The New York Times and Washington Post have now come round to a place 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 hands 10+ instances daily was 55% efficient in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was really more effective, reducing transmission by about sixty eight%.
Combining a number of forms of protection — hand washing, mask wearing, gloves, and another layer of outerwear (gowning) — was ninety one% effective.
Read that once more: ninety one% efficient at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are comparable types of viruses (coronaviruses), and it is smart that what works to cease transmission for one will work to stop transmission of the other.
Masks work, first, because they are a physical barrier to no matter’s using alongside on that air you’re breathing or moving through. Here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for varied supplies:
Secondly, they work because they keep 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 round them- and for those who by chance do, you’ll contact the masks, not your skin directly.
Third, the experience of other nations who mask show that masks work in the real world. Within the words of Jeremy Howard, researcher and Masks4All activist, explaining a chart in his recent Youtube video showing how some international locations have efficiently “flattened the curve” on new infections: “If you look at all the nations which have flat curves, they’re nations where masks-wearing is extraordinarily normal, and NOT wearing a mask in places like public transport could be considered anti-social.” He notes that the Czech Republic went from zero masks usage to a hundred% in 10 days, and within the process they halted the growth of new covid-19 cases. The Czechs made their own masks- the government didn’t give them out.
If you still have to be persuaded, check out this Chinese study of a neighborhood outbreak case on January 22 through the peak Lunar New Year travel season. A sick particular person on the bus who did not interact 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 half-hour after the unique 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 where folks 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 could possibly discover them now. Commercially made PPE must be reserved for medical personnel at this time. Sadly, the scarcity 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 received this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, people just didn’t want you to understand it for a while, to avoid a run on masks. Think of the empty cabinets in supermarkets across America the place rest room paper used to live, and you understand why.
The easiest thing you can do to masks NOW are to use supplies around the house. Get inventive; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s greatest if the masks suits well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t quit on your homemade mask in case you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will hold you from touching the skin round your nose and mouth directly, which may turn into a very powerful mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. For those who inadvertently touch your face while you’re wearing a mask, you’ll just touch the masks, not your skin.
You possibly can try to shape your face covering using pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips in the half that goes over your nose to make a tighter fit — experiment. The most important thing is that you simply wash your fingers, put in your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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