key: cord-0817097-lv1xyixn authors: Chiang, Cho-Hung; Chiang, Cho-Hsien; Chiang, Cho-Han title: Letter to editor - Can universal masking help with our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic? date: 2020-05-23 journal: Int J Surg DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.05.058 sha: 6ee72a03a50f33f77a6fdacdc51ed70953087903 doc_id: 817097 cord_uid: lv1xyixn nan The following additional information is required for submission. Please note that failure to respond to these questions/statements will mean your submission will be returned. If you have nothing to declare in any of these categories, then this should be stated. There are no competing interests. No funding. Not applicable. Please enter the name of the registry, the hyperlink to the registration and the unique identifying number of the study. You can register your research at http://www.researchregistry.com to obtain your UIN if you have not already registered your study. This is mandatory for human studies only. 1. Name of the registry: 2. Unique Identifying number or registration ID: 3. Hyperlink to your specific registration (must be publicly accessible and will be checked): Please specify the contribution of each author to the paper, e.g. study design, data collections, data analysis, writing. Others, who have contributed in other ways should be listed as contributors. Cho-Hung Chiang: data collection, data analysis, writing -original draft, review & editing. Cho-Hsien Chiang: data collection and data analysis Cho-Han Chiang: Conceptualization, data analysis, writing -original draft, review & editing. The Guarantor is the one or more people who accept full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish. Please note that providing a guarantor is compulsory. All data are from open access sources and can be shared on request. To the editor: 1 We read with great interest the review conducted by Nicola et al, which countries that did not adopt this practice [5] . The US and the UK, which did not 21 recommend mask wearing until April, have infection rates of 4594 and 3603 per 22 million population, respectively. Even Singapore, which was widely recognized to 23 have good control over the pandemic, experienced a surge of cases in early April and was forced into a nationwide lockdown [6] . It did not recommend the use of mask in 25 the general population until then. production and rationing of mask [8] . The WHO emphasized that all countries must strike a balance between The Socio-Economic Implications of the Coronavirus and COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review Association of Public Health Interventions With the Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Wuhan, China Only strict quarantine measures can curb the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Italy First-wave COVID-19 transmissibility and severity in China outside Hubei after control measures, and second-wave scenario planning: a modelling impact assessment The role of community-wide wearing of face mask for control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic due to SARS-CoV-2 The practice of wearing surgical masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerg Infect Dis Transmission potential and severity of COVID-19 in South Korea Maintaining stockpiles of mask in the COVID-19 pandemic: Taiwan as a learning model Sources of funding: no funding.Disclosures: no competing interests. Not Commissioned, internally reviewed