Facemasks can give people immunity & reduce severity of COVID-19 infection: Study

A new academic research has found that the universal use of the protective face covering will not only provide immunity against the novel coronavirus, but will also reduce the severity of the illness in case of pathogen’s contraction. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on September 25 said that the use of face masks by the majority population ensures that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic. The researchers argue, that while the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, wide-scale use of masks can turn to a form of variolation (inoculation) against the disease and can generate slow immunity, thereby, reducing the contagion of the virus. 

A separate study published in The Lancet last month backed the universal mask-wearing, saying, scientific evidence suggests that the severity of the coronavirus illness depends on the amount of pathogen an individual is exposed to. And therefore, the symptom of the illness is determined from the initial exposure to the infectious dose or the virus load that enters the respiratory system. Masks could significantly reduce and even prohibit the coronavirus particles from entering the mouth and nose. “Viral load at diagnosis was an “independent predictor of mortality in hospital patients'', The Lancet report read. 

Hence, the wearer of the mask can reduce the impact of the coronavirus, and the overall impact of the COIVD-19 disease by controlling the infectious dose and filtering out the coronavirus loaded aerosols. Scientists in the new research suggest that this could mean that the large-scale mask-wearing by the population might ensure a higher proportion of asymptomatic Covid-19 infections.

“A low viral load can be enough to induce an immune response, which is effectively what a typical vaccine does,” the commentary in the medical journal stated.

Read: CDC Chief Says Face Masks May Provide Better Protection Against COVID-19 Than Vaccine

Read: Study: Household Fabrics Masks Effective Against Coronavirus Transmission

Experiment proved mask efficacy

While the research is subject to a more clinical study, scientists noted that the laboratory experiments conducted by a team of researchers in China found that hamsters that were housed behind the surgical masks enclosures in the experiment were less likely infected from coronavirus, and those that did contract the virus showed less severe symptoms that the hamsters without the protection. 

Infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Monica Gandhi, one of the lead authors of the research paper, told Sunday Telegraph that to test the variolation hypothesis, more studies comparing the strength and durability of SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell immunity between people with an asymptomatic infection and those with symptomatic infection is needed. She added, that the scientists also needed demonstrations of natural slowing of SARS-CoV-2 spread in areas with a high proportion of asymptomatic infections.

Read: COVID-19: How Different Masks Stop The Virus; US Researchers Conduct A Study

Read: Dr Anthony Fauci: Wear Masks, Keep Distant After Vaccine

Image Credits: PTI