The New York Times and Washington Post have now come round to a position I advocated for here on Medium final week: We should all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, but ALL of us. Every time we exit in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Analysis from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing palms 10+ instances daily was fifty five% effective in stopping virus transmission; wearing a masks was actually more effective, reducing transmission by about sixty eight%.
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% efficient 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’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-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 in case you accidentally do, you’ll touch the mask, not your skin directly.
Third, the experience of other 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 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’re countries where masks-wearing is extremely 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 usage to a hundred% in 10 days, and within 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 happen to nonetheless have to be persuaded, check out this Chinese study of a neighborhood outbreak case on January 22 in the course of the peak Lunar New Year travel season. A sick individual on the bus who did not interact with anyone spread the virus to 7 others, some of whom were seated much more than 6 ft away. Two new passengers caught the virus half-hour after the unique 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 precisely 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 purchase masks commercially, if by some miracle you could find them now. Commercially made PPE needs to be reserved for medical personnel at this time. Unfortunately, the scarcity of commercially made PPE, and the dearth of foresight that caused us to be in such a position of shortage, is probably why we initially got this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, folks just didn’t want you to comprehend it for a while, to avoid a run on masks. Think of the empty cabinets in supermarkets across America where bathroom paper used to live, and also you perceive why.
The best thing you can do to mask NOW are to make use of materials around the house. Get inventive; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s best if the mask fits well and there are no gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t quit on your homemade mask when you can’t achieve that. Any face covering will hold you from touching the skin round your nose and mouth directly, which might become the most important mechanism by which masks block virus transmission. Should you inadvertently touch your face while you’re wearing a mask, you’ll just contact the masks, not your skin.
You’ll be able to 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 match — experiment. Crucial thing is that you simply wash your hands, put on your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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