Facemasks are to protect other people from us

[Singinginshower]

Just that really. Wanted to spread it round

Wow, I'd never guess that.

Of course they work. They don't guarantee protection but they form a two way barrier.

HCPs are not all wearing medical grade masks. They are wearing anything they can get. And they can only get them if the rest of us are persuaded they don't do any good and don't buy up all available stock.

Don't trust the motives of government scientists. Their agenda is not your welfare.

I have to wear a mask at work. I'm playing along as perhaps it reassured patients. But ive had coronavirus so don't think I could pass it to anyone as doubt I could get it again soon. I certainly don't need it for my own protection

@CoronaLonaSad

Nobody seems too sure whether people can get it twice. But there is some hope that people may get immunity.

If you've got the virus and wear a face mask you're 95% less likely to pass it on than if you don't wear a mask.

If you haven't got the virus and wear a mask you're 5% less likely to contract the virus than if you don't wear a mask.

So the original post is correct. Wearing a mask is mainly about not passing on the virus rather than not picking it up - although the two are of course connected.

Christ on a fucking bike. He’s pissed of at me now because I hit the roof.
Perhaps time to realize it is not all about you?

@choli like I said it’s a long backstory and it is all about me when I’d be expected to pick up the pieces as his only family if he was sick or died when I have my own health problems. He’s already bombarding me with texts saying he will drive 150 miles and bang on our windows until we let him in now that he thinks all ‘this silliness’ is over. Not a risk I’m willing to take when he’s been out. I’ve had 40 years of emotional abuse from him and have only just managed to move away from him for my own mental health - this has escalated my feelings. So it’s not all black and white although I know it does seem that was from a few sentences on a forum.

An interesting article on what fabrics work best as face coverings www.teriberry.com turns out homemade fabric face coverings can be quite effective.

I did read some research on how covering only your mouth is reasonably effective as most droplets are launched from your mouth as you talk. Can't find it now, it was a couple of paragraphs in a paper.

@Nonotthatdr In the wards and ICU wards where confirmed patients are, I never seem to see any wearing masks but the NHS staff are all wearing PPE. Suspected patients may wear thin surgical masks but never PPE.

@Summerflowers79 yes the patients should wear surgical masks not valved respirators as valved respirators are designed not to impede out breaths - they have a one way valve so it would be pointless to put them on the patients! I’m not in hospital so maybe in a confirmed covid ward where everyone and everything is contaminated there isn’t much point in masks wearing by patients at that point but one attending go surgery or a and e as a ?covid patients are supposed to be provided with a surgical mask - fluid repelant type as this should stop them spraying droplets around.

@Nonothatdr yes they wear them to stop spray when suspected but my point was clearly masks protect the wearer as that is why it’s necessary for NHS staff to wear PPE in confirmed covid wards as that’s what is stopping them contracting the virus - not because the patients are wearing thin surgical masks.

www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200513_12/?fbclid=IwAR3dj_SOykPTEixmGOeqQBeBgKpQ14FrPYSaw1iWnKpuoKtX15RB3VgAUrw Another reason not to wear medical-grade masks. They are not designed for being physically active, esp in heat.

‘If you haven't got the virus and wear a mask you're 5% less likely to contract the virus than if you don't wear a mask.’

Can you provide a link for this? What kind of mask?

N95 provides 95% protection to the wearer in terms of blocking particles, but you could of course still catch it through your eyes or by putting your hands to your face.

There still seems to be a great deal of confusion about this. As far as I understand, medical professionals working in close proximity to Covid patients need full PPE to prevent themselves from contracting the virus. They need high grade close fitting masks with valves, they need visors, disposable gowns, gloves, etc. This is because their patient is shedding viral particles constantly.

Members of the public, on the other hand, have no idea if the people they meet in shops or on buses have the virus. They also don’t know if they have it themselves. Members of the public don’t need visors or medical grade masks. Just physical distancing, excellent hygiene and face coverings to catch all the droplets they expel when they talk, cough or sneeze. These “masks” don’t need to be perfect and they don’t need to be used as perfectly as a HCP would but they add an extra layer of protection. The greater the percentage of people wearing masks in a population, the lower the rate of transmission.

