Masks do protect the wearer! And you do not need an N95 mask to do this. Even a simple homemade mask offers some degree of protection. This[0] was a good explanation of both of these ideas.
tldr: There is reason to believe that large droplets, not the tiny droplets that N95s are designed to filter, are the primary threat, and any sort of physical barrier between those and your mouth/nose will help.
I think the idea that larger droplets are required for an infection is congruent with an R0 of about 3. If super small droplets would be sufficient then a single person would easily infect pretty much everybody taking a bus with her/him together. R0 would be much larger.
It really doesn’t help that the WHO and various governments lied to people about masks... many people already distrust these authorities and think it’s a hoax/conspiracy. Good luck now that we know they lied about the masks! I get why that was done, but maybe there would have been a better way like explaining hospitals need the masks but you can make some yourself at home or use a scarf to mitigate the effects.
To everybody complaining about shortage: You really don't know anyone with basic sewing skills?
Here in Slovakia masks or similar face-covering measures are semi-mandatory for 2 weeks already (mandatory since today) and it's non-issue. Many people know how to sew a decent-looking one using instructions from internet and some leftover cloth.
We (people in Austria) are under lockdown now for 15 days. Allowed to go to the supermarket and short walks with the live-ins. It is clear that it will not be enough to get rid of the virus. To get R<1 we need addition restrictions and actions. This is just one of the next steps.
I'm in Thailand right now and everyone even the expats are wearing them. Why? Because the law in our local jurisdiction has mandated that if you are outside you must wear a mask. And if you don't, the police will fine you and can arrest you. They even set up checkpoints a couple of days after it was announced and now everybody wears a mask. It's great, actually
Asian countries already have a culture of wearing face masks in public. I imagine they already have the supply chains set up whereas America is needing to either import or build up the production capacity.
Productions there but also any kind of face covering is allowed and encouraged. Only some are wearing N95's. Some people are improvising, cloth masks, surgical masks, whatever. I suppose as long as everyone is making an effort it is effective.
This seems like such a no-brainer. 3Blue 1Brown did a video on epidemic simulation, and central markets, places where people in the region congregate, are major factors in the the rate of disease spread. Limiting the transfer coefficient in these places has the key to reducing this impact, assuming you can't prevent people from going there.
All of this confusion regarding the usefulness of masks simply because of WHO's misinformation.
Lex Fridman made this research.based video about masks that you might find useful [0]. Take a look at the data; even a lousy scarf can provide some protection against virus particles.
I think the important part of the discussion is to separate the concept of protecting others from the concept of protecting yourself. As a population we can likely protect each other somewhat by wearing poor/basic masks. If it reduces spread by a few percent it's worth it so long as masks are available without starving supplies in healthcare.
Healthcare staff must protect themselves as well, so need real protective masks. So long as those masks aren't available to healthcare, we should avoid buying them in the rest of the population. In the meantime perhaps a lousy scarf can be used.
Are there masks for sale then? Here in The Netherlands there are no n95 masks available for the average person. I understand that hospitals and 1st aid responders need them now, but in the short term I would like to be able to get some.
These masks are fairly standard consumer use in the UK for various DIY activities in the home and supplied by hardware stores as such. Note P3/FFP3 are higher standards than N95.
They are just fine if the idea is to protect oneself from dust, but here we are talking of protecting from a virus (and to protect others, so valved masks are not suitable).
> Finding a suitable respirator is not just a matter of choosing a model you like or by the cost of it. You may need to try different makes or sizes to find one that fits without leaking around the seal and letting dust in. A respirator that depends on face fit is ineffectual if you have a beard or thick beard stubble. The only way you can know if the seal is good enough is by having a proper respirator fit test. At present this is also the only way of meeting legal requirements.
And here is (again UK firm) how a fitting test works:
They still help, but they help less when not used correctly. The average person likely won't use them correctly. This makes it a waste to give average people these masks when there's a shortage.
Supermarkets will be providing surgical masks (not N95) free of charge. In places where none are available, use will not be mandatory at this point (though strongly recommended).
Are n95 masks considered basic? I would think a basic face mask refers to something like a surgical mask, which doesn't protect the wearer but protects others from getting infected by droplets from the wearer.
Surgical masks are pretty good at protecting the wearer from droplets too. It's the fine aerosols where they're much worse than a surgical mask stopping maybe 80% of virus-sized particles where N95 masks tend to stop 99%+.
EDIT: Remember, though, that you can still be infected through exposed eyes, having virus on your hands and touching your face when taking off the mask, etc. Also, there was some evidence for rare cases of what looked like aerosol spread with the original SARS. In his recent interview on This Week in Virology Ian Lipkin mentioned a study in Beijing in the SARS outbreak where people with consistent mask use saw infections Ian Lipkin by 70% compared to no mask use. That's good but it isn't immunity.
