With U.S. airlines announcing that all passengers will have to wear masks in an effort of theater security for those who wrongly think masks block viruses, I was surprised to come across at story at Flyertalk by Jackie Reddy that actually got the subject right.
There is the quote in the story from The Independent which demonstrates the theater security of the move: “The industry fears that many prospective passengers will be deterred from travelling if they believe flying places them at risk of contracting the virus from fellow travelers. The hope is that the universal use of face coverings will restore confidence.”
Then surprisingly a section headlined: “But Do Masks Really Work?”
The story reported:
But the advice offered by major health bodies doesn’t exactly concur with the actions taken by some airports and airlines with respect of the use of face masks.
For example, Public Health England states that, “Face masks play a very important role in clinical settings, such as hospitals, but there’s very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use outside of these clinical settings.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “The wide use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risk,” further adding that donning a mask can give a “false sense of security, leading to potentially less adherence to other preventive measures such as physical distancing and hand hygiene.”
I don’t like masks but would wear one each flight if they actually blocked viruses because planes are often a petri dish whatever contagion is going around. But masks do not work for viruses and thus wearing them, and especially forcing “customers” so to do, is stupid.
Airlines join the stupid in requiring masks
There is the quote in the story from The Independent which demonstrates the theater security of the move: “The industry fears that many prospective passengers will be deterred from travelling if they believe flying places them at risk of contracting the virus from fellow travelers. The hope is that the universal use of face coverings will restore confidence.”
Then surprisingly a section headlined: “But Do Masks Really Work?”
The story reported:
But the advice offered by major health bodies doesn’t exactly concur with the actions taken by some airports and airlines with respect of the use of face masks.
For example, Public Health England states that, “Face masks play a very important role in clinical settings, such as hospitals, but there’s very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use outside of these clinical settings.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “The wide use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risk,” further adding that donning a mask can give a “false sense of security, leading to potentially less adherence to other preventive measures such as physical distancing and hand hygiene.”
I don’t like masks but would wear one each flight if they actually blocked viruses because planes are often a petri dish whatever contagion is going around. But masks do not work for viruses and thus wearing them, and especially forcing “customers” so to do, is stupid.