So about masks and face coverings

[Inflikted]

I'm going to buy some masks for myself, and I'm curious, are the typical blue papery ones actually sufficient? Like, the ones you can buy in 50 packs for, like, $25+?

More over, are they sufficient to protect me if I'm in an environment where no one else around me is wearing masks?

Also, I thought I read that the virus can still enter through your eyes, too, is that true? If so, does a mask even matter, especially, again, if no one around me is wearing a mask? Like, if someone has it and breathes out, and then I enter the same space they were in, would it still get in through my eyes even if I'm wearing a mask?

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

Masks are to protect everyone else from you, not to protect you from everyone else.  Those paper masks are not 100% effective, but they are better than nothing.

[Eternal Sunshine]

Those masks will not protect you but will protect others. It's not just the eyes, even breathing in, you are not protected.

N95 masks will protect you more if you fit them properly. They are really difficult to breathe in though, especially for a long periods of time.

[Inflikted]

Hm. Well, I mean, I'll continue to wear them, because I'd rather be safe than sorry, but I can't help but feel kinda frustrated that my coworkers all refuse to wear them. So even wearing my own mask, I'm still at a bit of a risk, eh? Sigh. That really sucks.

[elaine567]

You also need to acutely aware that the outside of your mask may be contaminated so no touching it.
Remove by avoiding the outside surface and place somewhere that is not going to contaminate your hands again or anyone else's.
No putting into pockets and reusing. 
Study showed that the outer layer of a surgical mask still contained viable virus for up to 7 days. 

[Gaeta]

I don't know about the US but us in  Canada we have a phone number to call to report if our employer isn't respecting the distanciation rules. If they cannot provide a safe environment for their employees, several stations to wash hands, desk or work stations 2 meters apart, then they have to remain closed.

That being said in my Country we do not have surgical masks for general population, they are kept for essential workers, we are asked to make our masks, they have to have 2 layers and a removable filter between the layers. Coffee filters or paper towels can be used as filters. I have made several at home and we wear them everywhere we go. If I come across people with no mask I do not approach them. Example I would not take the metro or take an elevator with peoples that have no mask. Masks, any of them, are not 100% safe. Your behavior still has a lot to do in controling this virus like washing your hands several times, not touching your face,  not touching the outside of your mask, etc.

[Gr8fuln2020]

2 hours ago, Inflikted said:

Hm. Well, I mean, I'll continue to wear them, because I'd rather be safe than sorry, but I can't help but feel kinda frustrated that my coworkers all refuse to wear them. So even wearing my own mask, I'm still at a bit of a risk, eh? Sigh. That really sucks.

There are numerous reasons to think that wearing a mask is not a guarantee from COVID exposure, but it is helpful and smarter than not wearing one. Many people in my area continue to wear them when going into stores, shops, etc. Logical. There are those who think they don't need to...not because they don't believe there is any risk of getting infected, rather, they are just being rebellious for the sake of being so.

I had one guy ask me why I insist on living in fear as I was wearing my Harry Potter patterned mask (not a fan, btw  ). I walked away slowly whistling and quickly explained that it took me 5-seconds to put on and part of the reason I had it on was because of yahoos like him who, goodness knows, is doing, goodness what to try not to be safe. Until there is a viable vaccine, the mask will be my companion when going into crowded places. And I love my 70+ year old mother! I walked away resuming my whistling. I am also very sure that I am living a life much more exciting and lacking in fear than he is...

[BC1980]

Like everyone said, a surgical or cloth mask protects others from you. You wear it during surgery or a sterile procedure to avoid contaminating the patient or the sterile field. You need an N95 mask to protect you from another person.
 

And yeah, the mask is contaminated. If you look at instructions for removing PPE, a surgical mask is considered contaminated and for one time use only. You're supposed to wash your hands after removing a surgical mask. I've gotten really stringent about not touching my face these days. I think that's a big key. I really think the big reason I haven't gotten COVID is because I never touch my face when I work on that unit. 

