Mask wars: Countries face off over how to cover up

Description

Dr Claudia Pagliair was interviewed by Politico's Ashleigh Furlong, for this new article discussing Europe's inconsistent approach to face masks.

The mask debate has reared its head again — but this time it’s about what type to wear.  Several countries are mandating medical-grade masks in community settings as more infectious coronavirus variants spread across Europe, relegating homemade cloth masks to the outdated health recommendations of 2020. But many others, as well as the World Health Organization, are standing behind their support of fabric face coverings.  Experts calling for widespread use of more protective masks say it comes down to a fundamental disagreement about what kind of science is “good enough” to support their policy recommendations....

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"In many parts of the world, it’s hard enough to mandate cloth masks — let alone more expensive higher-grade masks, said Claudia Pagliari, director of global e-health at the University of Edinburgh. 

“If the WHO started to say, ‘Well, this is the only thing that works,’ they're ... recommending something that only rich people can do, ....As for the rest of you, [the message is] you're going to have to just make do.” 

“The optics of that are very bad, aren't they?”