The New York Times and Washington Post have now come around to a place I advocated for right here on Medium last week: We must always all be wearing masks. Not just health care workers, but ALL of us. Each time we go out in public.
Why?
Because they work.
Analysis from the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that washing fingers 10+ times each day 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 another layer of outerwear (gowning) — was 91% effective.
Read that again: 91% efficient at stopping virus transmission.
COVID-19 and SARS are comparable 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 driving along on that air you’re breathing or moving through. Here’s a chart showing the relative barrier effectiveness for varied materials:
Secondly, they work because they hold you from touching your face all day long. The masks makes you more self-conscious of the truth that you’re not supposed to touch your face- specifically, your mouth, nose, and eyes, and the areas round them- and if you happen to by chance do, you’ll contact the masks, not your skin directly.
Third, the expertise of different international locations 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 recent Youtube video showing how some nations have efficiently “flattened the curve” on new infections: “For those who look at all the nations which have flat curves, they are nations the place mask-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 masks utilization 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 federal government didn’t give them out.
In case you still should be persuaded, check out this Chinese study of a neighborhood outbreak case on January 22 through the peak Lunar New Year journey season. A sick particular person on the bus who didn’t interact with anybody spread the virus to 7 others, a few of whom had been seated much 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 individuals had been sitting on the bus.
So let’s say you’re convinced, and now you’re thinking of some type of face covering. What are your options?
First, please don’t purchase masks commercially, if by some miracle you would find 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 place of shortage, is probably why we initially obtained this messaging of “Masks don’t work!” They do, folks just didn’t want you to know it for a while, to keep away from a run on masks. Think of the empty shelves in supermarkets throughout America where toilet paper used to live, and also you perceive why.
The simplest thing you are able to do to masks NOW are to make use of supplies across the house. Get artistic; anything that covers the mouth and nostril and stays in place will work.
While it’s best if the mask matches well and there are not any gaps between your face and the outside air, don’t give up on your homemade mask if you happen to can’t achieve that. Any face covering will preserve you from touching the skin round your nostril and mouth directly, which might develop into a very powerful 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 may attempt to form your face covering utilizing pipe cleaners or opened-up rubber-coated paper clips in the half that goes over your nostril to make a tighter fit — experiment. A very powerful thing is that you simply wash your palms, put in your face covering, and go out of the house protected.
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