Letters | Coronavirus and face masks: numbers show the East has something to teach the West
- The lower death rate and fatality in East Asia and even in Western countries that made mask wearing compulsory should encourage people to overcome their antipathy towards face coverings
The confirmed case rate for the East’s sample per 100,000 is only 0.01 per cent, but for the West, it is 1.13 per cent, which is 13 times higher. The East sample’s fatality rate also is only 0.0001 per cent while the West’s is 0.008 per cent.
The ratio of confirmed cases to death in the East is 1.73 per cent while that of the West is 6.22 per cent. When we include China in the East sample, the result is almost the same for the confirmed case and fatality rate; the confirmed case-to-death ratio is an exception.
All other factors remaining equal, the differences in these rates can be accounted for by the practice of wearing masks, even when social distancing and handwashing are controlled for. Thus, wearing masks plays a significant role in containing the spread of Covid-19.
To further support this finding, if we compare the Western sample with another Western country, the Czech Republic, where wearing masks in public is mandatory, the same pattern can be found. Again, masks matter.
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Changing deep-seated cultural resistance to wearing masks in the West will be very difficult, but people must consider wearing them for their own sake and as a collective responsibility to reduce disease transmission, even if in the very short term.
Jaehoon Rhee, director general, Gyeongbuk Technopark Foundation; professor, Yeungnam University, South Korea