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kilkennyobserver.ie
The Kilkenny Observer Friday 10 September 2021
News
A LARGE, real-world test of face masks in Bangladesh shows that masks work to reduce community spread of Covid-19. It also shows that surgical masks are more effective than cloth face coverings. The study, which was published ahead of peer review, demonstrates the power of careful investigation and offers a host of lessons about mask wearing that will be important worldwide. One key finding of the study, for example, is that wearing a mask doesn’t lead people to abandon social distancing, something public health officials had feared might happen if masks gave people a false sense of security. “What we really were able to achieve is to demonstrate that masks are effective against Covid-19, even under a rigorous and systematic evaluation that was done in the throes of the pandemic,” said Ashley Styczynski, MD, who was an infectious disease fellow at Stanford University when she collaborated on the study with other colleagues at Stanford, Yale, and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a large research and policy nonprofit organisation that currently
Masks DO work, study shows, so wear one! works in 22 countries. “And so, I think people who have been holding out on wearing masks because [they] felt like there wasn’t enough evidence for it, we’re hoping this will really help bridge that gap for them,” she said.
It included more than 600 unions — or local governmental districts in Bangladesh — and roughly 340,000 people. Half of the districts were given cloth or surgical face masks along with continual reminders to wear them properly; the
other half were tracked with no intervention. Blood tests of people who developed symptoms during the study verified their infections. Compared to villages that didn’t mask, those in which masks of any type were worn
Significant fall in numbers now contacting the virus THE latest data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre shows a further reduction in the 14-day incidence of Covid-19 in Ireland. Data compiled up to September 1 puts the 14-day incidence at 491 cases for every 100,000 people. Under its most recent optimistic projections, Nphet suggested that daily cases numbers could reach 3,000 a day, by the middle of this month. The latest HPSC report puts the average daily case numbers for the two weeks to 1 September at 1,670. Nphet also projected up to 700 hospitalisations and 130 patients in ICU by the middle of September. As of this morning, there were 394 with the virus in hospitals, an increase of 22 on the same time yesterday. Of these, 59 patients were in intensive care units. Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid said that 9,500 people were given vaccines at walk-in vaccination centres over last weekend. In a post on Twitter, he said that over 50% of those who
had about 9% fewer symptomatic cases of Covid-19. The finding was statistically significant and was unlikely to have occurred by chance alone. “Somebody could read this study and say, ‘OK, you reduced Covid-19 by 9%. Big
deal.’ And what I would respond to that would be that if anything, we think that that is a substantial underestimate,” Styczynski said. One reason they think they underestimated the effectiveness of masks is that they only tested people who were having symptoms, so people who had only very mild or asymptomatic infections were missed. Another reason is that among people who had symptoms, only one third agreed to undergo a blood test. The effect may have been bigger had participation been universal. Local transmission may have played a role, too. Rates of Covid-19 in Bangladesh were relatively low during the study. Most infections were caused by the B.1.1.7, or Alpha, variant. Since then, Delta has taken over. Delta is thought to be more transmissible, and some studies have suggested that people infected with Delta shed more viral particles. Masks may be more effective when more virus is circulating. The investigators also found important differences by age and by the type of mask. Villages in which surgical masks were worn had 11% fewer Covid-19 cases than villages in which masks were not worn. In villages in which cloth masks were worn, on the other hand, infections were reduced by only 5%.
Local groups urged to seek virus grants KILKENNY communities and local groups are being invited to apply for grants which can help them ‘Recover Better’ as the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Community Foundation for Ireland has re-opened its Covid-19 Recovery Fund in response to research which shows that voluntary, community and charitable groups in Kilkenny and across the country are struggling to meet demand for lifeline supports and services. According to the Charities Regulator, 74% of charities reported a severe impact on their organisation’s income for 2020.
The Wheel, the national association of community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises, has published that 82% of charities are very concerned about whether they will have sufficient funds to provide their services in 2021. The Community Foundation, which is providing the support from private donations, says its aim is to ensure communities in Kilkenny recover better than the pre-pandemic status quo. To achieve this ambitious goal there are two areas which have been identified as needing immediate support. A total of €580,000 is being made available.
Pandemics not that unlikely, says science attended were in the 12 to 15 age group. More than 6.9 million vaccines have been administered so far and around 89% of the adult population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with around 92% partially vaccinated.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the seventh millionth vaccine dose will be administered this week and the impact of Ireland’s vaccination programme continues to be seen across the population. He tweeted that the “downward trend in Covid-19 in-
fections is now also very evident in younger age groups”. Mr Donnelly said that people need to continue to be safe and added that “Covid-19 hasn’t gone away. The 14-day incidence rates for those aged between 35-44 is similar to that of those aged over 85”.
THE pandemic may be the deadliest viral outbreak the world has seen in more than a century but, statistically, such extreme events aren’t that rare, a new study shows. The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used a newly assembled record of novel disease outbreaks in the past 400 years to estimate the intensity of those events and the yearly probability of them recurring.
It found the probability of a pandemic with similar impact to Covid-19 is about 2% in any year, meaning that someone born in the year 2000 would have about a 38% chance of experiencing one by now. And that probability is growing. “The most important takeaway is that large pandemics are relatively likely,” says William Pan, associate professor of global environmental health at Duke University.
