The New York Occasions and Washington Post have now come around to a position I advocated for here on Medium final week: We must always 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+ times daily was 55% effective in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was really more effective, reducing transmission by about sixty eight%.
Combining multiple types of protection — hand washing, masks wearing, gloves, and one other layer of outerwear (gowning) — was 91% effective.
Read that again: ninety one% effective at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are related types of viruses (coronaviruses), and it is sensible that what works to stop transmission for one will work to stop transmission of the other.
Masks work, first, because they are a physical barrier to whatever’s driving along 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 hold you from touching your face all day long. The mask makes you more self-acutely aware of the truth that you’re not supposed to touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nose, and eyes, and the areas round them- and when you by chance do, you’ll touch the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of different nations who mask show that masks work within the real world. Within the words of Jeremy Howard, researcher and Masks4All activist, explaining a chart in his latest Youtube video showing how some nations have efficiently “flattened the curve” on new infections: “In case you look at all of the international locations which have flat curves, they’re international locations the place masks-wearing is extraordinarily regular, 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 usage to a 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.
In the event you still must be persuaded, take a look at this Chinese research of a neighborhood outbreak case on January 22 through the peak Lunar New Year travel season. A sick particular person on the bus who didn’t work together with anyone spread the virus to 7 others, a few of whom had been seated a lot 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 exactly the place people have been 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 may find 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 place of scarcity, is probably why we initially received this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, folks just didn’t need you to understand it for a while, to keep away from a run on masks. Think of the empty shelves in supermarkets across America where bathroom paper used to live, and you perceive why.
The easiest thing you are able to do to masks NOW are to use supplies across the house. Get artistic; anything that covers the mouth and nose and stays in place will work.
While it’s best if the masks matches well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t give up in your homemade mask in case you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will hold you from touching the skin around your nose and mouth directly, which might grow to be crucial mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. In case you inadvertently contact your face while you’re wearing a mask, you’ll just contact the mask, not your skin.
You can attempt to form your face covering using pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips within the part that goes over your nostril to make a tighter fit — experiment. A very powerful thing is that you wash your arms, put on your face covering, and exit of the house protected.
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