there should be a government campaign to make your own masks...

[jobhunter7]

Surely this would help if as many people as possible were wearing masks... and understandably perhaps the government want to make sure medics have them first...

I've heard the message that we might have to wear masks in public.
I think with all the guidelines out there the government could do a template so if people wanted to make their own masks they can.
Would be slightly better than everyone googling different ones but I'm sure when the advice comes in they will give us more guidance over ot.

www.mirror.co.uk/science/coronavirus-everyone-uk-should-wear-21894540

I have no intention of making one and any fabric I could use won’t work. There are many virus experts who say the general public wouldn’t get any benefit. Some disagree to boost a story a newspaper wants to run. However flu and pollution is different to coronavirus and it’s how effective it is against this virus is what matters. We need to leave masks to those who need them and they need to be the correctly made ones from the correct materials. Not old pillow cases with gaping sides that are uncomfortable and allow the virus to pass through. What is the point of that?

I have no intention of making one and any fabric I could use won’t work.

Not sure why you think that.

There are many virus experts who say the general public wouldn’t get any benefit.

There has been contradictory arguments on this.

Some disagree to boost a story a newspaper wants to run. However flu and pollution is different to coronavirus and it’s how effective it is against this virus is what matters.

Of course.

We need to leave masks to those who need them and they need to be the correctly made ones from the correct materials.

Of course.

Not old pillow cases with gaping sides that are uncomfortable and allow the virus to pass through. What is the point of that?

Because even something like wearing a scarf or a bandana may help a little bit in protecting yourself and others and help to reduce the spread of this.

What is the point of that?
The point of a fabric mask is to help stop you spreading the virus to somebody else. The point of a fabric mask is to reduce the transmission of potentially infected droplets when YOU breath or speak.

Even if it is just for the hour or two of a day when you go to the supermarket or go on the bus.

The point is that homemade masks don’t work. They don’t prevent my tiny microscopic droplets escaping. If there are gaps they don’t work. If they are damp they don’t work. So there is little benefit. And as for scarves etc that are not washed - ugh!

The second you touch a damp/used mask and then touch a surface you have potentially transmitted the virus. This just isn’t a great idea.

I screen grabbed this from Twitter yesterday... shows that with fairly high compliance and average weave quality with mask wearing in public, we could drastically reduce the R0 of the virus, and we could ease lockdown to a low-key version of normality, but keeping some social distancing restrictions (eg table spacing in cafés and max numbers in shops).

Covid is a Socially Transmitted Disease (ie through everyday human interactions like chatting, shopping, work, leisure etc). Just as high compliance of condom wearing in the population can contain and reduce sexually transmitted diseases, mask wearing can contain and stop airborne/droplet transmitted infections. Not perfect protection for the individual as it only impedes outward transmission, but at a public health population level it means transmission rates are significantly cut to the magic R0

Do those people blindly repeating the crap about masks being useless cover their mouth/nose when they sneeze?

www.newscientist.com/article/2240288-do-face-masks-work-against-the-coronavirus-and-should-you-wear-one
"MacIntyre agrees, and says that until more medical masks become available, homemade masks are worth using outside of healthcare setting."

Lots of research is underway, not all of it is in English.

It is easy to fit a nose wire to a mask and you can also add filter pockets. A well fitted mask is quite comfortable.

Sneezes are not this virus though are they? The scientists who have been talking on the radio are not randoms on Twitter. No, we don’t wear masks when we go out. We should stay at home if we feel ill and are sneezing and coughing. Don’t go out at all!

BahHumbygge many people are not interested in slowing transmission, they are only interested in not getting it themselves.

There was a very good discussion about this on GMB this morning. Worth watching on catch up.

FFS Bubbles you can have coronavirus and hay fever at the same time.

The whole country can not stay at home forever. Many people are still working now.

Sometimes I wonder if the strawberry bleachers will ever leave their houses again.

I don’t believe wearing masks is necessary to allow people to leave home again. It’s draconian and not proven in so many ways. The WHO doesn’t recommend it. Yes, sneezing can be hay fever but it’s not a given that it’s also coronavirus bearing. But if someone is sneezing all the time they probably shouldn’t go out.

WHO stresses that it is critical that medical masks and respirators be prioritized for health care workers.

The use of masks made of other materials (e.g., cotton fabric), also known as nonmedical masks, in the community setting has not been well evaluated. There is no current evidence to make a recommendation for or against their use in this setting.

WHO is collaborating with research and development partners to better understand the effectiveness and efficiency of nonmedical masks. WHO is also strongly encouraging countries that issue recommendations for the use of masks in healthy people in the community to conduct research on this critical topic. WHO will update its guidance when new evidence becomes available.

www.who.int/publications-detail/advice-on-the-use-of-masks-in-the-community-during-home-care-and-in-healthcare-settings-in-the-context-of-the-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)-outbreak

(my bold)

Prof Sian Griffiths disagrees with you about masks Bubbles www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/21/scientists-join-calls-for-uk-public-to-wear-homemade-face-masks-outdoors but she is just a SARS expert.

Bubbles, people can sneeze for other reasons than Covid, ie be infected with covid and sneeze from hayfever say. Just because the cause of the sneeze wasn’t triggered by covid, it can still be transmitted that way, along with many other biological and social processes such as breathing, talking, panting, coughing, laughing etc.

The graphic I uploaded wasn’t from “some random off twitter” it’s from a real scientific paper by scientists at Hong Kong university.

I’m happy to wear a mask while shopping or on public transport if it means we can lift the lockdown. Anything has to be better than sitting at home while the economy collapses.

Fair enough. So we don’t rush to make them then. Suits me.

I think simple cloth face coverings could be useful for situations where social distancing is difficult or impossible.

I think it would help if we stopped thinking of them as 'masks' - think of it as a hanky strapped to your face.

I mean fair enough advice from the WHO. The Chinese are used to masks. The culture is different. One set of research isn’t enough.

Wear sunglasses and a snood and you'll help yourself and others.

I don't really understand why it's so controversial. It can't be a bad thing in a supermarket. No need to do it outside unless you end up om a narrow section of pavement/path and need to go within 2m of nervous people. I leave it round my neck and pull it over my face and nose if I have to walk (or run) close to someone.

I would have thought that you touch your face less because you can't!

I didn't realise until this how much I touch my face. I think tying my hair back would help as hair often gets blown, or falls, across my face, making it itch so I touch it.

So: tie hair back, sunglasses on and scarf over nose and mouth when in confined public spaces. Ok sunglasses might look silly in a supermarket but does it matter.

I wouldn't wear it all the time outside because it's not easy to breathe, it would just be for the few minutes I am inside a shop or for the few seconds it takes to pass someone.

But what effect is there in a hanky strapped to your face. I fully accept the medical masks have some benefit but even then WHO recommends lots of washing of hands, etc to stop onward infection. No home made mask is an answer to this. Being clean and cleaning surfaces and not going out if ill is vital. Not a mask.