Is it preferable to wear a homemade mask to not cover your
face? Despite the lack of scientific data, some doctors defend this option,
especially to avoid infecting others when they are sick with COVID-19.
"Many people think that wearing a mask protects you
from contagion, while in reality this reduces the sources of
transmission," Dr. KK Cheng, a public health specialist at the University
of Birmingham, told AFP.
Self-protection "works if everyone wears one and in
this case, a very basic mask is enough, since a patch of cloth can block"
the droplets of saliva that a patient projects, he adds. "It is not
infallible, but it is better than nothing."
In the case of the coronavirus, this measurement is even
more important since many people are asymptomatic and transmit it without
knowing it, Cheng recalls.
But at the same time scientific data is lacking to
demonstrate its effectiveness.
"We do not know very well whether homemade facemasks
reduce transmission, there has been little research on this," Dr. Benjamin
Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, told AFP.
In 2013, a study by the University of Cambridge concluded
that in the event of a flu pandemic, these protections should be used as a “last
resort”.
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