The New York Occasions and Washington Post have now come around to a position I advocated for right here on Medium final week: We should all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, but ALL of us. Whenever we exit in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Analysis from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing arms 10+ occasions every day was fifty five% effective in stopping virus transmission; wearing a mask was really more efficient, reducing transmission by about sixty eight%.
Combining multiple types of protection — hand washing, mask wearing, gloves, and another layer of outerwear (gowning) — was 91% effective.
Read that once more: 91% efficient 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 no matter’s riding along on that air you’re breathing or moving through. Here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for varied materials:
Secondly, they work because they keep you from touching your face all day long. The mask 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 in the event you unintentionally do, you’ll contact the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the experience of other countries who masks show that masks work within the real world. Within the words of Jeremy Howard, researcher and Masks4All activist, explaining a chart in his recent Youtube video showing how some international locations have efficiently “flattened the curve” on new infections: “In case you look at all of the nations which have flat curves, they are international locations the place mask-wearing is extraordinarily normal, and NOT wearing a masks in places like public transport could be considered anti-social.” He notes that the Czech Republic went from zero mask utilization to one 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.
For those who still need to be persuaded, check out this Chinese examine 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 didn’t interact with anybody spread the virus to 7 others, a few of whom had been seated much more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus half-hour after the original sick individual 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 individuals 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 purchase masks commercially, if by some miracle you may discover them now. Commercially made PPE needs to be reserved for medical personnel at this time. Sadly, the shortage 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 need you to know it for a while, to avoid a run on masks. Think of the empty shelves in supermarkets across America where bathroom paper used to live, and also you understand why.
The simplest thing you are able to do to masks NOW are to make use of materials around the house. Get creative; anything that covers the mouth and nose and stays in place will work.
While it’s greatest if the masks suits well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t quit in your homemade masks in the event you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will keep you from touching the skin around your nose and mouth directly, which could develop into the most important mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. If you happen to inadvertently touch your face while you’re wearing a masks, you’ll just touch the mask, not your skin.
You’ll be able to attempt to shape your face covering utilizing pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips in the part that goes over your nose to make a tighter fit — experiment. A very powerful thing is that you just wash your palms, put in your face covering, and exit of the house protected.
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