Masking could be a ‘positive legacy’ of the COVID-19 pandemic. Will it? – National | 24CA News
Even earlier than the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic was now not a “public health emergency of international concern” on Friday, many Canadians had already given up sporting masks as mandates lifted in most public locations.
Although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus famous Friday’s declaration “does not mean COVID-19 is over,” many individuals will doubtless interpret it that means, stated Dr. Allison McGeer, infectious ailments specialist and microbiologist at Sinai Health Systems in Toronto.
“Truthfully, at least in Canada, most behaviour is already reflecting most people’s opinion that the pandemic is over,” McGeer stated.
Still, infectious ailments specialists are hoping the apply of masking, which emerged on this nation as a response to the pandemic, will proceed at sure occasions and in sure locations to assist scale back the unfold of not solely COVID-19, however influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as nicely.
Although most masks mandates have been lifted, some massive hospitals proceed to require masking in patient-care settings, which is smart to Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious ailments specialist on the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
“In the ‘before times,’ which I think most of us can barely remember now, you’d be zooming around the hospital all over the place and people would have all sorts of symptoms,” Saxinger stated.
“You’d be seeing someone for possible pneumonia, they’d be coughing and you would just walk into the room … So I think that there has been like a net shift in the willingness and proactiveness to using masks (in health care),” she stated.
Dr. Fatima Kakkar, a pediatric infectious ailments specialist at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, stated she additionally intends to maintain masking when seeing sufferers.
Masking not solely helps shield the health-care supplier, but additionally helps forestall the unfold of viruses to different “very fragile patients” within the hospital, she stated.
“I actually can’t imagine seeing my patients without a mask on,” Kakkar stated.
Masking could possibly be a “positive legacy” of the pandemic, she stated.
“I hope in some sense it normalizes masking in these high-risk settings because, you know, it just becomes a reflex. You’re going to see a high-risk cancer patient, you’re going to see a high-risk newborn, it makes sense that you want to protect them.”
Long-term care services and different congregate settings – resembling group properties – are different “obvious” locations the place masking needs to be thought-about to guard weak individuals, particularly at occasions when there’s quite a lot of COVID-19 or influenza circulating in the neighborhood, McGeer stated.
“I think lots of people related to long-term care would be willing to wear masks if they didn’t have to have outbreaks,” she stated.
But whether or not masking will proceed for use extensively in hospitals and long-term care properties “(partly) depends on what’s going to happen with COVID going forward,” together with whether or not it turns into a largely seasonal virus, McGeer stated.
Saxinger stated it’s additionally vital to evaluate every scenario in hospitals and different health-care settings. For instance, she could not placed on a masks whereas strolling down a hospital hallway, however would possibly think about masking when approaching an aged affected person.
If an aged affected person is having bother listening to her, “I might then take off my mask so they can understand me,” she stated.
Outside of health-care settings, doing that sort of danger evaluation may help most people resolve whether or not or to not put on a masks underneath sure circumstances, infectious illness consultants say.
People who’re “immunocompromised and obviously more at risk if they catch something” could resolve to proceed sporting masks to guard themselves, McGeer stated.
“I still encourage the elderly in my life … that if they are taking a plane or they are going to be in high-risk settings to mask up,” Kakkar stated.
In addition to defending themselves, individuals also can assess their danger to others, she stated.
“The best principle is if you’re sick, you stay home … but that’s not always feasible,” stated Kakkar.
In these instances, the following smartest thing could be to put on a masks whereas out, she stated. “I do think if we could normalize that, it would help mitigate the spread.”
In the tip, “there’s a fair amount of common sense” in deciding when and the place to put on a masks, Saxinger stated.
“Am I still masking at the grocery store? If I’m symptom-free and I don’t have a cold or anything and I’m in a grocery store that’s almost empty because I always go at odd hours, not necessarily,” she stated.
“Have I been around a lot of sick people lately in any kind of way that seems higher risk? And then if I go in and it happens to be seniors night or something at the grocery store, I might choose to mask.”
It’s additionally vital for governments and public well being authorities to ensure individuals have entry to data, resembling whether or not there’s a excessive stage of virus transmission in the neighborhood “that lets them make those decisions as they go,” Saxinger stated.
Although McGeer wish to see public well being measures resembling masking when wanted and higher handwashing proceed, she’s “not hopeful that many things will stay as legacies of COVID.”
“The problem with pandemics is that the desire to put them behind us is so strong that it’s really hard to hold on to anything,” she stated.
— with recordsdata from The Associated Press
