{"id":21094,"date":"2020-03-18T10:33:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T05:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/masks-gloves-dont-stop-coronavirus-spread-experts\/"},"modified":"2020-03-18T10:33:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T05:03:37","slug":"masks-gloves-dont-stop-coronavirus-spread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=21094","title":{"rendered":"Masks, gloves don’t stop coronavirus spread: experts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“If someone has come across the virus, it’s surely going to be on the mask.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing masks and gloves as a precaution against coronavirus is ineffective, unnecessary for the vast majority of people, and may even spread infections faster, experts said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While near-total lockdowns have been imposed in Italy, Spain and now France, the World Health Organization\u2019s advice has remained unchanged since the start of the global outbreak: wash your hands, don\u2019t touch your face, and keep your distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO says it is advisable to wear a protective mask in public if you suspect you are infected or someone you are caring for is, in which case the advice is to stay home whenever possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are limits to how a mask can protect you from being infected and we\u2019ve said the most important thing everyone can do is wash your hands, keep your hands away from your face, observe very precise hygiene,\u201d said WHO\u2019s emergencies director Mike Ryan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advice is all the more urgent given the WHO\u2019s estimate that health workers worldwide will need at least 89 million masks every month to treat COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are already shortages of masks for medical professionals around the world, a problem that could get worse as the pandemic drags on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the message about masks hasn\u2019t reached everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised to see through the window in my ministry lots of people in the street wearing masks when that doesn\u2019t correspond to our recommendations,\u201d French health minister Olivier Veran said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mariam, 35, told AFP that she was wearing a mask because she has an elderly mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust in case,\u201d said Mariam, who was also sporting latex gloves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mariam, who didn\u2019t want to give her last name, she said she got her mask from \u201ca friend\u2019s mother who works in a hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as hoovering up stocks sorely needed by medical professionals, experts say masks can give people who wear them a false sense of security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, many people who wear them don\u2019t follow the official advice of washing their hands thoroughly first, ensuring it\u2019s air tight and not to touch it once it\u2019s on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are always readjusting their masks and that has the potential to contaminate them,\u201d said France\u2019s head of health, Jerome Salomon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf someone has come across the virus, it\u2019s surely going to be on the mask.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloves, similarly, don\u2019t greatly heighten protection and could even end up making you sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf people cannot stop touching their face, gloves will not serve a purpose,\u201d Amesh Adalja, from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One 2015 study in the American Journal of Infection control found that people touch their face on average 20 times an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The novel coronavirus is transmitted via skin contact, transferring infected globules of mucus via the ears, eyes or nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGloves are not a substitute for washing your hands,\u201d said Adalja, adding that surgical gloves should only be used in a medical setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, said Veran: \u201cIf you\u2019re wearing gloves you\u2019re not washing your hands.\u201d For one Paris resident, Oriane, 32, this is not a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wash my gloves,\u201d she said, gesturing to her bright blue surgical mitts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If someone has come across the virus, it’s surely going to be on the mask.” Wearing masks and gloves as a precaution against coronavirus is ineffective, unnecessary for the vast majority of people, and may even spread infections faster, experts said Tuesday. While near-total lockdowns have been imposed in Italy, Spain and now France, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}