masks not a free pass: covid and daily contacts
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people who live in apartment buildings come into contact with more adults, upping their covid-19 risk.
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a study out of the university of vermont suggests that government mandates or recommendations to wear masks to stop the spread of covid-19 must be coupled with proper education or it could lead to more infections.
the study, published in the jmir public health and surveillance, was conducted by a team of health economists and public health faculty at the university of vermont’s larner college of medicine in partnership with the state of vermont.
the key risk factor driving the transmission of the disease, the study found, was the number of daily contacts participants had with other adults.
that finding was especially relevant since the results showed that those who wore masks had more of these daily contacts compared with those who did not, and a higher proportion contracted the virus as a result.
it seems masks may provide a false sense of security, said eline van den broek-altenburg, an assistant professor and vice chair for population health science in the department of radiology at the larner college of medicine and the study’s principal investigator.
“when you wear a mask, you may have a deceptive sense of being protected and have more interactions with other people,” she said.
the public health implications are clear. “messaging that people need to wear a mask is essential, but insufficient,” she said.
public communication about mask wearing should also include information on the proper use of a mask, van den broek-altenburg added.
researchers also found that living environment determined how many contacts participants had and affected their probability of becoming infected. people who lived in an apartment were more likely to contract the virus than those living in a single-family home.
“if you live in an apartment, you’re going to see more people on a daily basis than if you live in a single family home, so you need to be as vigilant about social distancing,” said van den broek-altenburg.
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the study combined survey data from adults living in vermont with test results that showed whether the people who were studied had contracted the disease. the unique approach of correlating the two data sets allowed researchers to determine the factors that made people more or less likely to contract the disease. the study also controlled for frontline workers, who have more contacts and are required to wear masks, from skewing the results.
the study provides some clarity on a contentious issue in canada and abroad. while every province and territory have mandatory mask orders in public indoor settings, ‘freedom’ rallies and anti-mask protests still occur regularly across the country.
while statistics canada reports that 97 per cent of canadians say they wear a mask in public spaces, the existence of anti-mask rallies — coupled with a stream of misinformation on social media channels — drives home the importance of proper messaging from public health officials, as described by van den broek-altenburg and other experts.
“[messaging] should go hand in hand with education that masks don’t give you a free pass to see as many people as you want. you still need to strictly limit your contacts,” said van den broek-altenburg.
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