COVID-19: why do asians wear masks?
Repost from Hong Kong groups on FB.
(Personal note: Even though it's probably too late to gather masks as it is almost guaranteed you won't be able to find one in your pharmacy / Chemist Warehouse or Bunnings, as that has been flying off the shelves since early mid JAN to be hoarded or shipped back to China and HK, worse than TP. I still find it abhorrent from an infection control perspective to have officials telling us NOT to wear masks as an excuse to cover up their lack of preparedness over 3 months to secure supplies and local production for the population and still allowed export to countries - when South Korea and Japan has put a stop to daigou bulk purchases. Not to mention replicating procedures from those countries that done very well to keeping a lid on it at a rapid pace. Remember: we (nurses) wear masks not just to protect spreading our bugs/virus to others, but to protect ourselves and other patients from the bugs/viruses that the infected patient has - although with the extremely tight controls of PPE and mask distribution with health services currently, I fear mass spread in the hospital system from Asymptomatic patients.)
COVID-19: why do asian wear masks?
It is very disheartening to see that history time and time again just repeats itself.
Two months ago when the COVID-19 outbreak in wuhan and other province of China became out of control, asian countries who have had experience of SARS, decided not to follow WHO’s advice (because they have repeatedly failed us during the SARS period and obviously during the COVID-19 outbreak).
Hong Kong and Taiwan, having extensive connection and interaction with China, managed to contain the virus simply because we have learned our lesson in 2003, lesson learned from the loss of hundreds of people and healthcare professionals.
We decided to wear mask despite being condescendingly laughed at, aggressively assaulted in western countries, labeled as uneducated hysterical panicky individuals. We decided to shut down schools, non essential government and medical services as well as unnecessary social interaction and gathering when it was only the beginning of the spread.
Yes, we did all these because we value the lives of our citizens and healthcare professionals. Because we don’t want to let what happened in 2003 happen again in 2020, only that this time we actually have the upper hand to prevent this with our experience from SARS.
But guess what, we were THE ONLY ONE applying what we learned from history. It’s not uncommon to see the following arguments from western countries:
1. You do not need to wear a mask if you are not sick
-> I do not know how many times I must reiterate this until someone apply some logical reasoning.
A. ASYMPTOMATIC carriers exist.
B. Definition of sick varies among individuals. People go to work and school all the time even when they are down with influenza. When have you ever seen someone (excluding Asians) wearing a mask to see GP when they exhibit URTI symptoms in Australia?
C. Risk appraisal varies among individuals. Some people are very risk averse and prefer to wear a mask if they believe they MAY BE sick, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a responsible and informed decision for one to make, not for random stranger to judge.
2. You only need to wash hands and do good personal hygiene, mask is unnecessary
-> of course one can only do ONE THING at a time huh?
A. Proper surgical mask has been SHOWN to be EFFECTIVE against DROPLET transmission pathogens, which COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through. There are multiple studies published during and after the SARS period by Hong Kong and Taiwan scholars.
B. It’s the same as saying if you diet, you don’t need exercise to lose weight. No one says good hand hygiene is unimportant, but why can’t you wash your hands and wear a mask? Why must these two things be mutually exclusive.
C. A mask is not expensive nor is it a nuclear weapon. Stop discriminating people wearing mask.
3. Improper use of mask does not provide protection but increased risk of infection
-> I AGREE completely. So please EDUCATE the public how to wear a mask, not tell the public not to wear a mask
A. Improper use of condom pose infection risk, should we just tell the public not to wear one? For heaven’s sake, teach them how to put it on!
B. There are many videos on YouTube with detailed explanation on how to wear and dispose a mask.
There are many more arguments like this, but if you apply logic and do your very own literature review, plus obviously empirical evidence now that almost all asian countries successfully contained the virus, may be you can finally appreciate why we wear mask.
It is a responsible act to protect yourself and your family and friends.
Posted Mar 13, 2020, 1:11 PM UTC
If there is ONE message to take away from all this: Learn from the people that HAVE went though similar scenarios in the past and understand WHY they have done what they have done. If only countries learned the lessons from SARS, we would not be in this position today.
I honestly watched and did what the Chinese did..no joke..it was like (metaphorically speaking) watching the animals running away from a forest fire when I smelled the smoke but couldn’t see the flames. I followed their lead.
Too bad there's still alot people that's replicating "it's fine" meme literally....
I agree completely. Is it even possible for the average Australian to get appropriate masks now though?
Yes, but you need to vigilant in seeing when pharmacies and Bunnings still have stock (have a network of friends to scout and buy for you and they are discovered. )
Remember, mask (N95 or surgical, industrial or medical) is still better than none. Even cloth masks is better than none. It's all about lowering the odds of getting it.
Use them when visiting highly vulnerable people or very dense areas.
If people are not used to wearing a mask, or the mask is bad fitting and causes someone to repeatedly touch there face it is worse than no mask.
Correct, as per original post. Learn how to wear it properly, plenty of videos on YouTube these days.
Just watch the masks you are buying. In the dental industry, unfortunately, there’s been reports of others going through their bins for masks. No idea if they were for personal use or not. Try to buy sealed packets and if they look like they’ve been used, they may well have been.