Manage your risk after the end of the mandatory mask

After being forced to do so for nearly two years, Quebecers will soon be masters of their own mask. In closed public places, they will wear it if they want, when they want, where they want. Advice to find your way around better, and to better protect yourself, if necessary.

Catherine Handfield
The Press

As of May 14, Quebec will follow in the footsteps of other Canadian provinces (and pretty much all Western countries) by dropping the obligation to wear a mask in closed public places, with the exception of public transport and care facilities, where it will remain required until further notice. “We are coming to a time when we judge that the conditions are met to no longer make it compulsory”, confirmed on Wednesday the acting national director of public health, the D^r Luc Boileau.

If it will no longer be compulsory, that does not mean that it is forbidden to use it, “it goes without saying”, recalled the D^r Boileau, which invites the population to respect those who will want to continue to wear it, by personal choice or for the sake of protecting others. All indicators are down… but the virus is still circulating.

three elements

The ball is therefore in each individual’s court. According to epidemiologist Caroline Quach, pediatrician and microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU Sainte-Justine, three elements are to be considered in our personal reflection if we wish to continue to wear it.

The first, she says, is our individual tolerance for risk. People who know they are at risk of complications because they are very old, because they have a disease that makes them vulnerable or because they are immunocompromised “should continue to wear the mask, especially indoors”, estimate the D^D Quach. Special circumstances can also influence people’s behavior, such as an impending trip. The D^D Quach went to New York over Easter. “In the two weeks before the trip, I wore my mask everywhere and didn’t go to restaurants, because I wanted to be able to cross the border. »

Second point: the extent of community transmission. If the virus is circulating a lot where you are, people might have the reflex to put on the mask in public. “As long as there is ongoing community transmission, I think I will continue to wear it, especially to protect others,” Dr.^D Quach, who will not prevent himself from going to the restaurant.

Finally, the presence of vulnerable people around can also encourage people to keep the habit beyond May 14, adds the pediatrician.

Choose a good mask

If we rely on the example of other provinces and other countries, the abandonment of the mask in public places may not be instantaneous, but we can expect that, after a few days or a few weeks, uncovered faces are more and more numerous at the grocery store, at the mall, at the theatre.

If only a minority of people wear it, how protected will those people be? The models showed that wearing a mask in public is a more effective measure when many people adhere to it. The effect is multiplicative: the person is not only protected by their mask, but also by those of others.

When everyone wears the mask, transmission is reduced by around 25%, according to modeling by researchers at the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford.

We put the question to Jeremy Howard, professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, and author of a review of the literature published earlier this year in the scientific journal PNAS. “It’s still very useful, he said on the phone, but you will have to be more careful to wear a good mask, and to wear it properly. »

“And with the current variants, only respiratory protection masks like the N95 and KF94 are likely to be highly effective in reducing transmission. The variants are so transmissible that it doesn’t really make sense to use anything else. »

Variable efficiency

Not all masks are equal. A randomized study conducted in Bangladesh, the results of which were published in December in the journal Science linked the cloth face covering to a 5% lower risk, compared to 11% for the surgical mask. Note, however, that these results were achieved when only 42% of participants wore the mask.

When using the surgical mask (the famous blue mask) to protect yourself from COVID-19, its weak point is its tightness. “You see holes in the sides, at least in most people who wear it, notes Jeremy Howard. When you inhale, you draw in most of the air through the sides of the surgical mask and it is not filtered. »

There are ways to make it more effective, says the researcher. You can use the “Knot and Tuck” technique, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States, which consists of tying knots in each loop, as close as possible to the edge of the mask, and to tuck the excess material under the edges of the mask. You can also put a fitted cloth face covering over the surgical mask, says Jeremy Howard.

The D^D Caroline Quach also believes that a person who really needs to protect themselves against COVID-19 would benefit from getting a respiratory protection mask, available in pharmacies. “When it’s properly sealed, there’s nothing that beats this respiratory protection,” says Dr.^D Quach, who also wore her N95 in New York, when she was surrounded by unmasked people.