Facemasks for the public - the science

We wear cloth neck-warmers or snoods I think they are called when motorcycling, some of us wear them at work as well. I’ve just suggested to my boss we buy everyone 3 each (one on,one in the wash dirty,one clean) so that on jobs where team handling is required they can just pull it up over their nose and mouth. We cant get masks to wear as part of our ppe. Do you think that this would help or are we wasting our time/money ??

 

Can’t see it not helping tbh if you all wear them mainly indoors or close proximity of each other but I would say it would have to be all and strict fir it to work along with the othe sanitary measures washing hands etc .

 

I'm not convinced by the argument.

When the guidelines were first released about not touching your face I thought, "I don't touch my face anyway." Wrong! I just wasn't aware I did. As I became aware I realised I was about to touch my face all the bloody time. I became conscious of it and learned to stop myself. Sounds like a simple thing but it wasn't.

The argument put forward in the paper makes a lot of sense to me. If you've ever sat on the front row at the theatre, particularly theatre in the round where you're on the stage, the amount of spittle that comes out of the actors mouths is unbelievable. This is happening all the time when you talk, cough, sneeze. If you wear fabric covering your mouth and nose this will definitely cut down the amount of these droplets that get into the air. This in turn will reduce transmission.

However

I don't talk to anyone when I go out. We're in lockdown, we're not socialising, we're keeping our distance. The most talking I do is to a shop assistant, from behind a perspex screen. I'm not spraying spittle about like I usually would.

Anyone who has ever worn anything over their face knows it's itchy and uncomfortable. Not detrimental to you but just not pleasant. They also know if you cover your mouth and nose with fabric that fabric gets damp. If you have Covid-19 it will get damp with a substance containing a lot of the virus. You adjust your mask, because it's itching, doing your head in, irritating and that substance is on your hands and then on the next thing you touch, a shopping basket or trolley.

I can go out and not speak a word, not cough, not sneeze and not touch my face. I couldn't not adjust an irritating piece of fabric over my face and couldn't prevent the virus getting on my hands.

 

I used to hate wearing dust masks down the pit. Quite an impingement on your regular breathing unless it was dusty when they were coaling/ripping or on the tail/barrier gate. You would have often have them under your chin until the gaffers came round on their rounds.

 

Yes this would help.

 

But for a short period of time a cotton mouth/nose covering is bearable. Droplets from surfaces to hands to face is a possible way to catch viruses, but much lower risk than inhaling airborne droplets. Wrt hand contamination after touching your 'mask', sounds like a job for hand gel sanitizer.

Nobody is saying that masks stop the spread, but they would reduce the risk.

 

Also even though you are keeping the required distance your literally seconds from being in the space someone else has occupied before moving down the queue and it’s suggested spittle can linger in the air for up to twenty seconds a mask would really help in this imo.

 

Thank you PP, now I just have to get the spend approved. Amazing how safety first and there’s no price on safety take a back seat when things get tight.

 

I do get the argument, I realise it's about cutting down transmission not stopping it, I also think it's a very good argument and very well presented. I also think it has been delivered by someone who has never actually observed a large group of people wearing face masks and how they fiddle about with them.

 

Everyone with masks in the shopping queues I've been in have fiddled with them.

 

PS where do I buy this mythical hand sanitiser you speak of?

 

That's not really an argument not to wear them, just an argument to not fiddle with them. A bit like not touching your face - the more you think about not doing it and be aware when you are , the better you get at not doing it.

 

£10 at that shop off Racecommon Road apparently.

 

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't wear them. I'm simply questioning whether it will be as effective as this paper claims. People shouldn't smoke, they shouldn't drink too much, they shouldn't eat food laced with sugar and fat, they shouldn't take drugs, and they shouldn't have affairs. But they do. And they fiddle with their face masks. Science based on what people should do rather than what they actually do isn't necessarily very helpful.

That's not to say we shouldn't try it.

 

How ill you become can depend on the virus load you have been exposed to. That's why otherwise healthy young health professionals are getting it so bad. Anything that even just reduces that virus load could make the difference between a mild, moderate or severe illness.

 

The best analogy I've read is that you should imagine you're wearing trousers, and the naked bloke next to you pees on you. Despite the fact that you're wearing trousers, your legs will still get a bit wet.

Now imagine the bloke next to you is wearing trousers when he pees (and doesn't unfasten them). Even if you're not wearing any trousers yourself, you're very unlikely to get wet.

 

You’ll still get wet shoes

 

racecommon road one stop? £9.99 a pop!