Keep wearing face masks if you want to avoid coronavirus second wave, study finds

As several states see a resurgence of coronavirus cases and record numbers of new infections, some are concerned that the country is traipsing toward a second wave.

New research from Cambridge and Greenwich universities in the United Kingdom released Wednesday found that a second wave of infections may not be prevented by lockdowns alone.

Instead, those measures must be combined with the use of face masks to prevent the spread of the virus, researchers said in a news release.

And they don’t just mean medical-grade masks.

“Even homemade masks with limited effectiveness can dramatically reduce transmission rates if worn by enough people, regardless of whether they show symptoms,” researchers said.

Wearing face masks in conjunction with lockdowns could help manage the pandemic long before a vaccine is developed, the team said.

“We have little to lose from the widespread adoption of face masks, but the gains could be significant,” Dr. Renata Retkute, co-author of the study, said.

The coronavirus is believed to spread primarily person-to-person through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The team used mathematical models to analyze how different combinations of mask use and periods of lockdown affected the spread of the virus, researchers said. They also considered factors including transmission via air and surfaces as well as the negative side effects of using a mask such as increased face touching.

For a virus to slow its spread, the number of people an infected person passes the virus to — known as the reproduction or ‘R’ number — must stay below one, researchers said.

The study found that if people wear masks all the time in public, not just when they show symptoms, it is twice as effective in reducing the number of people infected.

Further, in every modeling scenario, reproduction numbers fell below one when at least half of the population routinely wore face masks, the team said, which could allow for less strict lockdown rules.

The study also suggests that if an entire population wore masks that were only 75% effective, it would still drop an already high reproduction number below one, even without lockdowns.

“In fact, masks that only capture a mere 50% of exhaled droplets would still provide a ‘population-level benefit’, even if they quadrupled the wearer’s own contamination risk through frequent face touching and mask adjustment – a highly unlikely scenario,” the team said.

In light of their findings, researchers are asking nations across the world to launch public safety campaigns urging citizens to don masks to help protect one another.

“Our analyses support the immediate and universal adoption of face masks by the public,” Dr. Richard Stutt, lead author, said.

Professor John Colvin, co-author of the study, said that stigmas surrounding masks don’t help anyone.

“There is a common perception that wearing a face mask means you consider others a danger,” Colvin said. “In fact, by wearing a mask you are primarily protecting others from yourself.

“Cultural and even political issues may stop people wearing face masks, so the message needs to be clear: my mask protects you, your mask protects me.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 7:03 AM with the headline "Keep wearing face masks if you want to avoid coronavirus second wave, study finds."