The New York Instances and Washington Post have now come round to a place I advocated for right here on Medium last week: We should all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, but ALL of us. Whenever we go out in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Analysis from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing fingers 10+ times daily was fifty five% effective in stopping virus transmission; wearing a mask was really more efficient, reducing transmission by about 68%.
Combining a number of forms of protection — hand washing, masks wearing, gloves, and another 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 stop 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. Here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for various materials:
Secondly, they work because they hold you from touching your face all day long. The mask makes you more self-aware of the truth that you’re not supposed to touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nostril, and eyes, and the areas round them- and should you unintentionally do, you’ll contact the masks, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of other 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 countries have successfully “flattened the curve” on new infections: “In the event you take a look at all the countries which have flat curves, they’re countries where masks-wearing is extremely normal, and NOT wearing a mask in places like public transport would be considered anti-social.” He notes that the Czech Republic went from zero mask usage to a hundred% in 10 days, and in the process they halted the expansion of new covid-19 cases. The Czechs made their own masks- the federal government didn’t give them out.
In case you still need to be persuaded, check out this Chinese examine of a local outbreak case on January 22 during the peak Lunar New Year journey season. A sick individual on the bus who did not work together with anyone spread the virus to 7 others, some of whom were seated a lot more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus half-hour after the unique 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 where people were sitting on the bus.
So let’s say you’re convinced, and now you’re thinking of some type of face covering. What are your options?
First, please don’t buy masks commercially, if by some miracle you can discover them now. Commercially made PPE needs to 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 place of scarcity, is probably why we initially got this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, folks just didn’t need you to comprehend it for a while, to keep away from 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 are able to do to mask NOW are to make use of supplies around the house. Get inventive; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s finest if the mask matches 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 around your nostril and mouth directly, which could transform a very powerful mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. In the event you inadvertently touch your face while you’re wearing a masks, you’ll just touch the masks, not your skin.
You may try to form your face covering using pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips in the half that goes over your nostril to make a tighter fit — experiment. A very powerful thing is that you simply wash your arms, put in your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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