Many people believe that masks are weapons to help Hong Kong and Japan deal with nCoV, but some experts say that this is not the perfect solution.

In many countries and territories in Asia, masks are considered an important factor to help prevent Covid-19 from spreading. The Japanese government announced on April 1 that each citizen should have two reusable cloth masks, while Hong Kong residents not only have the habit of wearing masks but also send them to relatives abroad.

Keiji Fukuda, a professor at Hong Kong Public Health University, said people in the city saw wearing masks "as a way for each individual to protect the community and themselves."

"In the US, where I grew up, many people considered wearing masks as criminal acts or unwanted obligations," he said.

Elaine Shuo Feng, a Chinese epidemiologist studying for his doctorate at Oxford University in the UK, said that in contrast to many Asian countries, people in the UK rarely wore masks, even when Covid-19 had outbreak in this country. "Asians wearing masks in the UK sometimes have problems, such as being ridiculed or discriminated against," Feng said.

The success of control of Covid-19 by Japan, Korea or Hong Kong, Taiwan has led many people to believe that the habit of wearing masks is the "key" to prevent the spread of nCoV. However, experts say masks are not the only factor.

Ben Cowling, a professor at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, believes that the success of the epidemic in these areas also lies in a range of other measures such as identifying and quickly quarantining nCoV-infected people, monitoring and localize the people they have met, and at the same time isolate the community.

After much research about masks, Cowling says they are not the perfect public health protection tool, especially when people do not wear them properly. This is why he did not describe a mask as "very important" when helping the World Health Organization to list what countries should do to stop Covid-19.

"The bottom line is that people wearing masks will not help prevent the virus, but it will only slow the spread of the virus in the community," Cowling told Business Insider. "That is useful enough, although its effect is very small."

Professor Fukuda also did not really agree with the view that wearing a mask is the "factor X" that helps fight Covid-19. "Some other places like Singapore have very good control of the epidemic, but not just thanks to the mask," he said.

He also believed that the scale of the outbreak was smaller due to tracking of travel history, coordination between agencies, community and public segregation that had been cautious about the outbreak from the beginning, and was willing to coordinate. suitable for health officials. "All of these measures are important," he said.

WHO still maintains the view that it is not recommended for all to wear masks, emphasizing the global shortage of masks and the desire to provide masks for health workers on the front line of epidemic prevention.

Some experts have even warned that wearing a mask could backfire even if the supply is plentiful. "Facemasks can give people a false sense of security," said Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cell bacteriology at the University of Reading, UK.

He worries that encouraging wearing a mask may make many people unwilling to adhere to the principles of community isolation.

"I can foresee situations where some people infected with the virus may think that they can comfortably go out, go to public places or go to work if wearing a mask. We know a lot of people think that there will be no What if there's a flu and still working with everyone and thinks Covid-19 is the same, "Clarke said.

However, officials in many Western countries are increasingly encouraging people to use masks in the context of complicated Covid-19. Austria and Slovenia have issued regulations requiring people to wear masks. Meanwhile, US leading medical scientist Anthony Fauci also said this week that when supplies were stable, the recommendation to wear masks should be popular to help prevent nCoV infection.

"One of the best ways to avoid transmission of nCoV is to wear a mask," he said.

Cowling said that more research is needed to give advice on the types of respirators recommended and their uses. However, he said that the increasing use of masks also brings much value to public health.

"I think countries are considering every possible measure to prevent infection, so even wearing a mask can only help reduce the risk of infection very small, it is still a valuable measure," he said.