I think I’ve got that right...

At any level of social restrictions, mask wearing reduces infection rate for that level. I'd much rather be allowed out more and have to wear a mask than to be more restricted in who I can meet/where I can go but now have to wear one...

We wear masks at work in clinical areas to protect other staff members from us and of course patients . We change them every few hours . This is essentially because overall we cannot maintain 2m distance for 15minutes . For known or suspected Covid patients and aerosol generating procedures we wear either aprons and gloves and FP3 masks or for administering general anaesthetics , doing CPR , operating we wear eye protection , double gloves , visors , fluid resistant gowns and a safe way of putting It all on and off .
Subjectively I see people wearing gloves and masks in public . I have no idea if they use the correct way of putting them on and off and whether they are used on a single occasion or not - I also see people with their nose exposed , masks on chins , smoking etc so I give these people a particularly wide berth especially as some do not respect the 2m distance .
I feel as safe as possible with these precautions .

Just to add I don’t wear a mask , goggles or gloves when I go out .

Am in my 50’s , normal BMI , white and no health conditions .

Final point - honest I volunteer up front to see Covid or suspected Covid patients if working with colleagues with eg asthma ( not severe ) , BAME , fat , pregnant wives even if younger than me as I’m lower risk .

Menco you are spot on

A crucially important point, which is often overlooked by HCP and Mumnetters is that most research on masks – almost all of which has been undertaken in the context of healthcare workers – considers the extent to which they protect the wearer .

Due to presymptomatic and asymptomatic coronavirus infections the current question we need to address is a different one: whether mask wearing protects other people from droplets emitted by the wearer– a measure known as source control. Source control works in a different way to wearer-protection – by blocking large droplets as they are emitted in coughing, sneezing, breathing, laughing and talking and before they become aerosolised. Large droplets (and indeed a proportion of aerosols) are blocked – not perfectly, but significantly – by cotton home-made masks even when they are worn imperfectly.

Look upon it as CPE (community protection equipment) - you wear a mask to protect your community

Think we should all wear them in places like supermarkets to protect everyone, including ourselves. People can be asymptomatic but spreading the virus, so even if well they are a risk to others.

If the supermarkets deny people entrance without masks, although I have not seen that happening, then all their staff need to wear them too. I have seen a few employees managing the queues outside wearing them (a few of them around mouths only) but a lot of staff seem to have abandoned them. The only time I have felt encroached upon in a supermarket is by the staff, particularly males in their 20s who don't seem to think social distancing applies to them.

Not knocking supermarkets, they have been marvellous. But in my last few visits although the shops have put in a good infrastructure a laissez fairre attitude has crept in with regard to maintain a distance by some of the staff. They have stood within a couple of inches from me,or brushed past me.

The people who I see in the supermarkets who are the most disrespectful of distancing are the elderly and mask wearers. In the supermarket today there were a few elderly people wandering along seemingly unaware of other shoppers but not a single person wearing a mask.

I noticed yesterday that far more people are wearing them. No one was ignoring social distancing .

@Connie222 replying a bit late but wanted to say oh yes, I empathise with the feeling of frustration, worry and dread when trying to look after an unwilling parent who is determined to make their own (bad) choices - argh!

Trouble is their choices not only could jeopardise their health but there seems to be a theme where they ignore the impact their bad choices will have on us, their grown up children trying to hold everything together. A real moment of role reversal, where the child becomes the grown up... Sigh.

Earlier this year, I had a moment of realisation (rather foisted upon me!) when a nurse kindly but firmly told me that I couldn’t make my elderly mother get the medical and social help that she clearly needed...

The nurse said that although it goes against heart, head and soul, as long as my mother has the mental capacity to make (terrible!) decisions, she can go ahead and make those terrible decisions, full stop.