Advice on mask-wearing to protect against Covid-19

What is the psychosocial difference between states with compulsory masks and those not? It would be interesting to see the pol***** of this. Mr Khan in London is keen and from what I hear from daughter almost everyone in London is sensible enough to wear a mask now.

 

Badly misquoting @Jonathan Edwards - the (UK Government) should learn that people who don't speak English at breakfast might still have something useful to say

 

How do you go about eye protection, do you use any?

I've bought swimming googles but haven't dared to wear them yet.

Or is eye protection unnecessary because without a N95 I'd inhale infectious aerosol anyway if the infected person isn't wearing any mask?

 

you could use sunglasses, if your are not light sensitive, there are bright sunglasses with very light tint

 

i tried today a face mask from the pharmacy. one for roughly 4,50 euro.
i almost suffocated under it. i couldnt. oh dear.. i think its mandatory.

(breathing always been difficult)

 

I heard on the news tonight that all states will be introducing a duty to wear masks at different times over the next week or so, my state will introduce it next Monday. I think the psychosocial difference between the states concerns regional cultural attitudes towards punctuality, urgency, and the concept of time itself.

I will remain unaffected because I don't travel on buses or trains or go into shops, or anywhere at all at the moment except the occasional short walk through the woods. Although I might walk into a shop just once dressed like a bandit, because I've always wanted to. And not buy anything.

 

Here in the US loads of people are sewing cotton masks and giving them out or selling them. Doing so puts no strain on the supplies front line workers need. Where I live the people who are making them gave the first batches ftor our local hospital workers.

 

Scientists join calls for UK public to wear homemade face masks outdoors

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...k-public-to-wear-homemade-face-masks-outdoors

 

A comment in the Guardian Science Weekly session below. I think there is a touch of conspiracy theory but it may just be that they have picked the wrong conspiracies, not the real ones.

empathyfreak
46m ago
56
There is something mighty peculiar going on in government around face masks.

They say that because NHS staff must have masks, that makes it impossible to advise the public to wear them.

This is plainly nonsense in so many ways that it becomes difficult to sort out.

NHS staff who have contact with Covid patients know, of course, they are in contact with an infected person and therefore need a special type of mask – one which will prevent them from inhaling the infected saliva that is sprayed from the mouth of an infected person. This type of mask is expensive.

The much larger number of NHS staff who have no contact with patients infected with the coronavirus, together with all care home staff, and those who visit care clients in their home, must, in case they have the virus and don’t know it, wear a mask which prevents them from passing the virus on to their patient/client. In some cases it would make sense for the patient/client to also wear a mask in case they have the virus and don’t know it and might infect their carer.

Surgeons wear a mask so that they do not infect the patient. It is much less expensive than the mask needed to protect the wearer.

Only the expensive mask gives adequate protection to the wearer.

If the purpose of wearing a mask is to stop you infecting someone else, then it would make no sense to have the patient/client visited by anyone who is not wearing a mask. Nobody knows whether or not they are infected at the time of the visit just as nobody who is walking along the street or wandering around a supermarket knows if they are.

So everyone has to wear a mask for the good of everybody. Personal responsibility being enacted and thereby achieving the common good.

So why does the government have what looks like a phobia on the subject of masks?

Remember that Sir Patrick Vallance enunciated his pet “herd immunity” theory. He is the government’s chief scientific adviser who was previously Director of R& D at Glaxo Smith Kline a mega pharma company with a big interest in vaccine manufacturing so he must have known that herd immunity is produced by very high rates of vaccination.

It is believed that he is also prominent on the Government “Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies” (SAGE) membership of which is secret.

Sir Patrick is also a vocal anti-mask voice.

It is not hard to spot that there is a potential conflict of interest which could lead him to be against masks as they have been shown in places like Taiwan to help reduce infections to zero.

But two other possible explanations for the government’s bizarre position keep obtruding through the barrage of mis-information that has become the trademark of government pronouncements.

