http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/masks.htm

Not to sound alarmist but on C4 TV news tonight I heard the UK’s Chief Medical Officer say that the H1N1 virus is small enough to pass through the filter material of face masks generally available to the public. Indeed, face masks are being sold claiming to filter out the virus but these claims are dubious. Face masks collecting and harboring the virus therefore put the wearer at risk of inhaling it or exhaling it onto others. Apparently, only respirators worn by health professionals are a reliable method of filtering out the virus.

question: can a gasmask save me from biological weapon?
answer: yes, but only if you are on the moon.

Unfortunately Dr. Leonard was talking about Britain, so we apparently are not be talking about a developed nation.

I still can’t believe a doctor sitting on a nation’s Health Protection Agency could come up with this. I mean, she may have a point about the masks needing to be changed after a couple of hours, and there is a great deal to be said for simply washing your hands before touching your mouth, nose or eyes, but I wonder if she noticed that basically everywhere in the world, when medical professionals are dealing with someone carrying an infectious disease, one of the first things they do is put on a mask. I don’t think they are doing it to stop the patient from being exposed to the healthy air the medical staff is exhaling… but then, I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on TV.

But a wise man once said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” – surely it is better to pay for comparatively cheap masks to lower the chances of people catching the new flu in the first place then paying more for Tamiflu and the like that can only be given after the individual is sick. At least until they are able to come up with an effective vaccine for this thing.

It is really unbelievable how unhygienic the average Japanese person (salary men especially) are. The stuff I see on the train on a daily basis disgusts me to no end.

There is no scientific basis that they work and it is false reassurance

False reassurance? I beg to differ. If everyone is wearing masks around, that makes the situation feel much more real in the event that there is a significant risk of a pandemic. The interruption in our every day lives by having everyone around us wear a mask would scare most into washing their hands more often and reducing contact.

And plus, Japan already has huge numbers of masks stored in cupboards everywhere. If we’re talking about a developed nation, then the cost of a few masks a day should be well worth reducing the chance of life threatening disease.

Washing hands frequently and not touching face are recommended precautions, or stay home on internet all day, never go out and obsess about the flu you will never get in isolation!

Thanks for post James.

If the flu does come to Japan, packed Rush hour trains will be a perfect breeding ground for it – this is not a view I came to independently, it is something that has been repeated many times by experts on the news. Someone like Dr. Leonard, who probably doesn’t have to deal with something on the level of Japan’s crowded trains, is probably right in the advice she is giving to people in her own country.

As for airplanes: I have had the unfortunate experience of catching a (non-swine) flu from a sick person who was sitting near me on a flight. Wish I’d brought some masks with me on that flight.