Public awareness campaign needed on wearing masks and not visor
- All studies show visors are not effective
Labour Leader and Health Spokesperson, Alan Kelly TD, has called for a public awareness campaign emphasising the wearing of masks and not visors.
Deputy Kelly raised the matter in the Dáil with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Deputy Kelly said:
“While people who wear visors do so with the best of intentions, the most recent medical advice states that masks offer far better protection than visors which are barely effective as droplets from exhaled breath can be released beneath the visor.
“I asked the Taoiseach and Minister Donnelly twice about this and there is a need for a clearly communicated public awareness campaign stressing the effectiveness of masks over visors and advising people to wear a mask and not a visor.
“The misuse of visors across the country and amongst certain Deputies in Leinster House is not helping in our collective fight against Covid-19. The medical advice is clear and unambiguous in that masks are far more effective against the transmission of the virus and that people who wear face visors instead of masks may be putting themselves at greater risk from the illness.
“At present the guidance from the HSE states that you must wear a face covering including a visor in shops and other congregated settings. We now know that visors are at best barely effective and we need clear unambiguous advice from NPHET, the HSE and Government advising people to wear facemasks and not visors.”