Addressing conflicting views on wearing of facemask by the public to combat COVID-19: experiences from the East Asia region

Abstract

The practice of wearing a mask to prevent new coronavirus infection has caught media attention and raised concern in some quarters of the medical community. This paper looks into the issue’s socio-cultural background and the science of droplet transmission to seek for answers, with a call for the WHO to take into account in its interim guidance document the experiences of East Asian countries when further refining its recommendation on masking in the community.