Should people be wearing masks to help fight the Coronavirus?

Two people in Central Park with n95 masks. Slate/Getty.

New questions are being raised about the advice that says masks aren't effective in stopping the Coronavirus. Slate. Many western health authorities have said that masks are not effective in preventing the virus while many Asian countries have recommended or even demanded that people wear them. Some studies have shown that masks not only help healthy people avoid catching the virus but allow the sick to stop spreading the virus. It is less clear if it helps people not touch their face as much as some may do so because the masks are uncomfortable. However, regardless of the effectiveness, n95 masks as well as the less effective cloth masks are largely unavailable to the general public due to high demand. 

My Comment:

I always thought that the advice against masks was largely a white lie. The governments of the world knew that masks weren't going to be available even for medical workers, let alone the general public. So they said the masks didn't work so that what few masks we had could be preserved for medical workers.

Was this the right thing to do? I think so. Medical workers are at a much higher risk of catching the disease and, due to viral load, catch a more severe sickness. Without medical masks doctors and nurses are at a much higher risk to the point where they might not even be able to do their jobs. A run on medical masks would have made this situation even worst than it already is. 

But are they effective? I think it's better than nothing but I do agree that it has some downsides as well. For one thing people wearing masks might feel they are invincible now and stop doing things like washing their hands or avoiding heading outside. They also might touch their faces more often, which is a major way that Coronavirus spread. 

On the other hand, I think it's pretty obvious that any thing that prevents you from breathing in viral particles is a good thing. These masks are obviously not 100% effective but they would help stop some percentage of the virus from spreading, both from healthy people not coming into contact with the virus and sick people not spreading it. 

I think context is important as well. A mask would be a lot more helpful in some circumstances compared to others. If you are walking down the street you almost certainly don't need one but if you are taking public transportation or flying having a mask is a much better idea. They would also better be saved if you had to treat a sick relative, rather than for daily use. 

Of course the whole discussion is largely moot as there haven't been masks in the stores since January. Chinese people bought up most of them and sent them overseas and the few that survived that went into the homes of preppers. The only way to get masks right now is on the black market for vastly inflated prices or to make your own, neither of which are probably worth it for the average person. Production has obviously skyrocketed but those masks that are being made aren't making it to stores as hospitals are taking the first priority. 

Which makes me wonder if people shouldn't just be using things like scarfs or winter clothing to cover their faces instead? In theory these would probably be as good as a cloth surgical mask, though obviously not as good as a n95 mask. But I haven't heard anything either way, so I guess I just don't know.