While we agree that structural interventions, such as policies requiring that masks be worn when entering stores or other public places, play an important role in promoting consistent mask wearing, we assert that encouraging the proper and consistent use of face masks will require a broader effort-an effort that employs a variety of science-based interventions to promote this protective behavior. Currently, much of the discussion surrounding mask wearing as a strategy to prevent the further spread of SARS-CoV-2 has focused on the need for mandatory regulations to enforce consistent use. This rather metaphorical comparison is offered not as an exercise in intellectual calisthenics, but to assert that efforts to promote the consistent and proper use of face masks to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 will require the same breadth of scientific underpinning that went into our national efforts to promote condom use during the first decades of the AIDS epidemic. And finally, the uptake of both of these prevention practices can be significantly influenced by our own attitudes as well as the attitudes and practices of our peers and other, so-called, opinion leaders. Just as there are incorrect ways to don and doff a condom, masks, too, can be worn in a fashion that defeats their intended purpose.
#Barriers to diffusion of disease how to
Furthermore, despite documented efficacy, the prevention effectiveness of both requires ready access to the needed gear along with the knowledge and skills of how to properly and consistently use said gear. Both actions are often perceived as inconvenient or troublesome, fettering as they do, natural biologic activities. Yet, on closer consideration, there are discernable similarities between these two practices. Not only do they involve distinctly different features of the human anatomy but the latter (i.e., mask wearing) is a practice typically adopted in public venues, while the former takes place in the most private of settings. At first blush, these two activities would seem to have very little in common. Let’s consider two seemingly unrelated protective behaviors: using a condom to interrupt the transmission of HIV and wearing a mask to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
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