Yes, i was correcting you on your statement of 99%+. Its >95% of 0.3 micron particles, but as coronavirus is smaller it would be LESS than that - not more).
Prior to this crisis, N95 masks were the cheapest, most basic respiratory protection you'd find in a DIY store. Pack of ten for $20, between the sandpaper and disposable earplugs.
Perhaps due to poor fitting, they were also seen as questionably effective and prone to making your safety googles fog up.
Are there any companies in America mass producing basic cloth masks right now, or at least distributing them at scale?Trying to buy one online seems to be quite challenging right now (either back ordered from Amazon, or purchasing from Etsy are the only options I have found). To be fair, I have not searched too hard. I guess I can learn to sew as well.
Supermarkets in South East Asia countries like Vietnam would not even let you go in without a face mask. Similar to how lottery is a game of chance and to win it requires you first buying a ticket, if life and death are too a matter of luck then to cheat death due to this virus at least mandatorily you must first be wearing a face mask.
Homemade masks made of a double layer of tea towel cloth are not only protecting others but also protect yourself nearly as effectively as N95 masks.
The original research was made by PHE - Public Health England and the results are:
B atrophaeus - ~1um :
Surgical mask 96.35% filtering
Double layer tea towel 96.71% filtering
Bacteriophage MS2 - 23nm :
Surgical mask 89.52% filtering
Tea towel one layer 72.46% filtering
The full paper is on researchgate, title:
"Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks: Would They Protect in an Influenza Pandemic?"
Also every super market should have the use of hand sanitizer obligatory at the entrance.
There is a pretty good video for simulations of the epidemic spreading [1] - it is not going to stop until we either have a vaccine or ~60% of the population have antibodies. So the choice is to sit the next 12-18months at home or we fight the transmission of the virus.
Masks cost nothing compared to the economic disaster that we are running into. The virus spreads via mouth and nose and secondary via the hands. So just stop it at the source.
The virus is generally contained within a much larger droplet that is expelled when a person speaks, coughs, or sneezes. So the 120nm number is not necessarily relevant.
-> Thus still ~70% filtering of 23nm particles for the one layered towel. They didn't put the number for a two layered towel in there, I wonder if it did beat the surgical mask.
so late? neighboring Czechia has mandatory masks (or anything covering your nose and mouth) in every public space at least for a week, I think Slovakia also already for quite long time
Czechia made it mandatory because government made really huge mistakes in first 2 weeks* and they are scared and panicking because health care system is underfunded for long time. There is no reason to wear mask in every public space as everything except centers of big cities is empty during lockdown. It makes sense inside but not in parks and empty streets. It just forces people to waste masks which are not in huge supply globally.
* In February prime minister forbid hospitals to buy face mask and decided that he will buy them centrally and than distribute them to hospitals. In the begining of March when coronavirus appeared in Czech republic he also sent finacial control against face mask importers to ensure that they are not selling anything. He wanted to look as savior of the country but he wasn't able to buy any masks so for 2 weeks there were only 10 000 mask from reserves for the whole country. People started to sew mask at home and partially saved situation. After that prime minister made wearing mask mandatory which in my opinion is mainly PR to make the home made masks look like his own initiative. He also spreads fake news about Germany, Austria and other west European countries saying that they are not responsible and that they just copy Czech measures when it is too late. But in reality his administrative is really struggling without any plan and his main efforts go to PR.
the point with wearing masks at all times in public space is you don't have to take it off and put it on all the time you pass around someone, you never know when there will be someone around you and even if you are alone you can still cough the virus on surfaces where it can survive at least for few hours touched by other people
I agree it's quite pointless for healthy not coughing person, but it's just easier to order everyone to wear them than checking one by one who is sick and who is not.
not sure how is mask wasted, if it's cloth mask you can just microwave it or boil it, if it's medical mask you can just leave it on sunny surface until it's for sure clean again or microwave it, same applies to respirator
Doctors in television told us that we should always throw away used medical masks and respirators as they might contain viruses and you are risking infection if you use them again.
Ok, but theoretically the virus could end up on a box of cereals if someone didn't wash their hands. At that point, having breakfast could be hazardous.
This is the basic cloth masks that are easily manufactured, wearing them can protect -or reduce the chance- others in the same space from catching the virus.
>This is the basic cloth masks that are easily manufactured
I get that. Just saying I don't think I could easily obtain one without going to a couple of shops (I'd need to try a few - no idea who stocks masks). People running around without masks to obtain masks sorta defeats the point.
Not really, they will be available at the doors of the supermarkets / locations that are allowed to stay open.. so no worries of anyone looking around for them.
tldr: There is reason to believe that large droplets, not the tiny droplets that N95s are designed to filter, are the primary threat, and any sort of physical barrier between those and your mouth/nose will help.
[0]: https://medium.com/@Cancerwarrior/covid-19-why-we-should-all...