As new rules about mask wearing come into force, a leading microbiologist warns misinformation about them will come.
“If you see stuff that is talking about your rights and ‘you’ as an individual, rather than thinking about a collective good, which the masks are, please just throw that information in the bin or delete it. Do not pass it on,” Auckland University's Dr Siousie Wiles told Breakfast.
From Thursday, masks must be worn by all customers and workers at essential services open during lockdown, including supermarkets, pharmacies and service stations.
Additional rules mean people must also wear them at bus terminals and in taxis.
“No mask, certainly not the kinds that we are wearing - surgical masks or cloth masks - are a 100 per cent guarantee against either spreading or getting the virus,” Wiles said.
But, she added, they do help reduce the transmission of Covid-19, an airborne virus. She said this had been proved in real-life scenarios overseas .
“The mask is about you, who potentially has the virus and not knowing it yet, reducing the amount of virus that you spread into the air”
While a mask does protect the individual wearing it, it’s more a “collective good” than anything else, Wiles said.
What sort of mask should people wear?
“Something is better than nothing … just have something,” Wiles said.
She said the “best option” would be N95 masks, but those are hard to get a hold of. These are mostly used by health professionals, are quite stiff, and have to be fitted properly.
It was important members of the public didn’t use up supplies of N95 masks for health staff who did need it, she said.
Wiles said cloth or surgical masks were “absolutely fine”.
And, anybody claiming that masks were unsafe were talking “absolute nonsense”, she said.
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