freeamfva: Why Wearing a Face Mask Is Encouraged in Asia

Why Wearing a Face Mask Is Encouraged in Asia

12 Jul 2021 at 00:57

Why Wearing a Face Mask Is Encouraged in Asia


 


cheryl Man is usually the only one wearing a face mask on her New York City subway train. She notices this, but other people on the train notice, too. Usually she just gets odd stares from other commuters. But on Tuesday morning, when she was walking to school, a group of teens jeered at her and coughed in her direction.To get more news about disposable mask supplier, you can visit tnkme.com official website.
I felt very humiliated and misunderstood," says Man, a 20-year-old student and research assistant who is ethnically Chinese.


Man also feels the stigma at her workplace, where she keeps her mask on. None of her colleagues wear a face mask, and some of them have asked her if she is sick."Why do they think it's about me? It's a civic duty," she says. "If I have a mask on, and if-touch wood-I'm infected, I could cut the chain off where I am. That could save a lot of people."


That's what health experts in Hong Kong, where Man was born and raised, say, and it's advice she trusts. Nearly everyone on Hong Kong's streets, trains and buses has been wearing a mask for weeks-since news emerged of mysterious viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China that was later identified and named COVID-19. The Hong Kong government and leading health experts also recommend wearing masks as a way to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which the WHO declared a global pandemic on Wednesday.


While wearing a mask has become the norm in many places in Asia, the mask frenzy has hit nowhere as hard as Hong Kong. At the height of COVID-19 panic, residents lined up overnight outside drugstores to buy face masks. South Korea, Singapore and Japan have distributed face masks to residents. Taiwan and Thailand have banned the export of masks to meet soaring local demand.


Yet, in the U.S., wearing a face mask when healthy has become discouraged to the point of becoming socially unacceptable. The U.S. government, in line with World Health Organization recommendations, says only those who are sick, or their caregivers, should wear masks.


A tweet from Surgeon General Jerome Adams sums up the argument: "Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!"
As COVID-19 continues to spread globally, it has become clear there are two schools of thought in regards to face masks for the public.


On the one hand is the view shared by Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in Vanderbilt University's Division of Infectious Diseases, who says that medical masks commonly worn by members of the public do not fit snugly around the nose, cheeks and chin."And if there's a general recommendation that people wear face masks, we won't have enough supply for healthcare workers," he says, adding that his colleagues have already been reporting shortages. "The priority should be face masks to use in the healthcare environment, rather than in our community."


He calls the evidence supporting the effectiveness of the general public wearing masks "scanty."


But, David Hui, a respiratory medicine expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studied the 2002 to 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) extensively, says it's "common sense" that wearing a mask would protect against infectious diseases like COVID-19.


"If you are standing in front of someone who is sick, the mask will give some protection," Hui says. "The mask provides a barrier from respiratory droplets, which is predominantly how the virus spreads."


He also says that the role of a face mask may be especially important in the epidemic due to the nature of the virus. Patients with COVID-19 often have mild or even no symptoms, and some researchers believe it can also be transmitted when patients are asymptomatic-meaning patients can be contagious and don't know they're sick.



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