Face Masks ‘Significantly Reduce’ Spread of Covid-19, Study Finds – By Bill Lucia (Nextgov) / June 14 2020
“The effect is greatest when 100% of the public wear face masks,” researchers wrote, suggesting that officials should encourage people to cover their faces in public.
The widespread use of face masks by the public could significantly slow the spread of the coronavirus, prevent recurring waves of outbreaks and allow for less stringent restrictions on economic activity and other facets of daily life, according to new academic research.
Researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Greenwich in the U.K. used two mathematical models to examine the possible benefits of face masks in taming the virus. Here in the U.S., Covid-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness that the virus causes, has now claimed upwards of 113,000 lives and has driven the nation into a recession.
“Both of our models show that, under a wide range of plausible parameter conditions, face mask use by the public could significantly reduce the rate of COVID-19 spread, prevent further disease waves and allow less stringent lock-down regimes,” the researchers wrote.
“The effect is greatest when 100% of the public wear face masks. It follows that the adoption of this simple technology ought to be re-evaluated in countries where face mask use is not being encouraged,” they added in a paper published this week by the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
The researchers also found that a combination of both face mask wearing and “lock-down periods,” where people limit travel and commerce is restricted, is likely a better solution to managing the pandemic than either of those strategies on its own. And, in summary, they say their “modeling analyses provide support for the immediate, universal adoption of face masks by the public.”
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