The New York Instances and Washington Post have now come around to a place I advocated for 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 each day was fifty five% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a mask was actually more efficient, reducing transmission by about 68%.
Combining multiple forms of protection — hand washing, mask wearing, gloves, and another layer of outerwear (gowning) — was ninety one% effective.
Read that again: ninety one% efficient at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are similar types of viruses (coronaviruses), and it is smart 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 riding alongside on that air you’re breathing or moving through. Right here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for various materials:
Secondly, they work because they preserve you from touching your face all day long. The mask makes you more self-conscious of the truth that you’re not supposed to the touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nose, and eyes, and the areas round them- and should you by accident do, you’ll touch the masks, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of other 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 current Youtube video showing how some nations have efficiently “flattened the curve” on new infections: “For those who take a look at all the countries which have flat curves, they’re nations where mask-wearing is extremely normal, and NOT wearing a mask in places like public transport can be considered anti-social.” He notes that the Czech Republic went from zero masks usage to 100% in 10 days, and within the process they halted the expansion of new covid-19 cases. The Czechs made their own masks- the government didn’t give them out.
In case you nonetheless need to be persuaded, check out this Chinese study of an area outbreak case on January 22 in the course of the peak Lunar New Year journey season. A sick particular person on the bus who did not interact with anybody spread the virus to 7 others, a few of whom were seated a lot more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus 30 minutes 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 exactly the place people were sitting on the bus.
So let’s say you’re satisfied, 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 possibly find them now. Commercially made PPE should 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 scarcity, is probably why we initially received this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, of us just didn’t want you to realize 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 you understand why.
The best thing you are able to do to masks NOW are to use supplies across the house. Get creative; anything that covers the mouth and nose and stays in place will work.
While it’s finest if the masks suits well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t give up in your homemade mask when you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will hold you from touching the skin around your nostril and mouth directly, which might transform an important mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. For those who inadvertently touch your face while you’re wearing a masks, you’ll just touch the mask, not your skin.
You’ll be able to try to shape your face covering utilizing 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 just wash your palms, put in your face covering, and exit of the house protected.
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