[greymatter]

OP,  here is one of many resources about masks: 

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

 

 

[Redhead14]

None of this makes sense to me.  It lives on cloth masks? If that's true, it lives on your clothes too so you'd have to strip down every time you return to your home?  If that were true, we'd be continuing to see cases rise exponentially and we are wasting our efforts anyway.  There's a lot of information out there that doesn't seem logical.   If the mask protects from breathing the virus out, the mask protects from breathing it in as well and there is no evidence that the virus lives on cloth/clothing.  The guidelines as being promoted in the US at least is to wear a mask and wash hands with soap and water if you've been out and about and sanitize surfaces and groceries, etc.  That is working.  There isn't any indication that we need to do much more than that.  It doesn't hurt to do more if that makes someone more comfortable but it doesn't seem like we need to be completely nutz about it. 

[BC1980]

I think it's pretty difficult to catch from clothing or shoes. Probably not impossible though. The far greater risk is hard surfaces like doorknobs or a pump at a gas station. 
 

Regarding the mask, all I can tell you is that a surgical mask has long been considered a single use, contaminated item. Now, how contaminated the mask is compared to a glove, I don't know. It may be that there is a minimal risk of contamination from a mask, but there is obviously some risk of contamination. Removing PPE is considered one of the riskiest times to contaminate yourself. In actuality, it's best to have a partner help you remove your PPE. 
 

What is done in practice since this pandemic is another story. We were all taught PPE protocols and went by them for our entire careers. Now, we're being told a surgical mask is a multi-use item and cloth masks are acceptable. That's why a lot of healthcare workers are up in arms. The guidelines seem irrelevant all of a sudden. 

Edited May 15, 2020 by BC1980

[eleanorrigby]

24 minutes ago, Redhead14 said:

 It doesn't hurt to do more if that makes someone more comfortable but it doesn't seem like we need to be completely nutz about it. 

This is where I am, and am trying to stay mentally and emotionally because anymore is just too overwhelming. 

I got the N95 masks from lurking and picking up info on the first corona thread months ago. I was under the impression that they afforded me more protection, but I can see now that I was wrong. I bought 10 and shared them with family so none of us have been using them as single use. I throw mine in the dryer if I think I'll be going out again soon, otherwise I have just been letting it sit and assuming any viruses on it would have died by the time I needed to use it again. 

I'm doing my best, but overall I'm at a loss with all of this. I feel very uninformed and just lost. I don't feel safe because I don't really know how bad this is or what I really need to do to protect myself and my family.  The news is no help. One side appears to be playing things down, and the other playing things up. I don't know what to really believe. I only know that it's real and it's dangerous because the entire world shut down all at once. 

We need much more public education on what we need to get and what we need to do to deal with this. What do I really need to be doing? What is overkill and what's not? 

 

 

 

[Happy Lemming]

22 minutes ago, eleanorrigby said:

 I throw mine in the dryer if I think I'll be going out again soon

Some doctor on TV told us to put our N95 masks out in the sun, that within a few minutes the virus would be dead. Another study said it takes up to 18 hours for the virus to die on the mask material.  So, I leave our masks in the sun a couple of days to get a long dose of sunshine.

Hopefully it works... who knows??

[greymatter]

Clothing is not right up against one's face whereas a mask is. That's the difference between considering whether it's on our mask versus it being on our clothing. Keeping our hands washed after being out or taking off a mask or being near others, and not touching our faces, is paramount. Unlearning the habit of touching our faces is important.

Cloth masks are to protect others from us, but not contaminating ourselves when wearing a mask is also super important. Not touching the mask once it's on until it's time to remove matters. Washing your hands. 

[Ellener]

There's no such thing as zero risk with this, or with most infections for that matter, but it's about risk minimisation, and it seems that the social distancing, hand washing, face covering have considerably slowed and prevented new infections so I'll stick to that.

The face coverings aren't PPE or meant as PPE for civilians I would not expect in most cases, but they will catch coughs and sneezes and serve as a visual reminder to social distance.

😷

 

[Ellener]

4 hours ago, Happy Lemming said:

Some doctor on TV told us to put our N95 masks out in the sun, that within a few minutes the virus would be dead. Another study said it takes up to 18 hours for the virus to die on the mask material.  So, I leave our masks in the sun a couple of days to get a long dose of sunshine.

Hopefully it works... who knows??

It's generally pretty hot here so I keep my mask on the dashboard if I'm reusing it.

The cloth masks and scarves I wash between uses.

