Complete Guide to Wearing Face Masks
The New York Times and Washington Post have now come around to a position I advocated for here on Medium last week: We should always all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, but ALL of us. Each time we exit in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Research from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing hands 10+ occasions each day was fifty five% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was truly more efficient, reducing transmission by about 68%.
Combining a number of types of protection — hand washing, masks wearing, gloves, and one other layer of outerwear (gowning) — was ninety one% effective.
Read that once more: 91% effective at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are similar types of viruses (coronaviruses), and it makes sense that what works to cease transmission for one will work to cease transmission of the other.
Masks work, first, because they are a physical barrier to whatever’s driving alongside on that air you’re breathing or moving through. Right here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for varied supplies:
Secondly, they work because they maintain you from touching your face all day long. The mask makes you more self-conscious of the fact that you’re not supposed to touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nostril, and eyes, and the areas round them- and when you accidentally do, you’ll touch the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of different countries who masks show that masks work in the real world. In the words of Jeremy Howard, researcher and Masks4All activist, explaining a chart in his latest Youtube video showing how some nations have successfully “flattened the curve” on new infections: “If you have a look at all of the countries which have flat curves, they’re nations the place mask-wearing is extremely normal, and NOT wearing a masks in places like public transport would be considered anti-social.” He notes that the Czech Republic went from zero masks usage to 100% in 10 days, and in the process they halted the growth of new covid-19 cases. The Czechs made their own masks- the government didn’t give them out.
Should you nonetheless should be persuaded, check out this Chinese research of a neighborhood outbreak case on January 22 during the peak Lunar New Year travel season. A sick particular person on the bus who didn’t interact with anybody spread the virus to 7 others, some of whom had been seated much more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus 30 minutes after the original sick particular person had left the bus. NONE OF THE PEOPLE WEARING MASKS WERE INFECTED. Read the article, it’s very detailed, with a schematic of precisely where people were sitting on the bus.
So let’s say you’re convinced, and now you’re thinking of some form of face covering. What are your options?
First, please don’t buy masks commercially, if by some miracle you could find them now. Commercially made PPE must be reserved for medical personnel at this time. Sadly, the scarcity of commercially made PPE, and the lack of foresight that caused us to be in such a position of shortage, is probably why we initially received this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, folks just didn’t want you to understand it for a while, to keep away from a run on masks. Think of the empty shelves in supermarkets throughout America the place toilet paper used to live, and also you understand why.
The simplest thing you are able to do to mask NOW are to make use of materials around the house. Get creative; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s finest if the mask suits well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t give up in your homemade mask should you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will keep you from touching the skin round your nostril and mouth directly, which may grow to be a very powerful mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. In case you inadvertently touch your face while you’re wearing a mask, you’ll just contact the mask, not your skin.
You may try to form your face covering using pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips within the part that goes over your nostril to make a tighter match — experiment. The most important thing is that you wash your palms, put on your face covering, and exit of the house protected.
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