Out of curiosity, if you are a healthcare worker would you want people to wear homemade masks?

[mamakoukla]

Having read through some threads here, and about differing opinions here, globally and within the scientific community - if you are a healthcare worker or work within the healthcare industry, do you support the use of homemade face coverings to reduce transmission rates of COVID-19?

• hands and face not handstand.

I wear gloves when shopping as it stops me touching my face

HeimdallSaysNo I've seen this too, a woman queuing up to go into our small convenience store, wearing a mask and gloves, she was the least aware in the queue of social distancing, the lady behind her had to keep moving as she kept getting too close. They have a volunteer on the door asking each person to use hand gel before entering the shop, she was amazed that she was asked, "what even though I'm wearing gloves?" Her mentality was very much that she was safe, never mind the fact that her gloves might be spreading the virus to others as she shopped.
I think a lot of education would need to happen if it were to be imposed about correct usage. I also worry about making young children wear them, I think they would be fiddling with them a lot and it could make things worse.

I’m a paramedic and don’t mind people wearing masks but I do mind people wearing gloves as they still touch loads of items, put hands in pockets, play on their phones, pick up keys, pens etc and then take them off wrongly and carry on touching things so totally pointless. Even if it stops you touching your face if you touch something with your gloved hands then touch it again without disinfecting it then touch your face it starts the chain of infection all over again.
A special place in hell has been reserved for those who discard them in car parks or dump them in the supermarket trolley.

any benefit would be wiped out by people being lulled into a false sense of security by wearing a mask and therefore being less stringent with hygiene and social distancing measured

So every other country is requiring this, but the British are too stupid to wash their hands and keep their distance?

Yeah right.

In short for me, a home made mask is helpful on essential trips however i worry people will have a false sense of reassurance that encourages them to take more risks without understanding things like the efficacy, fit, use and how to wash.

Mask use ive seen has appeared to encourage people to touch their face more, and be lax on other precautions (such as social distancing) so i dont think its as clear cut as in research where any mask is better than no mask

Never have I seen a culture more opposed to wearing masks.

Some of us are buying N95 masks and shipping them to our families in the UK, so please don't start harassing those who do have proper masks in some mistaken assumption that you're defending healthcare workers through your social policing. The only people who should be sorry about there being a deficit of N95 masks is the govt. It's a scandal that the general population can't have them too.

So every other country is requiring this, but the British are too stupid to wash their hands and keep their distance?

In essence this is how all the arguments against wearing any form of PPE sound!
I worked with public, I know that large portion of people are dumber than my slipper, but even I am astound by the fact that Brits themselves seem to imply all over the internet Brits are too stupid, thus can't have face masks.😂