves and to prevent further transmission throughout a family unit. Mask wearing has become critical in these situations, thanks to lockdown, said Michael J. Ryan, Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, since most of the new transmissions are happening at the family level. “In some senses,” he said, “the transmission has been taken off the streets and pushed back into the family unit.”
- Those who are frontline healthcare workers. Right now the people most at risk from this virus are frontline healthworkers who are exposed to the virus "every second of every day", Ryan also said.
WHO officials were careful to say that the agency does not criticise countries who advise wearing masks. But at the same time, the agency was quick to stress that masks are commonly misused, and as a result, won't offer the intended protections.
Continued at link.
Now I will look for and edit post with WHO current guidance.
As of 6 Jun this is the WHO guidance.
WHO updates guidance on masks - here's what you need to know
What's new:
- In areas with widespread transmission, the WHO advises medical masks for all people working in clinical areas of a health facility, not only workers dealing with patients with COVID-19. In other words, said the Director General, when doctors are doing a ward round on the cardiology or palliative care units where there are no confirmed COVID-19 patients, they should still wear a medical mask.
- In areas with community transmission, the WHO now advises that members of the general public aged 60 and older and those with underlying conditions should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is not possible.
- The general public should wear non-medical masks where there is widespread transmission and when physical distancing is difficult, such as on public transport, in shops or in other confined or crowded environments.
- Additionally, the WHO has released new guidance on cloth masks, recommending that they consist of at least three layers of different materials: an inner layer being an absorbent material like cotton, a middle layer of non-woven materials such as polypropylene (for the filter) and an outer layer, which is a non absorbent material such as a polyester or a polyester blend.
To develop the guidance, the agency consulted with a range of international experts from different countries and disciplines such as infectious diseases and epidemiology. Their review of a variety of evidence demonstrated some new findings, including that face protections, including respirators or medical masks, can result in a large reduction of transmission of coronaviruses, including COVID-19.
Recommendations, such as those regarding fabric masks, are the result of new research that the WHO commissioned that was not available a month ago. This new evidence, said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead, has shown that the recommended fabric combination "can actually provide a mechanistic barrier that if someone were infected with COVID-19, you can prevent those droplets from going through and infecting someone."
Officials acknowledged that in some countries with dense populations it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain social distancing, making masks "very important," stressed Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist, and meaning that offices, transport agencies and schools will need to examine their recommendations closely as countries lift lockdown restrictions. "Every organization, industry and sector needs to think about what are the measures that need to be put in place," said Swaminathan.
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, mask guidance has varied by country, expert and organization. Some countries have recommended non-medical masks only for sick people, while other experts have advocated for non-medical mask use by healthy members of the general public when outside of their homes. Some countries, such as the
Czech Republic and Slovakia, even made mask wearing mandatory.
The WHO had previously recommended against the wearing of medical masks by the general public given the global PPE shortage. It had been reluctant to advocate for wider usage of non-medical masks by healthy people given the lack of data available at the time.
Today, WHO officials reminded the public that masks still must be worn correctly, cared for and kept clean to ensure that they are effective. "People can infect themselves if they use contaminated hands to adjust a mask or repeatedly take it on or off," explained the Director-General.
"I cannot say this clearly enough," said the Director-General. "Masks alone will not protect you from COVID-19."
More at link relating to the previous guidance that did not change.
