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Original poster

It is normal to wash face masks every day, isn’t it?

527 replies

Bvop · 09/05/2021 21:38

Promoted by another thread - but also by a couple of friends who always seem to be wearing the same face mask: what’s normal re washing? I have one mask all day at work but it goes in the laundry basket when I get home, as do the kids’ and if we go out again we get new masks from the basket of clean ones. This is normal, isn’t it, and it’s gross to wear the same mask unwashed for more than one day?

OP posts:
WaterBottle123 · 10/05/2021 07:00

Never washed mine. COVID can't live overnight on cotton! If it could, we'd have bigger problems. For the record we have three schools worth of germs in this house and no COVID or isolation periods all pandemic.

Mask common sense FTW.

WaterBottle123 · 10/05/2021 07:03

Using disposables on the other hand is disgraceful behaviour. But then most ppl can't get their heads round climate change being a bigger threat to humanity than COVID.

Imagine how many masks are clogging up the oceans, along with those pointless inaccurate lateral flow tests.

megletthesecond · 10/05/2021 07:05

Yanbu.
On the couple of occasions I was in the office I changed them at lunchtime.

The dcs take two thick cotton masks to school. We have loads of the things.

Mypathtriedtokillme · 10/05/2021 07:10

I wash mine after each wear (chuck it in a wash bag then pop it in with the next load.)

Fizbosshoes · 10/05/2021 07:11

I wear one for 2 x 35 min train journeys plus going into various other buildings. It gets washed daily.

....but I have been wondering how the MN hygeine police wash theirs...the ones who separate tea towels from underwear....which load to masks go in, or are they completely separate. (Everything gets done at 50c here but I'm pretty sure that's probably grim or vile!Confused)

User6587324 · 10/05/2021 07:11

@cariadlet

It's depressing how many people buy disposables and throw them away after a single use instead of buying reusables and washing them.

It might be hygienic but it's bloody awful for the environment.

No worse than all those wipes people used on their shopping and the amount of ppe that has been binned because of government error. Wipes were sold out for ages because fools were wiping shopping and post.
Faultymain5 · 10/05/2021 07:11

@Mooda

My hygiene habits are low by MN standards but yes I wear a clean one every day, sometimes more than one if it was required say in the morning then evening. It's gross to be reusing them.

And to all the PP saying 'I only wear one because I have to' - ??? That is literally the case for everyone. Nobody is wearing them for the enjoyment of it!

Well to be fair I wore mine everywhere in the winter because it kept my face warmSmile
User6587324 · 10/05/2021 07:17

The disposable ones are more comfortable in the summer, in the cooler weather I wear a Seasalt handyband which is also a scarf. The cloth masks are useless and ping off my ears and slip down

ItsSnowJokes · 10/05/2021 07:22

Mine are washed after every use, be that use 10 mins or 10 hours. It's grim not to wash them. They are taken off when we get home and put in the wash straight away. We do have a lot of masks though. Probably about 20 different ones between 2 adults and then my daughter has 6 or 7.

IWanderedLonely · 10/05/2021 07:23

*StormcloakNord

Oh dear. You'd hate me lol

I have about 3 masks I often scramble to find. Bought them at the start of this pandemic and they've never been washed grin whoops!

I only wear them because I have to though, not because I think it offers any form of protection.*

Exactly this. I can't wait to be rid of them.

EarringsandLipstick · 10/05/2021 07:23

@JenerationH

No, they haven't.

Yes, they have. Here you go, via Full Fact (UK's independent fact checking organisation)

fullfact.org/online/yeadon-covid-vaccine/

Also: www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118 which found:

The available evidence suggests that near-universal adoption of nonmedical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures, could successfully reduce
R
e
R
e
to below 1, thereby reducing community spread if such measures are sustained.

The evidence is easily available; it's shocking people are not willing to find it & so willing to believe misinformation.

Twickerhun · 10/05/2021 07:23

Those of you with a special basket for masks, did you buy these specially? Is there a bee Etsy selling shop for mask shaped baskets? Just wondering if this is the. We stunt pineapple trend than one needs to know about?

EarringsandLipstick · 10/05/2021 07:24

@MrsTroutfire

I've never washed them. Just change every few days. You wear them for a fraction of the amount of time you'd wear a thong for in a day and people aren't washing them every few hours.
If you wore underwear for a brief period, over a long time, you're telling me you wouldn't wash it, just wear it again & again because you'd only worn it for a brief time?

