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The use of facemasks may not lead to an increase in hand–face contact
Author(s) -
Tao Zhiyong,
Dong Juan,
Culleton Richard
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
transboundary and emerging diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.392
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1865-1682
pISSN - 1865-1674
DOI - 10.1111/tbed.13698
Subject(s) - face masks , social distance , covid-19 , face (sociological concept) , psychology , health professionals , lead (geology) , internet privacy , medicine , outbreak , business , health care , computer science , political science , virology , sociology , biology , law , paleontology , social science , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Advocacy of the use of facemasks by the public as a measure against the spread of COVID‐19 is controversial, with some healthcare professionals arguing that the use of a face mask may increase the rate at which people touch their faces, due to readjusting the mask. We assessed the facial touching behaviour of bus passengers in China before and after the outbreak of COVID‐19 and found that wearing a face mask does not increase the number of hand‐face contacts and is likely, therefore, to have a positive beneficial effect on suppressing the spread of COVID‐19 within populations when used in conjunction with social distancing measures.