Home » Business » Van Dissel maintains an earlier point of view: wearing mouth masks not necessary | NOW

Van Dissel maintains an earlier point of view: wearing mouth masks not necessary | NOW

Jaap van Dissel maintains his earlier position that it is not necessary to wear non-medical face masks. The director of the Center for Infectious Disease Control of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) repeats in conversation with the WE that face masks have “an extremely small effect” on the spread of the coronavirus.

With this, Van Dissel, who is also chairman of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT), responds to the government’s mouth masks advice. Wearing masks in public indoor spaces has been urgently advised since Wednesday.

According to Van Dissel, this is a political decision. According to him, it is not clear whether non-medical masks are useful in preventing new corona infections. Research into the effect of these masks has divergent results.

The OMT chairman expects that wearing mouth masks will have little effect in a room where the corona measures are observed and people can keep sufficient distance from each other. In other situations, masks could have added value. That is why a mouth cap is mandatory in public transport.

‘Basic rules much more effective than wearing mouth masks’

According to Van Dissel, the basic rules are more effective than the supposed effect of non-medical mouth masks. He also thinks that wearing face masks can lead to a false sense of security. “We also want to send the message that, for example, keeping sufficient distance is a much more important measure,” he says to the WE.

Earlier this week, the OMT wrote that mouth masks can be recommended for places where it is not possible to keep a distance at all times. According to Van Dissel, this happened because of people’s sense of security, and not for medical reasons.

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