Massive investment in facial recognition technology will prove useless if people have to wear masks until such time (maybe a year or two away if at all) when a vaccine is available. Facial recognition has been developed as a security tool and has been criticised as being part of a big brother mindset.

But the Government has also been developing (through an NHS off-shoot) an app which will trace people’s movements through their mobile phone recognising other close-up mobiles with the same app and passing on the information to a central data bank.

This proposal was thoroughly debunked on the BBC R4 World at One on 22 April by Professor Alison Pollock of The Newcastle University Centre for Regulatory Science who said that it was neither needed nor would do the job as well as local people on the ground seeking details of contacts from anyone who shows symptoms just as had been done many times for other diseases.

The membership of SAGE must be made public. How can the body which is dictating government policy which has over 20,000 deaths as an outcome, remain in the shadows?

Herd immunity appears to be still the objective and for this Sir Patrick Vallance should be sacked and investigated in respect of any of the deaths.

 

Heard on R4 this morning that we are to expect today a govt announcement that we should wear masks, but on a voluntary basis.

 

My guess is that that is a cost issue. Insist that people MUST wear masks, and people will want to be supplied with masks. Make it voluntary and people have to source and buy their own. Perhaps?

or maybe they are just testing the waters to see public reaction?

 

When you can make a mask out of an old t-shirt I can't see it as a cost issue.

TBH, I think the govt either thinks the British public is too selfish to wear masks to protect others, or too stupid to follow advice not to buy up masks that should go to frontline workers.

 

The worry with that is, I won’t be able to insist that people wear masks, to keep myself safe . Like for example if anyone needs to come into the house to do emergency checks / fix something, or anyone else who comes into contact with or near me in the block of flats, They can just say “it’s my choice, I don’t want to!” and possibly unknowingly spread the virus.

If they think the British public are too selfish to wear masks, then surely that’s a case for making them compulsory, because then they’re forced to wear them.. whereas if it’s voluntary, then if they actually are selfish, they won’t wear them!

Edit: and some of the other reasons given are that people might touch their masks anyway and then end up infecting themselves, or as said above, buy up masks meant for medical staff.. in that case all the govt needs to do is run a public information campaign explaining it all.

 

Actually this could all be related to “behavioural science” and the sort of attitudes where they don’t want to actually get involved in people’s behaviour, that led to “nudging” rather than telling people to do things.

 

No I think you're correct i.e. if it's mandatory then they have to come up with the necessary surgical(?) masks.

Considering we're paying 80% of wages, i.e. not to work, then why not withdraw the 80% from firms than can make masks etc. and say do this -- and here's 100%?
Also, some of the firms seem to be crying out to be helpful.

 

Maybe our governments think people are more willing to wear a mask when they feel like it's on their own terms rather than mandatory.

There already is rising backlash here against our lockdown and social distancing measures because so far we have been spared what has happened in other countries. No footage of overwhelmed ICUs, so many think this is all unnecessary. When actually I think this just might proof that the measures have worked.

Having lots of empty beds is the goal, not a sign of mismanagement.

It's almost funny though, how slice by slice our government has released new recommendations when for weeks it has been almost inevitable that mandatory mask wearing was about to come.

Now all federal states have implemented it.

 

I assume that the masks referred to are 75 cent surgical masks, [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/opinion/coronavirus-face-mask.html]

OK so why not produce these using the companies with related experience and have furlough workers --- we're paying 80% of their salaries anyway --- just label them as "not for health care workers".

"masks --- have been shown in places like Taiwan to help reduce infections to zero".

Seems to make society safer for everyone particularly for vulnerable people --- many of us are & are not aware of the fact.

As for the app --- it's not needed and this advice comes to mind-

Michiel Ryans (WHO) advice:
"Be fast, have no regrets. You must be the first mover. The virus will always get you if you don’t move quickly,” Dr Ryan said.

“If you need to be right before you move, you will never win,”