Face masks have been framed largely as a medical intervention.
Many countries/agencies now mandate/recommend masks against #covid19.
Narrative of face masks as a medical intervention ignores the social practice of this act, and the behaviours associated with it.
Masks as medical intervention (1/2):
Almost all evidence comes from healthcare facilities and addresses the efficacy in protecting the wearer from infection, not as source control.
Using evidence based from healthcare and using it to address community settings? Apples and Oranges
Masks as medical intervention (2/2):
Medical narratives are based on randomised studies (RCTs) and controlled experiements.
Community health measures rarely have RCTs available. Plus, may not be ethical to conduct.
Wearing a mask now, is seeing rapid introduction in countries with no such cultural tradition of doing so.
"For successful uptake, such interventions need to be grounded in social, cultural practices and realities of affected communities.
Campaigns for face coverings:
Campaigns should inform and reflect the times and community needs.
For a face mask policy to work, negative depictions (and stigmatisation) of "social meaning and moral worth of face coverings" need to be actively reframed.
Aim of face coverings?:
REMEMBER, main purpose of face coverings by the public is source control.
Campaign ideas?
- Wearers are altruistic, "saviours"?
- Look at @sanquin and their campaign to recruit blood donors and how they portrait them?
- "Moral worth" of face masks needs to be reframed!
Authors key messages:
- Face masks widely recommended.
- Face masks more than a medical intervention, this narrative doesn't apply in a community setting.
- Policies to encourage uptake should reflect the complex sociocultural meanings and draw on these to promote their use.
Study objectives were to quantify the total disease burden of acute COVID-19 in the Netherlands in 2020 using the disability-adjusted life-years (DALY) measure, and to investigate how disease burden varies between age-groups and occupation categories.
Authors estimated:
- total years of life lost (YLL),
- years lived with disability (YLD),
- disability adjusted life years (DALY) due to COVID-19.
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
SARS-CoV-2 elimination, not mitigation, creates best outcomes for health, the economy, and civil liberties.
Public health, economic growth, democratic solidarity, and civil liberties are important factors when evaluating pandemic responses. There is mounting evidence that these objectives do not need to be in conflict in the COVID-19 response.
Countries that consistently aim for elimination—ie, maximum action to control SARS-CoV-2 and stop community transmission —have fared better than countries that opt for mitigation. (ie, action increased in a stepwise way to reduce cases so as not to overwhelm health-care systems)
Scientific consensus on the #COVID19 pandemic: we need to act now.
One look at the authors list, and you'll see thought leaders in their fields; working diligently and with scientific evidence to make a difference.
"Just facts" in here, nothing else. thelancet.com/lancet/article…
The #herdimmunity approach is a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence
The Barrington Declaration for focussed protection towards herd immunity has no basis in science and evidence. Full stop. It is a misguided self-aggrandising document, similar to the one circulating with patient zero at the White House.
We have technical resources, we have scientific expertise, we have diversity in our experiences- @rivm and #OMT should consider using all the help they can. @C19RedTeam has offered their cross-functional expertise. A pandemic isn't just a medical issue, it is a societal issue.
Rather than rejecting any/all collaboration, @rivm and #OMT (for all their excellence) need to be inclusive, swallow their pride and open up.
All the evidence that they have made their recommendations on, needs to be in public domain.
Have we misjudged the role of children in spreading #COVID19?
COVID19 research in to kid, especially younger ones, is not perfect. It has gaps, it is evolving and we are learning more by the day.
A short summary of evolving role of children 👇 cmaj.ca/content/192/38…
Statement from Ontario’s science advisory table:
- Kids may play a bigger role in the spread of #SARSCoV2 than initially suspected.
- Early suggestions that children are considerably less important drivers of transmission are not confirmed by more recent research.
Children less susceptible? 1. Contact tracing studies reported that children<10 years old are less likely to test positive.
Limitations: Studies underestimate infection rate in children if infected children are more likely to be asymptomatic than infected adults.
@IHME_UW (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) and @UWMedicine (University of Washington’s School of Medicine), no lightweights, have come out with
global projections of #COVID19 by nation.
Short summary 👇
They modelled 3 scenarios: 1. Worse case:
- mask usage stays at current rates, and,
- governments continue relaxing social distancing requirements.
This leads to 4.0 million total deaths by the end of the year.
Best case:
- mask usage is near-universal, and,
- governments impose social distancing requirements when their daily death rate exceeds 8 per million.
This leads to 2.0 million total deaths if by the end of the year.