To wonder how wearing a mask several times a day will work or be safe?

[Lookingforastronauts]

So I'm in Scotland, and as of Monday in high schools, pupils will be expected to wear as mask anywhere indoors apart from in class. Currently my child wears one in the morning on the bus, and another one in the afternoon. Because obviously putting a previously used one on that's been in their bag for 6+ hours is not a great idea. I think sometimes they forget and just wear the same one but I have explained to them the importance of it, given them a clean washable bag to keep them in, and they go straight in the machine when they come home.

My question is mostly for other Scottish High School parents. Am I being unreasonable to think this is a bad idea? That most kids will just wear one all through the day and that this is a risk factor in itself? With 4 "movements" and 2 journeys, that's at least 6 masks. How are most of these kids going to keep track of what's used or not?

As long as they sanitise hands before and after taking them off and on then I dont see the issue in using the same one. I do the same myself.

That's kinda like saying it's OK to wear dirty knickers as long as you've had a shower.

I'd suggest some sort of clean and dirty bag system? Maybe a small drawstring bag for dirty and a zip lock bag for clean. Sanitiser on before opening the clean bag.

D4rwin that's what I'm planning on doing. But I think the parents/kids who will bother with this will be about 10-5% most will just be putting the same one off and on all day. Yes they'll sanitise hands but what's the point really.

I'm also wondering about school ties as infection risk. How many parents will be washing ties ever?

@D4rwin

I'd suggest some sort of clean and dirty bag system? Maybe a small drawstring bag for dirty and a zip lock bag for clean. Sanitiser on before opening the clean bag.

I'd rather have the ziplock bag for dirty to contain the germs on the masks.

That's kinda like saying it's OK to wear dirty knickers as long as you've had a shower

I don't know about you, but what comes out of my mouth is nothing like what comes out of my 'nether regions'. And personally I don't change my underwear several times a day...

I know reusing masks isn't ideal, but I've had to do it when I've been out and about and had to make more stops than anticipated. Its really very little different to putting on a clean mask, it doesn't get dirty in the short time it takes to get in and out of the shop.

I dont change my underwear every time i visit the toilet which would be a closer analogy to reusing a mask. I'm not sending multiple masks in that are only used for a very short amount of time in between classes

Isn’t that what most adults do? I just shove my mask in the wash every few days.

I keep mine in a plastic zip bag between uses but reuse several times

I would just re-use the same one all day, to be honest, and wash every night. Mine lives in the centre console of my car. I certainly don't wash it after every single use - today I only used it for about three minutes!

You can wash the blue tissue types in the washing machine ...... Was them separately on the quick cycle

Depends on the situation doesn’t it.

Popped it on to go into a pretty much empty shop and got no closer than 2m to anyone? Wear it again.

Wore it for a quick dash into the coffee shop with barista behind a screen?
Wear it again.

Wear it for 90 minutes in a heaving supermarket with people breaking social distancing?
Boil wash.

As with all of this covid stuff, it’s about reactive risk. Which almost nobody seems to be able to compute without a (badly thought out) government guideline.

Relative risk*

The whole point is to look like you're doing the right thing. Masks being worn in public rarely adds up to their hypothetical benefits because of quality, handling, storage.

Better to comply and pull a stinky used one out of your pocket than to be short of a hygienic one by the p4-5 change because you didn't count up the right number of hygienic ones for the day.

Farce.

I wouldn't worry, I'm a nurse and am supposed to wear the same (thin blue surgical) mask for an entire 'session' (12 hours).

My son will need three masks a day, one for the bus in the morning, one for communal areas in college during the day and one for the bus journey back. He won't be in every day which will hopefully mean we've got enough to keep them on rotation especially in the winter when you can't just swish them around in some hot soapy water and put them outside on the line.

I agree to some extent it's part of the covid theatre, though I think wearing masks indoors is more effective than asking people to use hand sanitiser all the time when they've washed their hands 5 minutes ago.

I reuse a mask if eg I only wore it for less than a minute while I went to pay for petrol; if I've been in the hairdressers for 45 minutes I will change it.

Use on, bin it straight after use, use another one... yup shite for environment but hopefully it’s only short term

Anyone who thinks teenage kids at school
Will wear a clean one everyday is deluded
They will most likely ping them at each other, throw them, be on / off on / off, in pockets , in bags, on floors/desks/ god knows what

I live in Scotland too and think this is really stupid. My childs high school is doing this but no social distancing in classes?? So, what is the point here? I take it Covid can only be present after its held off for a week since they have been back and only in corridors ffs.

It really isn't going to make much difference if you wear 7 clean ones a day or wear the same one every day for a week.

'If' they stop the virus then they stop the virus. If wearing one means that you are touching your face more, well I guess sanitiser will be more effective than washing for keeping hands, and pen ends out of mouths because it tastes vile.

I agree with @BogRollBOGOF

They will most likely ping them at each other, throw them, be on / off on / off, in pockets , in bags, on floors/desks/ god knows what

Maybe the fear of another lockdown may deter them... or they probably no someone who has died from covid.

Is this a question or a complaint? It's quite clear how they work.

Ruby , I think you’re teasing.

It's a stupid idea. Mine will have one clean one a day. That's it as it will probably get lost anyhow. No way I'm going to buy a load of disposables and fuck up the environment for this PR exercise or give my son who has OCD fucking hand sanitiser. I had to complain about a train staff member who kept offering him fucking hand sanitiser when he was sat there doing FA in his seat and TOLD her he had OCD.

The masks are to stop you passing the virus on to others, so it doesn’t need to be clean every time, if you’re the one taking it off/carrying it around. What’s the risk of a dirty one? It’s got your own germs on it and that’s all...obviously for general hygiene it’ll need a wash after a long wear but I keep one in my pocket for popping in and out of shops and only wash it when I think about it. Wearing one a couple of days in a row isn’t a big deal. You’re not doing surgery in them!