Those with masks in supermarkets, on public transport, in restaurants – that was in early 2020 Germany Unthinkable. Some still looked at people in Asian cities and smiled, some of them definitely wearing masks in everyday life.
Meanwhile, masks have become a part of everyday life in Germany as well – many people want to wear them for a long time to protect themselves from disease. Experts are also debating whether masks should be mandatory for long periods of time to protect against severe flu waves, for example on local public transport.
Politicians around the world, on the other hand, are increasingly relying on the easing of the mask issue. A current study based on data from the onset of the infection again emphasizes the effectiveness of the simple scale.
In countries where masks are generally worn for cultural reasons, or in countries where the government supported it at the beginning of the epidemic, it has risen by an average of 16 percent each week since the first months of 2020. Research team in researchAmerican Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In countries that do not recommend masks, the average increase was 62 percent per week.
Estimated data from 200 countries
The research team examined what factors explain the number of individual Govt 19 deaths in different countries. To do this, on May 9, 2020, Govt analyzed data from 200 countries that had deposited data on 19 deaths in publicly accessible databases. These are compared with various factors that may have affected the mortality rate.
These include, for example, population age, gender distribution, outdoor temperature, frequency of urban and overweight, and the proportion of smokers in the community. During the analysis how long the new corona virus has already been detected in a country and any reactions other than the need for a mask have been introduced, i.e. locking or large-scale testing to identify and isolate the victims as possible.
Higher mortality rates are associated with higher urbanization, which means that a greater number of people live together in the most intimate areas of cities, with the population being 60 years of age or older or obese. In contrast, where international travel restrictions or cultural norms or measures favored the wearing of masks at the beginning of the eruption, the team found a relatively low mortality rate.
In Europe, only three countries initially opted for masks
To get the greatest possible effect, it is important to note that wearing masks after the onset of the infection was recommended or used anyway for cultural reasons. As the number of victims was low at the beginning of the epidemic, the masks triggered further spread.
Countries that recommended masks to the public 15 days after the first proven corona case was effective – most likely they were Asia. The move was dismissed until April 16 or more than 60 days after the first corona case – which mostly affected western states – where the average death toll was several times higher.
As a reminder: in Germany, concealment has been mandatory since April 16th. “Most countries Europe And North America It failed to introduce the wearing of masks in the early stages of the eruption, ”the study said. In Europe, only the governments of the three states recommended that their people wear a mask within 31 days of the outbreak in the country: The Slovakia, Czech Republic As well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One reason for this is that, among other things, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised against wearing a mask at the onset of an infection. Nevertheless, some countries, especially outside Europe, used this measure. In China, by the end of January, people were mostly wearing public masks. In March, Kuwait recommended Nepal, Lithuania, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, Iran, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Austria, Cayman Islands and Mauritius Action.
The sooner the better
The analysis says 24 countries recommended masks within the first 20 days of the eruption. As of May 9, 2020, the average corona mortality rate in these states is 1.5 per million people. By comparison: the average per capita death in all the countries analyzed was 3.6 corona deaths.
The research team says the trend will last until at least August 2020:
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Of the 24 countries that began wearing public masks within 20 days of the eruption, the average Govt-19 death on August 9 was 4.7 per million people.
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Of the 17 additional countries that recommended masks within 30 days of the eruption, the average death rate on August 9 was 26.6 per million people.
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In contrast, corona personal deaths in the United States reached 502 corona deaths per million people by 2020, when wearing a mask became a political issue.
However, there is no denying that factors that experts do not take into account also affect the outcome.
“The results speak in favor of wearing public masks in general to suppress the spread of the corona virus,” the research team writes. “Due to the low corona virus mortality in Asian countries, wearing public masks at the beginning of the eruption was widespread and it is very unlikely that the masks would be harmful.”
Lack of evidence led to inaction
Ann Twitter Trisha Greenhall, a professor of health sciences at the University of Oxford’s primary care, criticized the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of the masks that led many states to do nothing.
“New drugs and vaccines cause worse side effects than disease,” he writes. “It is therefore appropriate to ask for empirical evidence of the pros-cons ratio before they are introduced.” However, critics have used the same rules inappropriately for masks. “A piece on the face does not pose the same risks as a new drug or vaccine,” he writes. But doing nothing can cause great damage.
There are currently discussions in Germany about a solution to the need for the mask. In the UK, safety measures against the corona virus are usually voluntary from Monday. In the Netherlands, the obligation to wear mouth and nose protection is often abolished, but this applies where the 1.5-meter distance cannot be maintained, for example on public transport.
“Currently, almost all countries recommend masks in crowded interiors,” the authors of the work write. For this reason, countries no longer differ on the basis of the recommendation given primarily, but on the basis of their implementation.
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