Masks have been in the Covid 19 news because of the continued insistence by President Trump not to wear one.
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I saw a TV interview of Dr. Fauci who said that in Mac, he was not very forceful in advocating the wearing of masks in the US because there was a shortage of all types of masks in the US and he did not want to have the public compete with the healthcare workers over them.
He of course now wears masks and recommends one despite what President Trump thinks.
According to the Mayo Clinic, at the start of the pandemic experts didn't yet know the extent to which people with Covid-19 could spread the virus before symptoms appeared. Nor was it known that some people have Covid-19 but don't have any symptoms. Both groups can unknowingly spread the virus to others.
These discoveries led the U.S. CDC to do an about-face (pun intended) and have since updated its guidance to recommend widespread use of simple cloth face coverings.
So how widespread is this wearing of face masks?
YouGov (Yes, the same company that I featured in my 15 June post had a public opinion survey for 26 countries on wearing masks and the results around the end of May/early June are as follows:
Top 5 countries for wearing masks.
|
Country |
% of
people who say that they wear masks in public places |
|
Singapore |
92 % |
|
Hong
Kong |
87 % |
|
Thailand |
86 % |
|
Malaysia |
85 % |
|
Italy |
85 % |
Bottom 5 countries in terms of wearing masks
|
Country |
% of
people who say that they wear masks in public places |
|
Denmark |
3 % |
|
Sweden |
4 % |
|
Norway |
5 % |
|
Australia |
17 % |
|
UK |
21 % |
Surprisingly, about 69 % of the population in the US said that they wear masks. This is very much different from looking at President Trump's rallies.
The really interesting thing is how the % of Malaysian, Singaporean and even the US who said that they wear masks have increased over the past few months as can be seen from the chart below
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| % Wearing mask; Source YouGov |
Of course, I wear a mask when going out not because I have Covid, but hopefully to prevent catching one as we all know that we cannot social distance all the time.
So I hope that in such “forced close contact” situations the mask offers me some protection.
The other reason I wear a mask is to prevent me from touching my face.
I had a posting some time back about how we can get infected by touching surfaces where the virus has landed. (Refer to my 20 June post.) So if we touch our eyes, nose, and mouth after touching a contaminated surface, we are at risk of getting infected.
But keeping our hands off our faces is easier said than done. In fact, a recent study found that we touch our eyes, nose, and mouth more than 20 times an hour.
I saw a medical article to say that we cannot prevent this because
- It starts in the womb. It is also the first sign of sensory nerves developing in the face.
- Touching our faces is a reflex.
- It is an unconscious habit
- It is a form of communication eg when we’re surprised or scared, we might put our hands over our mouths
- Touching our faces is a calming mechanism that engages the senses.
So how do you stop, or at least limit this behavior?
Wearing a mask is one way
Wearing gloves is another way.
But I prefer wearing masks as it is more convenient than gloves.
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PS: This blog is for me to better understand COVID 19 as this will impact my investments. If you are also into equities, follow me at i4value.asia.
Disclaimer: I am not an epidemiologist, healthcare worker, pharmacist, or staff in the Ministry of Health, but rather is someone with a strong interest in numerical analysis. The content is an attempt to understand what is happening in the battle against COVID 19 from a data-based perspective. The opinions expressed here are based on information extracted from readily available public sources but I do not warrant its completeness or accuracy and should not be relied on as such.
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