Why are some governments and agencies willing to recommend mask use when others aren’t, and why are recommendations changing?
Fiona McDonald, Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, together with Professor Claire Horwell from Durham University, has co-written an article for The Conversation UK on face masks and the conflicting advice from governments and agencies.
They discuss the two critical public health principles at the heart of the confusion: the principle of effectiveness and the precautionary principle.
The article, ‘Coronavirus: why you need to wear a face mask in France, but not in the UK’, is available at The Conversation UK.
About Fiona McDonald
Fiona is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and a Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research. Fiona’s research encompasses issues related to health governance and has four broad themes:
- the governance of health and systems (with a focus on rural bioethics and disaster response);
- the governance of health technologies;
- the governance of health professionals; and
- the governance of health organisations.
Fiona’s work has been published in a range of international journals and she has presented at a number of international conferences. You can read more about Fiona in her staff profile.
