Taiwanese doctor says wearing a face mask more effective than social distancing

How effective are safe distancing measures against the spread of the coronavirus?

Not as effective as wearing a mask, argues Taiwanese infectious disease doctor Lee Ping-ing.

By maintaining some distance between one another, it helps to protect oneself from possible infection by respiratory droplets — typically spread by talking, sneezing and coughing.

But against those, wouldn't a mask be able to protect you better? After all, the point of wearing a mask is to reduce the spread of droplets.

"Social distancing is very difficult to implement effectively," he explained in an interview with Taiwanese news site ETtoday on Wednesday (April 1).

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"You're still going to pass by people in places like toilets," he said. Couples would also return to the same home and, potentially, the same bed too, making any social distancing effort a moot point, he asserted.

As of today (April 4), Taiwan rolled out social distancing measures and on top of that, implemented a fine on people who do not wear masks while on public transport.

However, with surgical face masks being ever so elusive nowadays, many have turned to using reusable masks instead, including Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's prime minister. 

"Any masks will be better than no masks,"wrote Ho Ching in a Facebook post on Wednesday. "We don't need a hospital-grade surgical mask for general public use, as the chances of meeting a really sick patient are low."

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Instead, surgical masks should be saved for frontline workers, she says. 

If you're looking to make your own mask, there are tutorials online, or you could wait for the government to distribute some this Sunday (April 5).

rainercheung@asiaone.com