Masks and Face Coverings for the Lay Public

Czypionka, Thomas; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Bassler, Dirk; Bryant, Manuel B

doi:10.7326/m20-6625

Cited by 73 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Discomfort including poor fit, ear pain, and difficulty breathing has been reported before [ 32 ]. Evidence suggests that the potential benefits of wearing masks are likely to outweigh the potential harms of the spread of Covid-19 within a community [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community practice of using face masks for the prevention of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

Naam¹,

Elsafi²,

Alkharraz³

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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Community face masking is possibly of great value in reducing COVID-19 transmission, especially when universally adopted with high compliance. The aim of this study is to investigate the knowledge, common misconceptions, barriers, and the compliance of the community with the use of face masks for the prevention of COVID-19. A validated questionnaire was administered to the participants through a web link by using various social media. The collected data were statistically analyzed for significant differences according to demographic variables. The average knowledge of face masks and their role in preventing COVID-19 transmission was 95.64%, with no differences among most of the demographical factors. Older groups and females demonstrated a better attitude towards wearing face masks than other groups did (p<0.001). Another significant difference in the participant’s attitude was noticed between the various educational levels, employment, and nationality (p<0.001). Of the total respondents, 88.2% encouraged wearing face masks. Misconceptions about wearing face masks were very low. The frequency of wearing face masks at public places, workplaces, or social gatherings was 87.2%, 80.5%, and 47.5% respectively. There was a significant variation in the compliance with wearing face masks between the various groups based on age, gender, nationality, and employment status (p<0.001). The inconvenience in wearing face masks was reported by 36.3%. Face irritation and ear pain were reported by 70.2% and 43.5%, respectively. The inconvenience of wearing face masks with eyeglasses was reported by 44.3% of those wearing eyeglasses. In general, the study demonstrated a good attitude among participants towards wearing face masks. Although the respondents in the study were aware of the benefits of wearing face masks, the barriers may have decreased their desire to do so. These barriers include difficulty in breathing, discomfort, face irritation, and ear pain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community practice of using face masks for the prevention of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

Naam¹,

Elsafi²,

Alkharraz³

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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“…Some uncertainties still exist regarding the wearing of face masks and coverings as a measure to prevent or mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission. There are COVID-19 research opportunities to obtain direct and actionable evidence on the effectiveness of specific cloth face covering designs in community scenarios, extended use and reuse of cloth face coverings, the impact of diverse approaches to mask adoption, alternatives that are more comfortable and more environmentally friendly, downsides of masking, additive effectiveness of cloth face coverings and face shields in the community, and attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward masking in the long term [ 57 , 59 , 510 , 517 , 524 ].…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 false dichotomies and a comprehensive review of the evidence regarding public health, COVID-19 symptomatology, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mask wearing, and reinfection

et al. 2021

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Scientists across disciplines, policymakers, and journalists have voiced frustration at the unprecedented polarization and misinformation around coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Several false dichotomies have been used to polarize debates while oversimplifying complex issues. In this comprehensive narrative review, we deconstruct six common COVID-19 false dichotomies, address the evidence on these topics, identify insights relevant to effective pandemic responses, and highlight knowledge gaps and uncertainties. The topics of this review are: 1) Health and lives vs. economy and livelihoods, 2) Indefinite lockdown vs. unlimited reopening, 3) Symptomatic vs. asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, 4) Droplet vs. aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2, 5) Masks for all vs. no masking, and 6) SARS-CoV-2 reinfection vs. no reinfection. We discuss the importance of multidisciplinary integration (health, social, and physical sciences), multilayered approaches to reducing risk (“Emmentaler cheese model”), harm reduction, smart masking, relaxation of interventions, and context-sensitive policymaking for COVID-19 response plans. We also address the challenges in understanding the broad clinical presentation of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. These key issues of science and public health policy have been presented as false dichotomies during the pandemic. However, they are hardly binary, simple, or uniform, and therefore should not be framed as polar extremes. We urge a nuanced understanding of the science and caution against black-or-white messaging, all-or-nothing guidance, and one-size-fits-all approaches. There is a need for meaningful public health communication and science-informed policies that recognize shades of gray, uncertainties, local context, and social determinants of health.

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“…Yet, aerosolswhich can keep the virus under airborne conditions for a very long time, even outdoors (Zhang et al, 2020) are likely to be a major transmission route in the case of SARS-CoV-2 (Dumont-Leblond et al, 2020;Lieber et al, 2021). Controversy in the domain is very damaging as it resulted in a large number of inappropriate recommendations about the wearing of masks (Czypionka et al, 2020). Failing to appreciate the importance of this route is a major risk for the virus to perpetuate itself, creating dangerous variants in the long term.…”

Section: Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS‐CoV‐2 biology and variants: anticipation of viral evolution and what needs to be done

Luo

Delaunay‐Moisan

Timmis

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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to transmission (viral epidemiology) and disease data (patient clinical data), and the population granularities of these. In this editorial, we explore key facets of viral biology and the influence of relevant aspects of human polymorphisms, human behaviour, geography and climate and, based on this, derive a series of recommendations to monitor viral evolution and predict the types of variants that are likely to arise.

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Masks and Face Coverings for the Lay Public

Cited by 73 publications

References 80 publications

Community practice of using face masks for the prevention of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

Community practice of using face masks for the prevention of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

COVID-19 false dichotomies and a comprehensive review of the evidence regarding public health, COVID-19 symptomatology, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mask wearing, and reinfection

SARS‐CoV‐2 biology and variants: anticipation of viral evolution and what needs to be done

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