Covid 19 expert urges public to mask up, save lives

Photo / Samuel Rillstone / via RNZ

By RNZ

Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations are surging across the motu, but lackadaisical mask wearing is becoming increasingly common, concerning public health specialists.

Auckland University epidemiologist Rod Jackson said he sympathised with the public view and, like everyone, he was over the pandemic as well.

Unfortunately the pandemic was not done, he said.

"The sharp end of Covid-19 is happening at hospitals and in mortuaries at the moment. It's just that most people don't see it."

The public, many of whom had caught Covid-19 and dealt with a mild case themselves, were sheltered from the severe end of the disease, Jackson said.

But the numbers were startling.

"It's in the order of one in 10 of all deaths at the moment - if not more. But fortunately for most people death is not something they experience every day in their families. So hospitalisations and deaths are invisible to most people.

"It is an issue ... trying to motivate people when they don't see the problem is extremely difficult."

New Zealand was on track for one of its deadliest years in a long time.

Better vaccines would provide the long-term solution, but with the seven-day average of cases approaching 10,000 again - and climbing - now might be the time to reassess mask mandates, Jackson said.

Southern DHB deputy chairman and Otago University public health professor Peter Crampton said mask wearing attitudes needed to change or stronger rules might be needed to force the issue.

"I've got many health professional friends and colleagues who've been working throughout the entire Covid pandemic in high-risk circumstances for the transmission of Covid and with conscientious basic measures like mask wearing and hand washing, they've avoided getting Covid. And if they can avoid getting Covid, then so can we all."

A belief among some that catching Covid-19 was inevitable was not helping, Crampton said.

"I think the fatalistic viewpoint, to the extent there is one, is very unhelpful and it's not true.

"It doesn't reflect reality. If we are apathetic and complacent then yes, we certainly increase our chances of getting Covid. But it's not a certainty. People do not have to get Covid."