saying they are right)
Why is Sweden not recommending face masks to the public?
https://www.thelocal.se/20200514/explained-why-is-sweden-not-recommending-face-masks-to-the-public
Following the newly presented EU guidelines, stipulating that face masks should be worn while travelling, the Scandinavian airline SAS was quick to announce that, from now on, all air travellers over the age of six are required to wear a face mask throughout their flight. Information about the protection face masks provide is ambiguous. Many countries promote the use of face masks in public spaces. Yet Sweden still does not, even after the latest advice from the European Commission. You're allowed to wear one, but the guidelines state they are "not needed in everyday life".
"Face masks in public spaces do not provide any greater protection to the population," Johan Carlson from the Swedish Public Health Agency Folkhälsomyndigheten said at a press conference on May 13th. Swedish health authorities argue that keeping a distance, washing your hands, not touching your face, and staying at home if you experience any symptoms are still the best ways to halt the spread of the coronavirus. There is a concern that wearing face masks would make people follow these guidelines less strictly. Prime minister Stefan Löfven told reporters at the same press conference: "There is a risk of a false sense of security, that you believe that you can't be infected if you wear a face mask."
In addition, the Public Health Agency states on its website that wearing a mask could increase the chances of you touching your face, because of itchiness or as you adjust the cloth. Every time your hands touch your eyes, nose or mouth, the risk of being infected with the coronavirus increases. "The virus can gather in the mask and when you take it off, the virus can be transferred to your hands and thereby spread further," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told SVT. Healthcare staff use face masks as to prevent bacteria from transferring to their patients. But face masks used in hospitals are generally of a different kind than single-use, lightweight masks bought at pharmacies.
"Face masks can be effective against larger free floating particles [connected to air pollution], but nothing suggests that they help protect you from air-borne viruses," Tegnell said to SVT. So why are other countries recommending face masks? Well, one reason is to increase people's feeling of safety. Another is as a precaution, to protect your surroundings in case you are, unknowingly, contagious. As recently as February, the World Health Organisation stated that viral transmission from asymptomatic people was rare, based on information available at the time. But a growing body of data now suggests that a significant number of infected people who don't have symptoms can still transmit the virus.
snip
Why is Denmark not recommending face masks to the public?
https://www.thelocal.dk/20200511/why-is-denmark-not-recommending-face-masks-to-the-public
The Danish Health Authority has from the start of the coronavirus pandemic advised the general public against wearing face masks in public, arguing both that the benefits are unproven, and that doing so risks making it more difficult for health authorities to source supplies. "The Danish Health Authority does not recommend that healthy people who move around in public generally wear face masks," the authority explains in a Question and Answer section on its website. "This is partly because it is uncertain whether it has an effect on the spread of infection, but also because we must ensure that we will not lack face masks where they are most important, in the health and care sector."
According to the Politiken newspaper, however, the Authority has over the past week changed this advice to remove a section claiming that "nothing suggests" that the masks have an effect on transmission of the virus when worn by the general public. Henning Bundgaard, Professor in Cardiology at Copenhagen University, who is conducting a trial on the efficacy of face masks, told The Local that he believed Denmark was right to exercise caution.
"No one has any documentation that face masks outside hospitals work at all," he said. "And I think it is rational to provide this documentation before we demand that people need to wear masks out in the open." He said that masks came with many disadvantages. "It comes with a price for most people: You have to pay for the masks; it is inconvenient to wear it; is difficult to talk to people when you can't see their face; if people working hard, it can be hard to breathe, and we don't know how long a mask last for." Perhaps the biggest issue, he added, was that masks might create a sense of false security. "If you feel safe, you might change your behaviour, maybe you get closer to people and maybe you don't wash your hands so often," he said. "So the achievement might be none, or you might be worse off in fact."
He said he did not think that the issue of face masks was so urgent that Denmark's government or health authorities should demand them without requiring evidence of their effectiveness, even though his own study would not generate results until the end of June. "It won't be too late," he said. "We are talk about second and third waves of this pandemic." Governments around the world have increasingly begun recommending masks as evidence has increased that people with coronavirus can be highly infectious before they begin to show symptoms.
snip
Why is Norway not recommending face masks for the public?
https://www.thelocal.no/20200508/why-is-norway-not-recommending-face-masks-for-the-public
The official advice on the website of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health is clear: "Based on the current epidemiological situation, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health considers that there is no scientific basis for recommending general use or non-medical face masks in the general population." Hanne-Merete Eriksen-Volle, who heads the agency's Antibiotic Resistance and Infection Prevention department, told The Local that her team are currently reevaluating the evidence. The process is due to end next week and after that will NIPH consider whether there is a need to update the recommendations.
She said that the agency's greatest worry was that low quality masks would give the public a false sense of security. "We are aware that this type of protection, which won't be medical face masks, would be of very variable quality," she said. "And so they might lead people to not give the same attention to the other advice that we have, such as keeping distance and staying home if you are sick." In addition, she said that the agency believed that given the low spread of coronavirus in Norway, the evidence suggested that face masks were not an efficient way of reducing the infection. "We have been going through all available evidence, and that, together with the low degree of disease we have in Norway, means we don't regard this as an efficient means of infection control." .
Espen Rostrup Nakstad at the Directorate of Health said that there might be a point to wearing them in congested areas. "This will to a very large extent prevent the spread of drops and infection," he told VG newspaper. "And for everyone else, it might be an extra protection if you sit close to others." But he later clarified that this should not be seen as a recommendation. "We still believe that there is no reason to recommend general use of face masks in the public space in a situation where we have little spread of infection in society and can keep a good distance to each other," he told Dagbladet.
Bent Høie, Norway's health minister, also dismissed the measure: "The EU's infection agency says this applies to crowded situations. We should see how good we are in Norway to keep our distance. This is a much simpler measure." Petter Elstrøm, a researcher in Eriksen-Volle's department, said that there was a greater justification for masks in densely populated city areas such as big Asian cities. "It has a good effect where the prevalence in the population is high, while the density of people is high," he told the VG newspaper. "It's different on the subway in Shanghai than the subway in Oslo."
snip
= new reply since forum marked as read
