National
Australia’s about-face on masks and Covid-19: why our health advice was late to the party – The Guardian
Experts say masks reduce the amount of pathogens people inhale and also help stop asymptomatic carriers from spreading coronavirus. So why weren’t the public told much earlier?
Can wearing a face mask or covering our nose and mouth protect us from Covid-19 or help stop the disease from spreading?
In the early months of the pandemic, the advice from health authorities to the general public was that while masks could stop sick people from infecting others, there was little evidence that masks protected people who were not sick.
But in recent weeks, that advice has shifted both globally and in Australia.
From Thursday, people in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell shir…
