Experts have urged the government to go beyond a newly announced campaign telling people in England how to wear face coverings and promote their use more forcefully, amid low takeup by the public.
The information campaign will instruct people to ensure that both nose and mouth are covered in order to ensure they effective. But scientists say the government should be doing more to increase use of face coverings, which are currently mandatory only on public transport.
After the president of the Royal Society, Venki Ramakrishnan, said on Monday that refusing to wear a mask in indoor public settings should become as socially unacceptable as drink-driving or not wearing a seatbelt, other experts said the government should play its part.
Prof Susan Michie, a psychologist on a subgroup of Sage and also member of Independent Sage, said on Tuesday: “It’s becoming increasingly clear that face masks are needed and warranted, particularly in indoor spaces. And I think we really need to begin thinking about how we achieve that given there’s no cultural history and there’s no huge appetite from looking around at the British public at the moment.
“We need to have a really effective and nuanced campaign, and to explain why face masks are important, how they should be worn. And I think we need to do it sooner rather than later.”
Ramakrishnan made his comments after two studies were published jointly by the Royal Society and British Academy stating that face coverings could help limit the spread of Covid-19. One suggested that in late April uptake of mask-wearing in the UK was around 25%, compared with 83.4% in Italy, 65.8% in the United States and 63.8% in Spain.
In Scotland, face coverings will be mandatory in shops from 10 July, whereas in England people are advised to wear them where possible in “enclosed public spaces where social distancing isn’t possible and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet”.
Unlike Boris Johnson, the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has appeared in public wearing a mask. Neither the prime minister nor the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, wore masks when they visited retailers to mark their reopening.
Speaking at the same meeting hosted by the BMJ, Philippa Whitford, SNP health spokesperson in Westminster and a breast surgeon, said role models could boost takeup. “If you start to get celebrities and others acting as role models [, it could help],” she said. “And so I think making it mandatory is important, but I think also it’s promoting it at every opportunity.”
Ruth Hussey, former chief medical officer for Wales, said: “I think the suggestion that this [wearing face masks] goes along with the wider campaign to eliminate the virus is very sensible, not least because as we go towards winter we will spend more time in enclosed spaces.”
However, there remain sceptics as to the benefits of face coverings. Dr Antonio Lazzarino, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, said the comparison with drink-driving and not wearing a seatbelt was not a valid one.
“We know that drink-driving is a very dangerous thing to do and we know the reasons for that, and the same with seatbelts. We know the mitigation of harm when you have a collision and we know the reasons why that protects you from from concussion,” he said. “So that’s all clear, all the mechanics and the risk are outlined very clearly, there’s no need for further research. We know everything we should know. But this is just not the case at all for face masks.”
Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said the evidence remained mixed but, even if it was not, “mass behavioural change, such as reduction in rates of drink-driving or smoking, do not come about overnight, but from a complex package of incentives, laws, taxes, messages, stories and beliefs.”
Giving details of the information campaign on how to wear masks, Johnson’s official spokesman said: “A face covering should cover both the nose and mouth to reduce the spread of coronavirus droplets, helping to protect others … It is a message we will be keen to emphasise in coming days.”
Johnson has been criticised for delaying the the advice to wear face coverings, when they were already mandatory in several other countries.