New health advice is urging Victorians to wear face masks when out in public, with the state’s Chief Medical Officer saying mask use is ”one additional way that safety precautions can be achieved”. READ MORE:
They're also a shift from the advice Americans have been hearing since the coronavirus pandemic began.The World Health Organization and the CDC have repeatedly said that most people do not need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing.
Today, there is much more data and evidence on how COVID-19 is spread, and the prevalence of the disease itself is far more widespread than previously thought.As recently as early February, the World Health Organization stated that viral transmission from asymptomatic people was likely "rare", based on information available at the time.
A CDC report issued March 23 on COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships offers a glimpse of the danger. It describes how the testing of passengers and crew on board the Diamond Princess found that nearly half – 46.5 percent – of the more than 700 people found to be infected with the new coronavirus had no symptoms at the time of testing.
"While the current specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolisation of virus from normal breathing," he said. Even ill-fitting medical face masks have been found to interrupt airborne particles and viruses, keeping them from reaching as far when someone sneezes.
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