Revolting.

IndiaMay · 10/05/2021 07:26

I have many littered in the car, handbags, round the house, coat pockets. Not sure they have ever been washed

EarringsandLipstick · 10/05/2021 07:26

@IWanderedLonely

*StormcloakNord

Oh dear. You'd hate me lol

I have about 3 masks I often scramble to find. Bought them at the start of this pandemic and they've never been washed grin whoops!

I only wear them because I have to though, not because I think it offers any form of protection.*

Exactly this. I can't wait to be rid of them.

You're wrong too. See my post, citing evidence, above.
User6587324 · 10/05/2021 07:30

I just wear a buff or mask because it lets me into shops, I couldn't give a fuck about whether it protects or not, I'm sure many think the same. I wear a fresh one because it makes my nose run so gets a bit snotty each time, if I didn't it would be hard and crusty and sore to wear.

homesickinscotland · 10/05/2021 07:37

Wash them when I can be bothered but they mostly just live in my pocket. Literally only wear them for a few pointless minutes on the outdoor school run and don't do any other activity which requires them. Not really concerned with its function as don't think it's necessary in this situation anyway.

EarringsandLipstick · 10/05/2021 07:40

couldn't give a fuck about whether it protects or not,

Just awful. You really don't care about protecting others? (Which it does)

Ilovechocolatetoomuch · 10/05/2021 07:42

I have 6, 5 are all the same pattern. I guess you might think I was wearing the same one every day but I’m not.

RedcurrantPuff · 10/05/2021 07:46

@EarringsandLipstick

couldn't give a fuck about whether it protects or not,

Just awful. You really don't care about protecting others? (Which it does)

So what? Why does it matter? She wears the mask, doesn’t she?

Why is it not enough for some people for others to abide by the rules, but they have to actually enjoy doing so?

I don’t really give a fuck either. I don’t actively want people to get ill but if the restrictions weren’t law I certainly wouldn’t care enough about it to take steps to prevent it.

ContessaVerde · 10/05/2021 07:48

The cloth masks are useless and ping off my ears and slip down

Mine don’t because they have elastic which goes round your head not your ears.

HAve you written them off rather rapidly because you don’t believe in them by any chance?

kowari · 10/05/2021 07:48

I wear one because it's required by work when moving between areas, and so I don't get any abuse at the supermarket. I only open my mouth when wearing one when I say Hello and Thanks at the checkout. I don't think it's the same as undies at all, my mask is dry and doesn't smell at all after a day of occasional use.

Vintagevixen · 10/05/2021 07:49

[quote EarringsandLipstick]@JenerationH

No, they haven't.

Yes, they have. Here you go, via Full Fact (UK's independent fact checking organisation)

fullfact.org/online/yeadon-covid-vaccine/

Also: www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118 which found:

The available evidence suggests that near-universal adoption of nonmedical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures, could successfully reduce
R
e
R
e
to below 1, thereby reducing community spread if such measures are sustained.

The evidence is easily available; it's shocking people are not willing to find it & so willing to believe misinformation.
[/quote]
Need copies of the randomised controlled trials in their original published forms, everything else is just noise and opinion.

DANMASK is the only large scale one done and only studied ingress not egress so isn't proof that they protect others, because they didn't study that.

Bottom line - there is no proof because it just hasn't been studied extensively up to now.

5zeds · 10/05/2021 07:52

@kowari my mask is dry and doesn't smell at all after a day of occasional use. I think it’s more likely your sense of smell is less acute than you think. Everyone’s breath smells, especially if caught in a mask for more than a few minutes.

RaspberryCoulis · 10/05/2021 07:53

@cariadlet

It's depressing how many people buy disposables and throw them away after a single use instead of buying reusables and washing them.

It might be hygienic but it's bloody awful for the environment.

I agree. But all concern for the environment and littering has gone out the window in the pandemic. Disposable is better, cleaner, more hygienic. Stock up on plastic wipes for the kitchen, plastic bottles of sanitiser, single use masks, gloves, aprons, bottles of bleach....

Anyway. I use the "single use" blue surgical ones as I'm a menopausal asthmatic who can't cope with cloth. But they're not "single use" as far as I'm concerned. They can certainly stand up to repeated trips around the supermarket. And I'm not minging either.

People planning to wear their masks like some sort of virtue signalling badge showing how caring and amazing they are after they are banned... well, it's going to be easy to spot the anxious or the people you know you'd like to avoid spending time with, isn't it?