The New York Times and Washington Post have now come around to a position I advocated for right here on Medium final week: We must always all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, however ALL of us. Whenever we exit in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Research from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing fingers 10+ times every day was fifty five% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was truly more efficient, reducing transmission by about sixty eight%.
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’re a physical barrier to no matter’s using 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 masks 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 around them- and in the event you accidentally do, you’ll touch the masks, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of different nations 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 countries have efficiently “flattened the curve” on new infections: “If you look at all the international locations which have flat curves, they are international locations the place masks-wearing is extraordinarily normal, and NOT wearing a masks in places like public transport can be considered anti-social.” He notes that the Czech Republic went from zero mask usage 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 government didn’t give them out.
If you nonetheless need to be persuaded, take a look at this Chinese study of an area outbreak case on January 22 throughout the peak Lunar New Year journey season. A sick particular person on the bus who didn’t work together with anybody spread the virus to 7 others, some of whom have been seated a lot more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus 30 minutes 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 precisely the place folks have been 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 buy masks commercially, if by some miracle you 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 lack of foresight that caused us to be in such a position of scarcity, is probably why we initially obtained this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, folks just didn’t want you to realize it for a while, to keep away from a run on masks. Think of the empty cabinets in supermarkets across America the place toilet paper used to live, and also you perceive why.
The best thing you can do to masks NOW are to use supplies 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 fits well and there aren’t any gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t quit in your homemade masks in case you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will hold you from touching the skin round your nose and mouth directly, which might turn into a very powerful mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. When you inadvertently contact your face while you’re wearing a mask, you’ll just contact the mask, not your skin.
You may attempt to shape 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 match — experiment. Crucial thing is that you wash your fingers, put in your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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