The New York Occasions and Washington Post have now come around to a place I advocated for right here on Medium last week: We must always all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, but ALL of us. At any time when we go out in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Analysis from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing palms 10+ occasions each day was fifty five% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was actually more effective, reducing transmission by about 68%.
Combining a number of forms of protection — hand washing, masks wearing, gloves, and one other layer of outerwear (gowning) — was 91% effective.
Read that once more: ninety one% efficient 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 no matter’s driving along 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 hold you from touching your face all day long. The masks makes you more self-aware of the fact that you’re not supposed to touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nostril, and eyes, and the areas round them- and if you accidentally do, you’ll contact the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the experience of different international locations who masks show that masks work in the real world. Within the words of Jeremy Howard, researcher and Masks4All activist, explaining a chart in his current Youtube video showing how some nations have successfully “flattened the curve” on new infections: “If you happen to look at all of the countries which have flat curves, they are international locations where 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 one hundred% in 10 days, and in the process they halted the growth of new covid-19 cases. The Czechs made their own masks- the federal government didn’t give them out.
In case you nonetheless must be persuaded, take a look at this Chinese research of a neighborhood outbreak case on January 22 in the course of the peak Lunar New Year travel season. A sick individual on the bus who did not interact with anybody spread the virus to 7 others, some of whom were seated much more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus 30 minutes after the original sick 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 the place people have been sitting on the bus.
So let’s say you’re convinced, and now you’re thinking of some sort 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 needs to be reserved for medical personnel at this time. Sadly, the scarcity of commercially made PPE, and the shortage of foresight that caused us to be in such a place of shortage, is probably why we initially bought this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, people just didn’t want you to realize it for a while, to avoid a run on masks. Think of the empty cabinets in supermarkets throughout America where bathroom paper used to live, and also you perceive why.
The simplest thing you can do to masks NOW are to use supplies across the house. Get artistic; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s best if the masks matches well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t give up on your homemade mask if you happen to can’t achieve that. Any face covering will keep you from touching the skin round your nostril and mouth directly, which might turn into an important mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. When you inadvertently contact your face while you’re wearing a masks, you’ll just touch the masks, not your skin.
You can try to shape your face covering utilizing pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips within the part that goes over your nose to make a tighter fit — experiment. The most important thing is that you wash your hands, put on your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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