Widespread mask-wearing could prevent 2nd waves

Population-wide face mask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics, and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a British study yesterday.

The research, led by scientists at the Britain's Cambridge and Greenwich Universities, suggests lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but that even homemade masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people wear them in public.

Richard Stutt, who co-led the study at Cambridge, said combining widespread mask use with social distancing and some lockdown measures, could be "an acceptable way of managing the pandemic and re-opening economic activity" before the development of an effective vaccine against COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

At the onset of the pandemic, scientific evidence on the effectiveness of face masks in slowing transmission of respiratory diseases was limited. But, prompted by some new research in recent weeks, the World Health Organization said on Friday it now recommends that everyone wear fabric face masks in public to try to reduce disease spread.

The study found that if people wear masks whenever they are in public it is twice as effective at reducing the R value, disease's reproduction rate,  than if masks are only worn after symptoms appear. In all scenarios the study looked at, routine face mask use by 50% or more of the population reduced COVID-19 spread to an R of less than 1.0, flattening future disease waves and allowing for less stringent lockdowns.