Financial Times Europe - 04.04.2020 - 05.04.2020

4 ★ FT Weekend 4 April/5 April 2020

Even proponents of face protection

discourage members of the public from

using high-grade gear such as N95 respi-

rators. Surgical masks normally sold in

shops have also been in short supply in

many places, leaving the alternative of

simple cloth masks.

Anthony Fauci, director of the US

National Institute of Allergy and Infec-

tious Diseases, said this week the coun-

try had been “inhibited” from encour-

aging mask-wearing because it did not

want to “take away the supply of masks

from the healthcare workers”.

The balance is shifting as the pan-

demic grows in western countries and

governments hunt down measures to

try to quell it. Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s

chancellor, acknowledged mask-wear-

ing was culturally “alien” but said the

country had to do everything possible so

it could “quickly return to normality

and a functioning economy”.

Asian countries lead the way

The changing policies in some European

countries move them closer to the posi-

tions of Asian counterparts.

While citizens in western countries

such as the US did resort to face protec-

tion during the so-called Spanish Flu

pandemic in 1918, mask-wearing fell

away again once the threat receded.

Many Asian countries, by contrast,

have been sensitised by being on the

frontline of outbreaks of dangerous dis-

eases, notably the Sars virus in the early

2000s. In China, where the outbreak

began, people have been wearing masks

for several months. Xi Jinping, China’s

president, began wearing one in public

in early February.

Potential pitfalls exacerbated in

poor nations

Masks are not a substitute for other

measures to quell the virus’s spread,

such as large-scale testing, physical dis-

tancing and regular handwashing.

Face gear also needs to be changed

regularly to avoid contamination: a par-

ticular potential problem in poor coun-

tries, where people lack the means to

buy new masks or clean old ones. The

protection’s effectiveness can also fall

away with repeated washing.

While some, including US president

Donald Trump, have suggested home-

made protective gear such as scarves,

experts say such ersatz creations are

less effective at stopping droplets.

They can also become damp and thus

apotential vector for infection since

they lack the inner water absorbent

layer used in surgical masks.

On Mr Trump’s scarf idea, Chen Shih-

chung, Taiwan’s health minister, said

the protection offered would be “very

poor”. But he added, in words that

appear increasingly persuasive to the

west: “Anything is better than nothing”.

Additional reporting by Robin Harding

Notebookpage 8

BBC, with the caveats that the new evi-

dence needed to be supported and

masks properly fitted.

Some say donning facial protection is

an act of wider civic duty. “I wear a mask

to protect you; you wear a mask to pro-

tect me,” said KK Cheng, public health

professor at the UK’s University of Bir-

mingham. “At the end, everyone is pro-

tected if enough people do it.”

Western reluctance could change

One reason for western authorities’ cau-

tion about recommending the wearing

of masks has been concern about short-

ages that has already prompted many

countries to increase local manufactur-

ing and scour the world for supplies.

Taiwan this week pledged to donate

10m face masks to areas hit hard by

the pandemic, including the EU and US.

spread of droplets in crowded environ-

ments such as on public transport. They

can help stop the contamination of sur-

faces and goods in supermarkets.

In many European countries, official

advice has concentrated on rigorous

hand hygiene and for people to main-

tain a distance of two metres.

But David Heymann, chair of a WHO

advisory panel on infectious hazards,

said he was considering new

research, including a Massa-

chusetts Institute of Tech-

nology study, suggesting

droplets from sneezes can

travel up to eight metres.

“It might be that wearing

a mask is equally as

effective or more

effective than dis-

tancing,” he told the

M I C H A E L P E E L— B R U S S E L S
K A N A I N AG A K I— TO K YO
K AT H R I N H I L L E— TA I P E I

European countries have begun to
embrace the mass public use of face
masks to combat coronavirus in a grow-
ing trend that mimics longstanding anti-
pandemic measures in parts of Asia.
Austria this week followed Slovakia,
the Czech Republic and Bosnia-Herze-
govina by saying it would be compul-
sory for people to wear the protective
gear outside the home, even though the
World Health Organization does not
recommend such a move.
In a sign that the debate is shifting,
the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention in the US this week said it is was
reconsidering whether to recommend
face gear to the general public, rather
than only those caring for a sick person.

