The New York Times and Washington Post have now come round to a place I advocated for here on Medium final week: We should 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.
Research from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing arms 10+ instances daily was 55% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was actually 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 91% effective.
Read that once more: 91% effective at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are similar types of viruses (coronaviruses), and it is sensible 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 riding along on that air you’re breathing or moving through. Here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for numerous materials:
Secondly, they work because they preserve you from touching your face all day long. The mask makes you more self-aware of the fact that you’re not supposed to the touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nose, and eyes, and the areas around them- and in case you accidentally do, you’ll contact the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of different nations who mask show that masks work within 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 successfully “flattened the curve” on new infections: “When you have a look at all the countries which have flat curves, they’re 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 within 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.
If you still need to be persuaded, take a look at this Chinese study of a local outbreak case on January 22 during the peak Lunar New Year journey season. A sick individual on the bus who didn’t work together 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 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 individuals were sitting on the bus.
So let’s say you’re satisfied, 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 can discover 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 position of scarcity, is probably why we initially got this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, people 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 across America the place rest room paper used to live, and you perceive why.
The best thing you are able to do to masks NOW are to make use of supplies across the house. Get artistic; 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 not any gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t quit in your homemade mask in case you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will maintain you from touching the skin round your nostril and mouth directly, which could transform a very powerful mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. In the event you inadvertently contact your face while you’re wearing a masks, you’ll just contact the mask, not your skin.
You’ll be able to 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. The most important thing is that you simply wash your palms, put in your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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