Jeremy Howard on Studio 10 - Why we must all now upgrade our masks
00:00:00.000 | Throughout the pandemic, we've been told that one of our best defences against COVID is a mask,
00:00:04.320 | but one expert warns that cloth masks are useless against Omicron.
00:00:08.560 | Yeah, data scientist Jeremy Howard is an honorary professor at the University of Queensland.
00:00:13.280 | He's also the author of the world's biggest study on the effectiveness of face masks,
00:00:17.840 | and he is urging us to ditch our cloth and surgical masks and instead use N95s.
00:00:23.280 | Jeremy joins us now from Brisbane. Jeremy, it's a pleasure to speak to you.
00:00:28.000 | Can you please walk us through why cloth masks are ineffective against Omicron?
00:00:32.800 | Yeah, sure thing, Tristan. After that segment, I feel like I should salute.
00:00:36.720 | I'm not going to do the chicken dance though. Yeah, look, we're all pretty much nowadays wearing
00:00:43.840 | these kind of cloth masks or these kind of surgical masks. Back in March 2020, actually,
00:00:52.000 | we were advising people to use these kinds of masks, partly because that was all that was available.
00:00:57.200 | And partly because at that time, they actually worked pretty well.
00:01:00.720 | Unfortunately, Omicron is such an airborne virus that they're basically totally useless.
00:01:06.960 | I would suggest that the mask mandates we currently have doing nothing at all.
00:01:12.160 | And we all need to be switching to something like this, an N95, or something like this, a KF-94.
00:01:19.120 | There's so many of them around the world now. Unfortunately, our government has completely
00:01:23.520 | failed us by failing to get supply in time, like everything else, rapid tests, and so forth.
00:01:29.120 | But this is not a supply problem. That's really a policy problem. But this is what we need to
00:01:34.000 | actually slow down transmission and get the economy back under control.
00:01:37.280 | What's the difference, Jeremy, with the N95 masks? I mean, I've got the two masks here.
00:01:41.600 | My Channel 10-issued cloth mask and the new N95, which I've been wearing.
00:01:46.880 | What makes it more effective against Omicron? Yeah, so the first one is with the surgical
00:01:53.120 | mask. There's big gaps in the side, right? So when I breathe in, that aerosolized particles,
00:01:59.840 | which is like cigarette smoke, which is how it's transmitted, they go straight through the gap.
00:02:03.280 | And for cloth masks, it's a similar thing, but the gaps are little micro gaps inside the wave.
00:02:08.480 | So there are a couple of key differences. The first is that you'll see when I put this on,
00:02:13.600 | there's no gaps, right? And there's a nice tight fit here. And then the second is that the actual
00:02:22.960 | stuff that this is made of, it's called a melt-blown polypropylene. There aren't the gaps
00:02:29.840 | for the aerosol to get through. So they fix the fit problem and the filter problem. And these,
00:02:35.360 | they cost like two or three dollars. You can use them as many times as you like until the straps
00:02:40.720 | start to fail. And they don't require any kind of special handling or teaching. In hospitals,
00:02:48.960 | they do. But in the community, they don't. They've been well tested for community use
00:02:53.760 | many times over, and they still work really pretty well. You know, if we all had one of these,
00:03:00.960 | that could actually be enough to stop transmission of this virus.
00:03:05.360 | Well, there you go. Look at mine. Mine's already filthy. I've only had it on for an hour this
00:03:09.760 | morning, all the makeup. I wonder, can you wash these, Jeremy?
00:03:12.960 | No, don't wash them. That won't work. Just put up with the makeup. You know, it's okay.
00:03:18.320 | If you can afford to, you know, get a new one each day, but it's purely a cosmetic thing.
00:03:23.840 | There's no medical reason for it. I actually really love these KF-94s that come from Korea.
00:03:30.240 | Look how flat they are. They can slip into your purse or into your pocket. And then, you know,
00:03:35.120 | they've got this very strong protective coating. There's so many good options out there now.
00:03:40.240 | All right. You've got one for my kid. She's six. Oh, wow. Effective and affordable.
00:03:45.120 | Yeah. Appreciate your time, Jeremy. Thanks for joining us.
00:03:47.440 | Yeah, no worries. Take care.