Can masks halt the spread?

Most experts agree wearing a face mask
can stop some virus-laden watery drop-
lets that are thought to be a main coro-
navirus vector and are expelled into the
air when a person coughs, sneezes or
just breathes out. More contentious is
whether they help reduce the risk of a
person becoming infected by inhaling
the virus through their nose or ingesting
via the mouth.
A big problem in determining their
effectiveness has been the lack of proper
clinical trials on the impact of masks on
viral infection rates. Such tests are diffi-
cult to conduct because of the large
number of variables, according to Paul
Hunter, professor in medicine at the
University of East Anglia in the UK.
He said less rigorous studies of flu did
suggest some benefits to mask-wearers.
These were hard to quantify but they
could include preventing you from
touching your mouth or nose and infect-
ing yourself with viruses picked up from
contaminated surfaces.
“The balance of evidence is pointing
towards some protective effect,” said
Prof Hunter. “You have to be careful
about poor quality evidence. But it is not
no evidence.”
Yet some authorities are holding firm
to recommendations not to use them.
“Wearing face masks to prevent coro-
navirus infection only makes sense in
hospitals where patients with the coro-
navirus are treated and in laboratories
where specimens of these patients are
tested,” states Belgium’s official advice.
“For the time being, wearing face masks
in public places has no added value at
all.”

‘Everyone is protected if

enough people do it’

Proponents of masks say
their primary value is less
to protect the wearer than
to prevent that person
from infecting others.
They help curb the

C O R O N AV I R U S

Face mask debate shifts as west looks

to adopt measure long trusted in Asia

Some nations change tack while others rethink whether covering mouth and nose is a lifesaver

Sizes compared

Sources: EPA; FT research

Mask types

Sources: CDC; FT research

How far droplets travel

Sources: MIT; FT research

Cross-sections

Surgical mask N/FFP mask

 metres

 metres

Exhalation

Cough

Up to  metres

Sneeze

Surgical masks oer protection against

large-particle droplets. But they do not

block smaller particles in coughs and

sneezes. They fit loosely and are

intended to be used once

If the mask-wearer has a beard

or facial deformity it can

prevent a seal being formed

A respirator such as the N or FFP forms

a tight seal around the nose and mouth and

is designed to block even small particles. But

it can be ineective if not fitted correctly

Loose

fitting

allows

leakage

Tight-

fitting

seal

Two-way

filtering

valve

* Virus carried in larger droplets that eventually evaporate

Human hair:

- microns (μm)

New coronavirus: μm*

Dust particle: μm

ST E FA N I A PA L M A— S I N G A P O R E

Singapore is to step up its social dis-

tancing measures as it faces a jump in

locally transmitted coronavirus cases.

In the early days of the pandemic, the

city-state was praised for its response as

it successfully contained the spread of

the disease through aggressive testing

and tracing victims’ contacts. Only five

people have died.

But now Singapore is struggling

against a new wave of infection not

linked to previous victims of the

disease.

The south-east Asian country has

1,114 cases of coronavirus, up 52 per

cent from a week ago. Locally transmit-

ted infections with no links to previous

sufferers account for nearly half the

cases reported daily.

Authorities have warned the public to

stay at home and avoid mixing with

individuals outside their households.

People have been told to go out only for

essential services, to buy food or takea-

way meals from restaurants — where

dining-in will be suspended — or for

exercising in parks at a safe distance.

“We have kept the outbreak under

control,” Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore’s

prime minister, said in a national

address yesterday. “But looking at the

trend, I am worried that unless we take

further steps things will gradually get

worse, or another big cluster may push

things over the edge.”