Can buy packs of ten masks at Kroger here for $9.99. Hand sanitiser is back in the stores too, mostly in larger containers to refill the purse size I carry all the time anyway.

[preraph]

I would wash it and dry if it's a cloth mask and then hang it out in the sun all afternoon.

[greymatter]

My dryer is hot enough to take care of any viruses after washing. I don’t hang my masks in the sun. It rains here too much anyway for that to be routine! 🙂

[elaine567]

Soap disintegrates the virus.

Quote

So why does soap work so well on the Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? The short story: because the virus is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. Soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and dies – or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive.

The slightly longer story is that most viruses consist of three key building blocks: ribonucleic acid (RNA), proteins and lipids. A virus-infected cell makes lots of these building blocks, which then spontaneously self-assemble to form the virus. Critically, there are no strong covalent bonds holding these units together, which means you do not necessarily need harsh chemicals to split those units apart.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

Edited May 15, 2020 by elaine567

[Inflikted]

7 hours ago, Gaeta said:

I don't know about the US but us in  Canada we have a phone number to call to report if our employer isn't respecting the distanciation rules. If they cannot provide a safe environment for their employees, several stations to wash hands, desk or work stations 2 meters apart, then they have to remain closed.

Yeah, I mean... In my case, there's not a lot of upside to that. I work with three other people, and between all of us, there's me who's wearing a mask and three who absolutely refuse, so it would be like, "Gee, I wonder who the whistle blower was!". Seems like it would just create a lot of backlash for me. Maybe if I worked for a bigger company, or if we had several more employees and multiple people were adhering to the mask thing, then I could "blend in" and not be exposed as the whistle blower, but that's not really the case. As it is, there's not really much benefit to me doing that, aside from maybe getting to stay home for a few more weeks and then come back to displeased coworkers who still aren't going to wear a mask...

Shoot, I just remembered, too, the owner of the company stopped by our office today to pick something up, and he also wasn't wearing a mask. Funny enough, too, everyone in the company at all the different locations even has to sign a waiver that we'll wear masks at all times while on the job. 🙄

[CaliforniaGirl]

I've been machine-washing mine and hanging them to dry.

[Juha]

 

If your eyes are not covered by a plastic shield a mask does not do a whole lot of good to protect you since your eyes are opne 

and the virus can get into there much easier than your mouth or nose.

 

Also, cloth masks offer zero protection, surgical masks are only good the one time you use them then they are contaminated.

Also as you breath and the mask becomes more saturated it's effectiveness diminishes.

Also, if the mask is not tight to your face all the way around you are not stopping the virus from spreading if you have it or protected from getting it as the droplets go in around the mask

Also, if the droplets in this virus can be small enough they will penetrate the surgical mask both ways.  So again it will not offer any protection.

 

If you are outside you really do not need a mask at all, there is pretty much zero chance of spread due to many reasons

If you go read about how it spreads and the conditions needed for it to spread being outside pretty much nullifies all of them

 

As I said there is zero scientific evidence showing wearing a mask stops virus spread, it is pseudo science.

 

 

[Juha]

2 hours ago, elaine567 said:

Soap disintegrates the virus.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

As it does with pretty much all viruses, using soap and water is much better for you than hand sanitizer all the time.

 

[basil67]

1 hour ago, Juha said:

 

If your eyes are not covered by a plastic shield a mask does not do a whole lot of good to protect you since your eyes are opne 

and the virus can get into there much easier than your mouth or nose.

With the exception of full face masks used by medical staff, domestic masks are to protect others from our germs.  The mask serves the purpose of stopping air droplets from a sneeze or cough from hanging in the air and infecting others.  If someone coughs into a mask, our eyes will be far more protected than them coughing into the air.  

[Juha]

30 minutes ago, basil67 said:

With the exception of full face masks used by medical staff, domestic masks are to protect others from our germs.  The mask serves the purpose of stopping air droplets from a sneeze or cough from hanging in the air and infecting others.  If someone coughs into a mask, our eyes will be far more protected than them coughing into the air.  

You can believe what you want.  Cloth masks do nothing to be perfectly honest.

Thin surgical masks offer a little more but...

 

As I said the information is out there if you want to find it

 

There is zero scientific proof masks accomplish a virus from spreading   it is pseudo science

Edited May 16, 2020 by Juha