The finding comes amid evidence that vaccination efforts are not enough to prevent a resurgence
As Covid-19 returns to Europe, a study offers a reminder that simple measures like wearing a mask and washing hands will help prevent the disease.
According to a review of eight studies published in the British Medical Journal, wearing a mask cuts the risk of contracting Covid by more than half. Hand washing too. Meanwhile, physical distancing cuts the risk by a quarter.
The finding comes amid evidence that vaccination efforts have not been enough to prevent outbreaks from returning as temperatures drop and people gather indoors, forcing countries including Austria and the Netherlands. Lan must introduce restrictive measures.
Authors include Stella Talic, study lead and epidemiologist, including that the control of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to mean that further control of the Covid-19 pandemic depends not only on the rate of the Covid-19 pandemic. its high and effective vaccination rates but also on the continued adherence to effective and sustainable public health measures. at Monash University in Melbourne, said in the paper.
The scientists struggled to evaluate public health measures and said they were unable to evaluate other efforts such as quarantines, lockdowns and school closures because the studies were so varied. They called for more research, saying their findings were limited by the lack of reliable and comparable data.
An accompanying editorial in the BMJ says funding for public health measures accounts for only 4% of all global Covid research.
“Given the central importance of public and social health measures to pandemic control, the uncertainty and controversy surrounding their impact, and the enormous research effort put into in vaccine and drug development, the lack of investment in public health measures is puzzling,” Paul Glasziou, Director of the Evidence-Based Health Care Institute at Australia’s Bond University, wrote. in an editorial with scientists from the UK and Norway.
Glasziou and his colleagues also sought to explain the researchers’ hand-washing findings — a surprising conclusion considering the predominant transmission of coronaviruses by air. The results may reflect how people who wash their hands frequently also tend to take other steps.
They said: “The ability to wash hands is a marker for some protective behaviors such as avoiding crowds, looking away and wearing masks.