The new measures will run from April

7 to May 4, with the option to extend.

Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the

emerging infectious diseases pro-

gramme at Duke-National University of

Singapore Medical School, said the rise

in the number of unlinked cases was “a

little bit worrying”, but he added that

the new measures were more “pre-emp-

tive than necessary”.

Singapore’s schools and universities

will shut from Wednesday next week

while work premises, except for essen-

tial services and those in critical eco-

nomic sectors, will close. Supermarkets,

hospitals, utilities, transport and critical

banking services will remain open.

As well as the new measures on social

distancing, Singapore has also changed

its stance on the wearing of masks. It will

no longer discourage people from using

them, after originally advising that only

individuals feeling unwell should wear

the protective gear.

Some experts believe demographics

have played a part in keeping Singa-

pore’s coronavirus death toll low. Most

of its confirmed cases have been in those

younger than 65.

But Prof Ooi said a recent increase in

younger patients, whose typically

milder symptoms make them more

infectious carriers and harder to detect,

might have contributed to accelerating

local transmission.

G U Y C H A Z A N , JA M E S P O L I T I
A N D V I C TO R M A L L E T

Protective medical equipment made
by US manufacturer 3M and bound for
Germany was intercepted in Thailand
and diverted to the US, in an incident a
senior German official described as
“modern piracy”.

The city of Berlin had ordered special
FFP2 and FFP3 masks used to protect
emergency staff and care workers from
infection with coronavirus. The order
was for 200,000 such masks, according
to German newspaper Tagesspiegel.
Berlin’s interior minister, Andreas
Geisel, confirmed that the consignment
had been “confiscated” in Bangkok and
never reached Berlin.
“We consider that an act of modern
piracy,” he said. “You don’t treat your
transatlantic partners like that.”
News of the confiscation came after

the White House tried to force 3M to

export masks to the US from its hub in

Singapore, as the federal government

moves to secure critical medical sup-

plies needed to prevent the spread of

coronavirus and treat infected patients.

The company this week resisted

demands by White House officials to

send about 10m N95 respirator masks

being produced in Singapore for mar-

kets in Asia to the US, according to a per-

son with direct knowledge of the matter.

On Thursday, President Donald

Trump invoked his authority under a

Korean war-era law, the Defense Pro-

duction Act, with regard to 3M’s N

respirator masks. The Federal Emer-

gency Management Agency (Fema) is

now allowed to use “any and all author-

ity” to buy “the number of N95 respira-

tors” it “determines to be appropriate”

from 3M and its subsidiaries, according

to the wording of the act.

“We hit 3M hard today after seeing

what they were doing with their Masks,”

Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday

evening. “Big surprise to many in gov-

ernment as to what they were doing —

will have a big price to pay!”

In a statement yesterday, 3M said the

company was going “above and beyond”

to boost production of N95 masks for

the US market. It confirmed that the

Trump administration had “requested

that 3M increase the amount of respira-

tors we currently import from our over-

seas operations into the US”, noting that

it had secured the exports from China.

The company also said the adminis-

tration had requested that it “cease

exporting respirators” from the US to

Canadian and Latin American markets,

but said this would also trigger a

humanitarian crisis in those countries

and would end up backfiring on Amer-

ica, since the US would face retaliation.

D E M E T R I S E VA STO P U LO A N D

B R E N DA N G R E E L E Y— WA S H I N GTO N

When the sun rose over New Orleans on

Thursday, residents of the “Big Easy”

learnt that Ellis Marsalis, a legendary

jazz pianist and local hero, had joined

the more than 6,000 Americans who

have died from coronavirus.

His death stunned the city that gave

birth to jazz. But it was also a devastat-

ing reminder that 15 years after Hurri-

cane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the

city is battling an even deadlier storm.

