If you want to travel by public transport in Germany, you have to go there from next week required to cover the mouth and nose. At the moment mouth masks in the Netherlands are scarce and they have to go to healthcare providers. But suppose there are soon enough copies, does it make sense to put on a mask in public space here too?
There is no large-scale and thorough research that offers clarity at once. And international health organizations have different opinions (see box).
RIVM is critical of face masks in public space. The essence of the current policy is to stay at home in case of illness, keep a meter and a half away and good hand hygiene, Jaap van Dissel said last week. “If you do things like that, we think the added value of mouth masks is extremely small.”
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that people also transmit the coronavirus before they have complaints, via so-called presymptomatic infections. It is only unclear how large its role is. This again raises the question whether personal protective equipment is also useful outside healthcare.
The role of mouth masks is also unclear. For example, recent research suggests that surgical masks the transmission of relatively harmless coronaviruses Reduce. Research by RIVM, among others from 2008 that shows that even a tea towel mask can reduce exposure to viruses through aerosols – tiny dust or liquid particles floating in the air. But in small-scale study among people with covid-19 lay masks did not reduce the spread by coughing. There is no conclusive answer yet.
Despite all uncertainty, the use of mouth masks outside the health care sector seems to be getting closer. According to Van Dissel, it can be part of the exit strategy. That is why the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) is looking into the usefulness of contact professions such as hairdressers in the coming week. There is currently no agreement on this.
And the Dutch Public Transport sector association has asked RIVM if they can give advice on how to transport more people in the future. “You have to make the one and a half meter rule more flexible, for example with the help of mouth masks”, says chairman Pedro Peters.
“Called too loud that mouth masks are not useful”
Medical virologist Mariet Feltkamp of the LUMC is pleased that the OMT is once again examining this. “I think that at first it was shouted that mouth masks are not useful in public space. Now that new insights are continuously available, I think it would be good to look at this again.”
For example, the mouth masks are now distributed:
–
