Coronavirus: face masks, sheep dip, clinical guidelines and CT scans

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Health Report 28 min 2 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 4 days ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Unknown 0:02

This is an ABC podcast.

Norman Swan 0:05

Hello and welcome to this week's health report with me, Norman Swan. Today on the programme, new guidelines on how to treat people with COVID 19. Getting behind the headlines about whether sheep dip might be effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, artificial intelligence helping with diagnosis, and the debate around masks that exploded here and overseas. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the White House advisors on COVID-19 are recommending that Americans wear cloth masks when they go out to reduce transmission. President Trump has said he won't be doing it. The reason for cloth masks is that you can make them yourself and it keeps medical grade masks for those who really need them, people with cold symptoms to stop from infecting somebody else, or people with COVID-19, or healthcare workers and first responders.

Norman Swan 0:51

Across social media, people are arguing about whether or not we should all be wearing masks during this pandemic, as is common practice in some parts of Asia. And this is against a backdrop of allegations that there isn't enough personal protective equipment available to the healthcare professionals who already need it. Professor Reina McIntyre is head of the biosecurity lab at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales, and she's done a randomized trial of cloth masks versus medical ones. Welcome back.

Raina McIntyre 1:18

Good evening Norman.

Norman Swan 1:19

So tell us about this trial you did.

Raina McIntyre 1:21

This trial actually ran in twenty eleven, but the paper was published in two thousand and fifteen um in Vietnam, where healthcare workers do tend to wear masks. And we randomized them to wear a cloth mask, which was a locally produced cotton mask, versus a surgical mask versus Standard. Uh measures. And some people in the standard measures group didn't wear masks and some people did. And basically the people in the cloth masks fared the worst out of all three arms. They had higher infection rates than the people in the surgical mass group. And even in the control group.

Unknown 1:56

Raina McIntyre 1:56

um Well, we don't know exactly. We did collect some data on

What are the new COVID‑19 mask recommendations in the United States?

Raina McIntyre 2:02

uh washing and cleaning of the masks, but I suspect that Possibly people didn't wash them enough or not adequately. You know, cotton masks can get quite damp. And anything that's warm and damp obviously is a good um breeding ground for bacteria and viruses, so that could be the answer, but we don't actually know. From the research that's been done on fabrics. different fabrics perform differently and Seems like cotton blends are probably better than pure cotton.

Norman Swan 2:32

Oh really? But

Raina McIntyre 2:33

it's yeah.

Norman Swan 2:34

So cotton nylon or something like that?

Raina McIntyre 2:37

Yeah, or cotton polyester. Yeah.

Norman Swan 2:40

So i c so could this be then that in fact when you've got a wet mask, if somebody coughs into your mask, the mask absorbs it and then transmits it back to you? Is that is that what you're hypothesizing there? Even though you don't have evidence of it?

Raina McIntyre 2:52

Possible, um, but not just people coughing in your face, but sort of aerosolised pathogens that are just they're in a in a dirty um work environment like an emergency department or an intensive care. But you know, the bottom line is we wouldn't recommend a cloth mask for a healthcare worker. And we've had a lot of health workers from the US, particularly where they're facing very difficult shortages contacting us and asking Should we is it better we wear no mask? Then wear a cloth mask. And my answer is if If you do not have adequate PPE, personal protective equipment or no PPE, don't work. You know.

Norman Swan 3:32

Just don't go just don't go to work. Right.

Raina McIntyre 3:34

Yeah, I don't think healthcare workers should be expected to work without proper protection, you know, as you yourself have said, Norman, you wouldn't Send soldiers into war. against an armed opponent without guns, would you? So why would you send healthcare workers in to work? with uh you know, patients with covet nineteen without adequate protection. It's not gonna help anyone if they get infected. If one health care worker gets infected. A whole lot of other health workers who've been in contact with them have to be quarantined.