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“Face masks can be effective against larger free-floating particles…”
Many countries in Europe promote the use of face masks in public areas while Sweden does not. Even after the latest guidelines were released via the European Commission, the Scandinavian country still says, residents do not need to cover their faces.
“Face masks in public spaces do not provide any greater protection to the population,” the Public Health Agency’s general director Johan Carlson said at a press conference on Wednesday (May 13).
Swedish health and other top government officials have said social distancing, washing hands, not touching your face, and stay home if sick, are some of the best ways to limit the spread of COVID-19. They argue, wearing a face mask would make people less inclined to follow social distancing rules and provides a false sense of security as there is still a risk of transmission.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven also informed reporters at the 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.”
The Public Health Agency’s website states that wearing a face mask increases the probability of the wearer touching their face.
“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,” Sweden’s state epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell told SVT.
“Face masks can be effective against larger free-floating particles [connected to air pollution], but nothing suggests that they help protect you from airborne viruses,” Tegnell said.
SVT suggested other countries have enforced mask-wearing to make people feel safe, though as explained by Swedish officials, there’s no concrete evidence that masks protect people from the virus.
Sweden is one of the only countries in Europe to take an entirely different path to the full lockdown approach. It has opted to keep its economy humming while limiting gatherings over 50, has kept shops, restaurants, and factories open, as health officials have preferred the “herd immunity” strategy blended with social distancing.
The country has paid the price for its radical approach, recording 3,646 fatalities by May 15, while Denmark, Norway, and Finland, three neighboring countries, have recorded about 1,000 deaths combined. Much of the deaths in Sweden have been concentrated in senior living facilities. Yet deaths per million, Sweden has the fourth highest in the world, behind Italy, UK, and France, which all imposed strict lockdowns.
It remains to be seen if limited mask-wearing and no lockdowns to develop herd immunity is working, or if the higher casualties were worth it to avoid economic depression.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Masks do not stop any virus. The pore size of mask openings is effective for bacteria, but allows a virus to zip through like a bullet through a burlap sack. I’m proud to be descended from Swedes.
You do realize that people don’t breathe out pure viruses, right? They breathe out droplets of fluid (mostly saliva) with viruses in them. These droplets are larger than the openings in a mask.
read the article again: “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….” You cannot entirely eliminate a (flu) virus. There will be infections/deaths every year as there has been through the ages.
First, I was replying to treetalkerdx’s comment, not to the article as a whole. Second, I don’t see why you think that this quote from the article means that masks are useless (is that what you mean? You did not go into details, just said that the virus can’t be eliminated. My apologies if I misunderstood your point). So…if virus can gather in the mask, then take off your mask, wash your hands, discard the mask if it’s disposable or clean it if it isn’t. Is that so difficult? This is called “reducing the attack surface”. You can still get… Read more »
yes, but you can lessen the effect and level of infectiousness. The clothes you wear pick up viruses too. Hence the washing/disinfecting of hands, frequently. And not touching your face. Actually sensible to change from your street clothes and shoes into a home edition when you come home. Not just doing corona. Home made cloth masks have been shown to reduce aerosol virus load by at least 30%, the disposable paper masks by 50%. Not the fancy masks with filters, just cloth or paper. Everyone putting 30% less of a virus load into the environment means everyone moves in an… Read more »
You take off a mask carefully, at the loops, then wash or gel your hands to disinfect.
Tomorrow, tune in to our shoe-tying lesson.
Dipsy doodle, if a carrier coughs or even speaks, if they’re wearing a mask, the aerosol of virus carrying droplets is hindered if not stopped completely.
Yes, I can tell you’re ‘a proud Swede’.
What I’ve found is that if you feed the viruses with swedish meatball helper, they grow big enough to be stopped by even cheese cloth masks.
I’m impatient though, so I made a mask yesterday out of one of those electrified mosquito zapper nets. Going to try it out tomorrow. Wish me luck.
How about a virus hitching a ride on the back of a bacterium? Can that still slip through, you think?.
If you put it on the back of one of those stealthy Russian subs, it’ll slip right past a Swede.
That’s not the story I heard. I heard (from an anonymous hi-level Swedish source) that since Swedes were so two-faced, that their budgets couldn’t afford masks.
Besides, they had a hard time keeping them on when scuba diving on Russian sub patrol.
You’ve got me wondering how they attach the snorkel to the mask? LOL. Actually I’m quite shocked that Swedes has been so common sense with this whole plandemic / scamdemic thing. Shocked given that they’re the PC / woke capital of the world to the extent of actually ensuring the demise of their own culture to unappreciative rapefugees who not only won’t assimilate into the country but rather insist that it be made into their own mold (both meanings in this case).