The New York Times 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, however ALL of us. Each time we exit in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Research from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing palms 10+ times each day was fifty five% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was actually more efficient, reducing transmission by about 68%.
Combining multiple types of protection — hand washing, masks wearing, gloves, and another layer of outerwear (gowning) — was 91% effective.
Read that once more: ninety one% effective at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are comparable 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’re 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 various materials:
Secondly, they work because they hold you from touching your face all day long. The mask makes you more self-acutely aware of the fact that you’re not supposed to the touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nostril, and eyes, and the areas round them- and for those who by accident do, you’ll contact the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the experience of other countries who mask show that masks work in the real world. In the words of Jeremy Howard, researcher and Masks4All activist, explaining a chart in his latest Youtube video showing how some international locations have efficiently “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 extremely regular, 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 utilization to 100% in 10 days, and within 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.
If you nonetheless must be persuaded, check out this Chinese research of a local outbreak case on January 22 through 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 particular person 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 convinced, and now you’re thinking of some kind of face covering. What are your options?
First, please don’t purchase masks commercially, if by some miracle you possibly can discover them now. Commercially made PPE ought to be reserved for medical personnel at this time. Unfortunately, the shortage of commercially made PPE, and the dearth of foresight that caused us to be in such a position of scarcity, is probably why we initially acquired 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 shelves in supermarkets throughout America where rest room paper used to live, and you perceive why.
The easiest thing you are able to do to masks NOW are to make use of supplies across the house. Get creative; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s finest if the masks matches well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t surrender in your homemade masks in the event you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will preserve you from touching the skin round your nose and mouth directly, which could turn out to be a very powerful mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. Should you inadvertently contact your face while you’re wearing a mask, you’ll just touch the masks, not your skin.
You can attempt to form 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 match — experiment. A very powerful thing is that you wash your palms, put on your face covering, and exit of the house protected.
If you are you looking for more about childrens face masks have a look at our own web-page.