MrFoolish wrote:Well this would be my question to Hallucigenia. Given that people can and do die of the flu, in the absence of covid, would he still want pharmacists to wear masks to protect against the flu? I suppose it boils down to how much risk we are prepared to live with as a society.
I would note that it is culturally normal in many Asian societies for regular Joes to wear masks just on trains etc without an issue - it's not like a full NBC suit or something. (and if you have problems with glasses steaming up - either get a noseclip or get an N95 or better, the better fit means steaming up is far less of an issue.)
It's complicated as the risks vary through time, on the location, and on what viruses are prevalent at the time - flu does not behave the same as SARS2 which is almost entirely airborne. For instance
Zhang & Li suggest that in an aircraft cabin flu spreads predominantly by close contact with only about a third airborne, whereas that goes up to 55% airborne in an office. And if norovirus is on the loose then you worry less about airborne spread and a lot more about fomites, so not so much masks and a lot more cleaning of hands and high-touch surfaces.
One doesn't have to be absolute about these things - but if my dentist has always worn a surgical mask then I don't see why pharmacists couldn't at least wear masks during September/October and whenever flu flares up. We have the technology to be a bit more responsive to risk these days - for instance I've heard of schools in Boston who base their Covid mask policy on what wastewater testing says. If there's a lot of Covid in sewage and hence in the local population - then N95's are mandatory, but if levels in wastewater drop, then they become optional.
And I don't think it's unreasonable for pharmacies to be one of the places that has to display a CO2 meter, in the same way that
Belgian law requires of restaurants, cinemas and gyms etc - it's rubbish how the CO2 monitoring message just hasn't really penetrated here in the UK compared to other places.