Scotland and face masks - how when there are none?

[Deleted User]

Aerosols, the crucial missing link

"This is really the most crucial question in the fight against the spread of the virus. The answer will have a huge impact on developments, not only in the coming months, but also in the years to come. Are aerosols playing an important role in the infection with the virus, or not?

WHO and RIVM say they do not, or hardly do. This means that the entire control policy is aimed at keeping people at a distance from each other (1.5 meters in the Netherlands). And if you (professionally) come close to an infected person, you wear optimal protection.

As I have indicated in many of my blogs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), supported by many scientific papers since 2004, there is another important way in which people can become infected. That is through micro-drops (aerosols), which under certain circumstances continue to float in indoor spaces. People, who are present in these spaces, run an enormous risk of being infected by them."

[continues...]

[Deleted User]

Face Masks for the General Public

May 4, 2020

An earlier version of this document was communicated to SAGE in April 2020.

Summary

Face masks could offer an important tool for contributing to the management of community transmission of Covid19 within the general population. Evidence supporting their potential effectiveness comes from analysis of: (1) the incidence of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission; (2) the role of respiratory droplets in transmission, which can travel as far as 1-2 meters; and (3) studies of the use of homemade and surgical masks to reduce droplet spread. Our analysis suggests that their use could reduce onward transmission by asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic wearers if widely used in situations where physical distancing is not possible or predictable, contrasting to the standard use of masks for the protection of wearers. If correctly used on this basis, face masks, including homemade cloth masks, can contribute to reducing viral transmission.

https://rs-delve.github.io/reports/2020/05/04/face-masks-for-the-general-public.html

[Deleted User]

Here's an academic paper:

Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic

cognoscenti

Poster_586329 said:

Here's an academic paper:

Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thanks, it makes for interesting reading.
I do however note the following from the beginning of "Background" on Page 3:

A recent Cochrane meta-analysis found that masking, handwashing, and using gowns and/or gloves can reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, although evidence for any individual one of these measures is still of low certainty

In other words (and still), "we think face coverings are a good idea but there is no hard evidence to support this."

[Deleted User]

A good mask is still hard to find!:

Europe suspends delivery of 10m faulty Chinese face masks

The European commission has suspended the delivery of 10 million face masks from China after two countries complained about the poor quality of the batches they received, the Associated Press reports.

As part of its efforts to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, this month the commission, the European Union’s executive arm, started dispatching the masks to health care workers in its 27 member states and the UK.

After a first batch of 1.5 million masks was shipped to 17 states, Poland’s health minister, Lukasz Szumowski, said the 600,000 items his country received did not have European certificates and failed to comply with the medical standards required for their distribution.

“We have decided to suspend future deliveries of these masks,” the commission’s health spokesman, Stefan De Keersmaecker, said. “We will then see what action needs to be taken if there is indeed a quality problem with these masks.”

According to De Keersmaecker, the Netherlands has identified similar problems.

The whole stock of masks was purchased from a Chinese provider via a EU fund.

“If necessary we will of course take any necessary legal action,” De Keersmaecker said.