EDITORIAL: The great Canadian mask flip-flop
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Canada’s public health officials initially discouraged regular people from wearing masks while out and about. They said they didn’t work and that they might even be counterproductive.
This left a lot of Canadians scratching their heads. Surely something is better than nothing?
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“What we worry about is actually the potential negative aspects of wearing masks where people are not protecting their eyes, or you know, other aspects of where a virus could enter your body,” Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief medical officer, said only a few days ago.
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“And that gives you a false sense of confidence, but also, it increases the touching of your face. If you think about it, if you’ve got a mask around your face, sometimes you can’t help it, because you’re just touching parts of your face,” she continued.
These reasonable caveats were all said in the context of discouraging widespread mask use. They’re important points to keep in mind, but it remained confusing to many that these were reasons to not wear masks all together.
Finally, on Monday, Tam reversed course, citing “emerging information.” This new information involves confirmation that there are in fact many asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 walking around and mask wearing can stop them from spreading the virus to others.
Canada isn’t the only country that has done an about-face. The Centers for Disease Control in the United States also cautioned against mask use but now recommends it in some cases.
The conversation has actually gone one step further though. Canadian officials are currently discussing both the reusing and washing of official masks as well as wearing homemade and makeshift masks.
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“Wearing a non-medical mask is an additional measure that you can take to protect others around you,” Tam say. “A non-medical mask can reduce the chance of your respiratory droplets coming into contact with others or landing on surfaces.”
This turn of events is no surprise. China mandated widespread mask use early and many European cities are encouraging it.
This is not the first such flip-flop either, coming on the heels of officials first saying travel restrictions didn’t work and then turning around and enacting them.
Public trust needs to remain high during these difficult times. These flip-flops haven’t helped.
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