I have seen a few people do this. I know the advice is not to do it (or that it is unnecessary), but having spent the morning researching this, I believe the advice is not really "based on the science" but rather social, political, economic factors have been pushed to the fore. I'll start with this, which is typical of advice we've been given the past month and IMO perfectly supports the case for wearing facemasks in certain situations (even though its trying to do the very opposite):
www.bbc.com/news/av/health-51881555/coronavirus-do-face-masks-actually-work
The lady in the video, like most other health experts in the West (note not in the rest of the world) is advocating against the use of facemasks for the general public when out and about. For me the key sentence is this: (50 seconds in).
"But logically, if you're not close to other people, they're not coughing and sneezing on you, then a facemask isn't necessary"
I have heard variations of this a hundred times. "Facemasks probably aren't very useful". "They will only be of very little use" "Some people won't dispose of them correctly" etc.
Problem - in certain situations, eg shopping, people are close to you. Either through lack of care (often) or sometimes unavoidably, people are often not adhering to the 2 metre guidelines. Therefore there is a significance chance of people encroaching close to you (have found this often). And then there is a chance (although small) of a sudden cough or sneeze. Is that person infected? You don't know because symptoms can take quite a few days to emerge.
The above is of course why they are/were being worn in this crisis by billions of people outside of the West, often under threat of official sanction for not doing so (not to mention social disapproval). The argument against use of facemasks for, eg supermarket shopping, is not "the science" it is Western societies partial/modified application of "the science".
Of course I get the argument about healthcare workers being priorities (if only the government had given a damn about the NHS prior to the beginning of the crisis). However, one person from a family wearing a mask once a week for an unavoidable, often crowded, supermarket trip in which two metres distancing cannot always be adhered to? Maybe this would have been the more responsible action and advice?
Further reading:
"Why Telling People they don't need facemasks backfired"
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html
"Why some countries wear facemasks and others don't"
www.bbc.com/news/world-52015486
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Wearing a facemask when shopping
98 replies
Cam77 · 26/03/2020 09:37
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