Wow, Facebook is removing posts on masks

[user1477391263]

---including posts about how to make masks.

I find this concerning. Masks, even homemade ones, play a role in slowing the spread of this virus, and more and more people are wearing them. At some point there will be a climbdown where this is widely admitted, and then people are going to be annoyed about the fact that they were lied to and censored.

Note that neither I nor the poster of this image claim to be experts - this is just based on observation.

Aligned with previous poster I am increasingly thinking something has to be better than nothing and double layer masks with a wire to fit over the nose is something.

People in my village are making them and giving them away for free, pile to help yourself from at bottom of driveway. Not selling them on eBay.

The fabric masks that I've seen shared on Facebook are actually worse for you than wearing no mask! Thank goodness posts are being removed...

echt I liked that video a lot, his explanations made a lot of sense.

@Mimishimi I'm speechless. You're selling masks? If you actually think they are effective, can I ask why you're not donating them to your local hospital?
Well done eBay for taking away your right to behave so despicably!

womanthatfelltoearth

you have to also look at what other things the governments implemented not just mask wearing. Japan's figures are about to sky rocket, as they had been suppressing figures so they could go ahead with the Olympics. As they are now postponed they are now playing catch up and are now starting to implement social distancing ect.

same with wearing gloves, it stops me touching my face, and i will still wash my hands once i remove the gloves.

I have read a lot of studies on masks that say using one is better than not, even wrapping a T-shirt round your face. I've also read that the governments and health organisations only discouraged them to prevent panic buying and them then becoming unavailable for health workers. Hard to know really. I have a doubled layered cotton one with a pocket for for a PM 2.5 filter to be fitted into which can be replaced after each wear.

@velocitygirl7 do you have any links about fabric masks and why they're worse please? The whole thing is so confusing!

smartairfilters.com/en/blog/diy-homemade-mask-protect-virus-coronavirus/

This study done at Cambridge University is interesting.

Just wondering if celebrities (yes you Holly and Davina) will now really have to dye their hair at home? Hmm

YgritteSnow you are right about them not wanting panic buying, because FFP3 are in very short supply already, and are need by frontline workers.

The who have just released a report about the subject, I'm sorry I'm terrible at doing links but if you google 'who face mask advice' it should be easy to find.
I was wearing a scarf around my face every time I went shopping but I won't from now in!

I don't necessarily dispute the evidence on masks but I am sick of that graph being shown as evidence masks work. First it ignores than China and South Korea are mask wearing countries. Second, it ignores the differences in speed of response of governments. All those countries with flatter curves had governments who took quick and fast responses, partly because they're all fairly authoritarian states (and so could) and partly because they have all been impacted by previous virus outbreaks and so the populations and governments took it seriously more quickly.

It's possible masks help. It's probable that some of the guidance against masks has been influenced by wanting to keep stock for medical workers. It's certain that that graph does absolutely nothing to show that masks help.

Yes I have seen that but it's from a few months ago and WHO are about to hold an advisory panel as there has been new evidence to suggest they may be more effective than first thought.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-face-masks-who-review-guidelines-hong-kong-a9442916.html%3famp

That news has only been published in the last day or two.

I saw an article about home made masks this morning and I'm going to make one with my henry filter bags today. I'm of the impression that something is better than nothing. I have one proper mask but need another one for my son.

ideally everyone should be wearing FFP3 or FFP2 masks when out, and it would certainly help stopping/slowing the spread.

The psychology of wearing a mask to remind you of the situation and stop you touching a your face and keeping you aware of what to are doing, is feasible, and good idea.

But people wearing them thinking they are protected and carry on as normal is also unfortunately very feasible for lot of people.

there was a study early on, about if you had the virus and the moisture build up and inhaling the virus continually from a your mask was likely to keep exposing you, and could lead to a viral overload.

I don't know where the study is, and whether other studies have been done since.

That is ridiculous. The scientific consensus is now strongly in favor of mask wearing. The WHO’s advice previously was ridiculous. Check out this article.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/face-masks-coronavirus-covid-19-public

This research scientist puts it well:
“When we found that seatbelts keep people safe, we required people wear them. When we realized that condoms can protect you from disease, we told people to avoid unprotected sex. If there’s something that could dramatically slash the transmission of disease, and our response is to tell people not to use it because they might do it wrong, that’s incompatible with any other kind of policy decisions we make.”

More analysis on masks:

mobile.twitter.com/Jabaluck/status/1245748616561594369

If you wear one you do have to be careful taking it on and off and washing or sterilising it to avoid increasing risk of infection

There should be an enquirer over the face mask thing. When I tell my friends in China and Korea that people are shopping without face masks they think they are certifiably insane.

I'm pretty convinced that we were only told that masks were useless because of the shortage of them.

N95 masks and surgical masks should be saved for the health workers who need them.

But if cloth masks could make a difference for the general public, we should be told. If it's the case that a cloth mask gives 50% protection, then when 2 people meet and they're both wearing masks, this rises to 70% protection. That hardly seems equivalent to chicken wire in a sandstorm does it?

And yes, that might need people being taught and reminded how to best put it on, take it off, and not touch it between, as well as maintaining handwashing, cleaning surfaces etc. Before this, most people didn't wash their hands properly (or at all) either... so we were told how to do it and for how long, rather than decide it was a message that wouldn't work.

This was the video that persuaded me to make my own.

Ygritte
Thank you for posting this. Thus proving the video upthread, which combines both fabric and paper towels is not snake oil.

Medical masks need to be saved for medical people.

Most of us are not going to be leaning over Covid patients, we are going to be socially distancing in Tesco's.

Face mask pattern and sensible discussion about their effectiveness.

The point is not whether they work or not but what wearing them is show to do to the behaviours that do work. People feel they are protected so go out and about more, stand closer and wash hands less.