New Orleans is a hotspot for coronavi-

rus in the US. The state of Louisiana has

reported 9,000 coronavirus cases, only

2,000 fewer than California which has

eight times the population. New Orle-

ans, a city on the Gulf of Mexico, and its

surrounding parishes have 5,300 cases,

and the metropolitan area’s death toll

has topped 230, just below California’s.

Cedric Richmond, a New Orleans con-

gressman, said he could tell how bad

things were without even looking at the

statistics. “Just from the number of peo-

ple that I personally know that are not

making it every day, I think that over the

next 14 days you will see that big spike,”

said Mr Richmond, who is co-chair of

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Just weeks ago, even as the virus had

begun to take hold in the US, crowds of

revellers thronged the streets of New

Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. Now

Bourbon Street, famous for its bars and

jazz clubs and the heart of the city’s cul-

tural identity, is boarded up.

“Now the rats in the French quarter

don’t have enough food, so they are

coming out,” said Molly Lindsey, a

local. “There is never a dull moment.”

Two weeks ago, Jay Forman, owner of

Gracious Bakery, had three stores and

60 employees. Now he has one store and

two staff: himself and his wife, Megan.

Katrina was “like a nuclear bomb” but

this is worse, he said. “This is more like

the city got hit by a neutron weapon and

it eradicated everything alive.”

While the streets and restaurants of

New Orleans are emptying, its hospitals

are filling up. One doctor on the front

line who contracted the virus said hos-

pitals had enough beds now, but only

because some were converting wards

into intensive care units. She said staff

were having to wear surgical masks,

which are normally discarded after see-

ing a patient, for two weeks.

In an ominous sign for older residents,

she said only patients younger than 60

seemed to survive after being hooked

up to a ventilator. “The older patients

just don’t come back.”

She said one of the most pressing

questions was just how bad the spike

will be: “We’re not where New York is

right yet, but the next two weeks is going

to determine if we run out of ICU beds,

run out of ventilators.”

The week-long Mardi Gras celebra-

tions, attracting tens of thousands of vis-

itors from all over the world, provided

the perfect conditions for the disease to

spread in New Orleans. The lack of coro-

navirus testing in Louisiana and across

the US masked the problem.

Chris Frederick, a Texan working on

an oil rig in the Gulf, was evacuated to

New Orleans after developing symp-

toms of Covid-19. The helicopter pilot

flying him back to shore wore protective

clothing, but when he was examined in a

hospital in the city, the doctor did not

wear gloves. The paramedic with him

was stunned to watch the scene: “He

was like, ‘Wow does he know that you’re

a potential Covid patient?’”

Beyond the humanitarian crisis, the

pandemic is delivering a crippling eco-

nomic blow. More than 169,000 Louisi-

ana residents filed jobless claims over

the past fortnight, a staggering 3.6 per

cent of the population. The state already

has the third-highest employment rate

in the country, at 5.2 per cent.

Trombone Shorty, one of the world’s

best-known jazz trombonists, said

musicians in his home city were strug-

gling. But he said the people of New

Orleans have a necessary note in their

repertoire: resilience.

“We can get knocked down a million

times, but we roll with the punches,” he

said. “It‘s just another event that hap-

pens in life, but there is no way that the

people of New Orleans will ever give up.”

Medical supplies

Berlin-bound vital equipment diverted to US

Louisiana.Hotspot

New Orleans battles deadly storm

Fifteen years after Hurricane

Katrina caused havoc, the city

of jazz faces another onslaught

Social distancing

Singapore

tightens

rules amid

‘worrying’ rise

in infections

Jazz legend Ellis

Marsalis died from

the virus this

week. He was one

of 9,000 reported

cases in Louisiana

Precaution:

Markus Söder,

the minister-

president of

Bavaria in

Germany, wears

a face mask

during a public

visit on

Thursday

Contracts & Tenders

APRIL 4 2020 Section:World Time: 3/4/2020 - 18: 31 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD3 USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 4 , 1