Advice on mask-wearing to protect against Covid-19

Seems like some familiar names are against wearing masks




Ugh. The arrogance. The defining trait I see common to the BPS cult: hubris. These people are so arrogant in the belief of their own superiority it's infuriating. She is wrong and smugly arrogant about it. Same as Horton who initially laughed off the pandemic then turned around screaming about people who did the same.

No wonder these people did so much harm to vulnerable people. They can't seem to think about others and have immovable beliefs about everything, no matter how blatantly wrong reality shows them to be.

This is the kind of mentality that needs to be erased from medicine. It is lethal and serves no purpose. And she has the gall to assert that patients should not even have the right to complain about doctors because it's too stressful to deal with them (an old tweet). Horrible. Just horrible, the perfect picture of someone who should never have vulnerable people in their care, no compassion whatsoever.
 
I can't understand people. A theme for masks seems to be that it is a bit late now why close the stable door when the horse has bolted. The use of the same phrase makes me think it is coming from the internet someplace. They don't seem to realise the horse is still there!

Then the talk of it all being a hoax or badly exaggerated and deaths just the same as for flu but the media are going on about because it serves some purpose for the government or big pharma or some nebulous group. staff at our local hospital were becoming distressed because they were used to one or two deaths a week but there were 2 or 3 every shift.

So many people seem to think the rules are like the council choosing to charge parking fees on a Sunday, just arbitrary, instead of ways to keep us safe. Nicola Sturgeon called it a plague and that is what it is.
 
I can't understand people. A theme for masks seems to be that it is a bit late now why close the stable door when the horse has bolted. The use of the same phrase makes me think it is coming from the internet someplace. They don't seem to realise the horse is still there!

Then the talk of it all being a hoax or badly exaggerated and deaths just the same as for flu but the media are going on about because it serves some purpose for the government or big pharma or some nebulous group. staff at our local hospital were becoming distressed because they were used to one or two deaths a week but there were 2 or 3 every shift.

So many people seem to think the rules are like the council choosing to charge parking fees on a Sunday, just arbitrary, instead of ways to keep us safe. Nicola Sturgeon called it a plague and that is what it is.
Yep I think the answer to those people is smoking and seatbelts. I reckon there is definitely a concerted anti mask social media operation going on widespread fake science tripe being spouted. In the U.K. Jenny Harries spoke strongly against the public buying masks when the powers that be were in absolute panic about PPE. If they had thought laterally they could have had simple enough messaging at that time about face coverings. Make it yourself, use what you’ve got etc. Rather than all or nothing.
 
Last Thursday I had to go out, so wore a mask for longer than a few minutes.

It was uncomfortably hot on the bus going into town, but within 10 minutes was perfectly comfortable (hot day, bus had windows shut, I was in a mid weight coat on a hot day, couldn't have helped). By that time even my glasses had stopped steaming up with every breath.

After that it was fine, it might even be preferable.

At no point was there any problem with getting enough air (unlike with a respirator where it is constant work to do so).

People who have a face, including ears and skin. should probably wear them, the discomfort disappears rapidly.

Those who do not fit in that group, another solution may be needed..

...and stable doors aren't just to keep horses in, amongst many other purposes, they keep tigers out.
 
Note that N95 masks have valves that don't "stop the pee". ;)

This article, which originally appeared in The Los Angeles Times on June 16th, talks about how to convert an N95 mask with a valve into a mask that will protect both the wearer and others.

To convert the N95 masks that have vent holes in the front, simply place a piece of tape over the external vent to cover it, health experts said.
https://news.yahoo.com/kind-mask-actually-spread-coronavirus-151724557.html

This simply involves putting tape over the valve openings. There is a video included in the article that shows how to do this.

[I believe he's using masking tape in the video. I might prefer to use electrical tape, as I think it probably sticks to the plastic valve better (but what do I know).]


 
Moved from the coronovirus spread and control thread.

Interesting article suggesting mask wearers may have less severe infection, if they catch COVID.

“That’s the argument Dr. Monica Gandhi, UC San Francisco professor of medicine and medical director of the HIV Clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, is making about why — if you do become infected with the virus — masking can still protect you from more severe disease.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/...ronavirus?_amp=true&__twitter_impression=true
 
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I don't have issues wearing a double lined cotton mask. The discomfort is when I have to talk, and my mouth sucks in the cloth and I start feeling a bit hot or my oxygen is limited.
 
Forgotten Technology in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Filtration Properties of Cloth and Cloth Masks: A Narrative Review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025619620308260
Article said:
Abstract
We searched Medline and Embase, and used Google, including articles reporting the filtration properties of flat cloth, or cloth masks. We reviewed the reference lists of relevant articles and review articles, and identified articles the press. We found 25 articles. Study of protection for the wearer often used a manikin wearing a mask, with airflow to simulate different breathing rates. Studies of protection of the environment, also known as source control, used convenience samples of healthy volunteers. The design and execution of the studies was generally rigorously described. Many descriptions of cloth lacked the detail required for reproducibility; no study gave all the expected details of material, thread count, weave, and weight. Some of the homemade mask designs were reproducible.

Successful masks were muslin at 100 threads per inch (TPI) in 3-4 layers (4-layer muslin or a muslin-flannel-muslin sandwich); tea towels (also known as dish towels), studied as one-layer, and two-layer expected to be better; and good-quality cotton T shirts in 2 layers (with a stitched edge to prevent stretching). In flat-cloth experiments, tea towel, cotton 600 TPI in two layers, and cotton 600 TPI with flannel 90 TPI, performed well, but two-layer cotton 80 TPI did not. Multiple layers should be used, at least two, and preferably three or four; however there is a trade-off in that this increases the resistance to breathing.

This is not a systematic review; however, we included all the articles that we identified in an unbiased way. We did not include grey literature or preprints.

Key words
COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, cloth masks, face masks, filtration efficiency, leak
Press release by Karolinska Institutet:

Cloth face masks can reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2
https://news.ki.se/cloth-face-masks-can-reduce-the-spread-of-sars-cov-2
 
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