View mask refusers like drink drivers: leading scientist

Paris: People who refuse to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic should be stigmatised the same as drink drivers, the head of the prestigious Royal Society science journal said Tuesday. The comments from Venki Ramakrishnan come as two new peer-reviewed studies showed how wearing face coverings may help significantly reduce the spread of viruses such as COVID-19. “It used to be quite normal to have quite a few drinks and drive home, and it also used to be normal to drive without seatbelts,” Ramakrishnan wrote in a comment article. “Today both of those would be considered antisocial, and not wearing face coverings in public should be regarded in the same way. Ramakrishnan stressed how masks are only genuinely effective if worn by most people. “If all of us wear one, we protect each other and thereby ourselves, reducing transmission,” he said. The COVID-19 pandemic has spread at different speeds throughout the world and there are a number of public health interventions that appear to have flattened the curve of localised new infections, including lockdowns and social distancing.