Wearing face masks to guard against the spread of coronavirus must not come at the expense of other hygiene measures, a public health expert has warned.
Prof Eugene Milne, Newcastle City Council’s director of public health, issued a word of caution on the potential benefits of face masks – saying they could be counter-productive if they are not used properly, or if people ignore other precautions as a result.
While people have been urged to not buy up supplies of surgical masks needed for NHS and social care workers, there have been some calls for homemade face coverings to be worn in public.
Cloth masks are now mandatory on public transport in Germany, while London mayor Sadiq Khan has repeatedly urged people to wear non-surgical masks to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
Prof Milne said: “They probably make some difference, but not a large difference. The national line, which I would completely go with, is that if the public use of face masks were to start and use up the supply needed for more acute situations that would be really bad news.
“The dialogue is possibly more about the use of cloth face masks and I know people are making those at home. There are experts that I respect greatly who think it is a really good idea.
“If the supply is not threatened to the NHS, care homes, and so on then there is no harm in doing it.
“But people need to use them appropriately if they are doing that, because what masks also do is increase the amount of times you touch your face.
“People may not use them properly, and they may end up countering any good through that.”
Both the UK government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) say that face masks should not yet be worn by everyone, with the WHO warning that they could create a "false sense of security" and lead to people ignoring other protective measures, such as hand washing and physical distancing.
Prof Milne added: “The other thing that worries me is that we have seen that when people use protective equipment it changes their behaviour. The example I have given is that we know motorists drive closer to cyclists who are wearing helmets.
“One of the things we don’t know is whether if you wear a face mask you reduce your other social distancing behaviours, and does it alter other people’s expectation of whether or not you are likely to be an infective risk to them and others?
“I’m kind of sitting on the fence over this. I can see why people might do it and there is some sense to it, in terms of droplet spread, that you are protecting other people.
“But we do need to know that you are not compromising supply elsewhere and you are not changing your behaviour and compromising other aspects of hygiene and infection control.”
