Medical bodies in chorus of condemnation against anti-facemask protestors

The specialist medical associations and colleges of Malta have strongly condemned a judicial protest instituted by a group of persons who claim the use of face-masks without the declaration of a public health emergency, was a breach of their fundamental rights.

James DeGaetano, president of the Malta College of Pathologists, said the protest was a “hotch-potch of senseless allegations that completely lack scientific basis and which are very dangerous in a climate that is already fraught with mixed messages.”

DeGaetano said that every single assertion made in the protest had been debunked by irrefutable scientific evidence. “The mortality of COVID-19 is, at least, ten times that of seasonal influenza. The protection afforded by the wearing masks in closed spaces as well as the importance of social distancing continues to be highlighted in ever increasing publications.”

DeGaetano said that pathologists, as experts in the field of testing, could reassure the public that the PCR test for COVID-19 was extremely sensitive and specific.

“It’s the gold standard of testing. To claim that this test has a false positivity rate of 90% is simply beyond rational comprehension. And if this group wants ‘clear and realistic reason(s) for the cause of deaths of people who succumbed to COVID-19’s effects’, they only need to talk to our colleagues in intensive care and infectious diseases, who care for these sick patients on a daily basis and will tell them very clearly whether COVID-19 is a hoax or not.”

The protestors have claimed that the Public Health Superintendent has created a ‘national panic’ by giving a picture of the pandemic in Malta that was graver than reality.

“The College reiterates that the measures currently in place are not enough to bring down the numbers of infections, hospital admissions and deaths,” DeGaetano insisted.

“We’re not happy with the ‘stable’ numbers of daily cases because these numbers are still too high. Mater Dei Hospital is struggling to cope with seriously ill COVID-19 patients and this is having a negative effect on the wellbeing of the entire population as many services have had to be curtailed.

“It is crucial at this junction that everybody works together to ensure that our control of this virus is improved to avoid more negative effects on our health and the economy. At a time when the availability of a vaccine is on the horizon, the last thing we need are frivolous and ludicrous stunts.”

The statement was signed by the Malta College of Pathologists, Malta College of Family Doctors, Malta College of Gynaecologists, Malta Association of Public Health Medicine , Malta Association of Surgeons, Malta Association of Ophthalmologists, Malta Association of Radiologists and Nuclear Medicine, Malta Association of Dermatology and Venereology, Maltese Cardiac Society, Association of Anaesthetists of Malta, Association of Emergency Physicians of Malta, Geriatric Medicine Society and the Association of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeons.