Has anyone tested positive despite wearing a mask

[thatone]

I am a primary teacher and I have dss going to school and University soon. Also have dm and MIL who are both in extremely vulnerable category. We will of course be very careful about handwashing and wear masks as much as we can. The children in my class will not be wearing masks. I am very anxious about the risks to myself and my family and I live in an area which has been averaging 5 cases per day. So, I was wondering, just anecdotally, whether anyone had tested positive even though they have worn masks when out in public.

A mask won't stop you getting it but reduce the chance of you spreading it if you're asymptomatic.

There a stay we never saw at the daily beifings. You'd have to have the worlds population wear them 24/7 for it be presented as a viable link.

Statistic not a stay

Masks are mainly to protect others from you, not to protect you from others.

As previous posters have said. The mask is to protect others.

See, this is the thing I still dont understand. I breathe out - I reduce any outgoing transmission. So surely I breathe in, I reduce any incoming transmission.

@FascinatingCarrot - there's variation by type of mask, but with a cloth mask inbound transmission is only reduced by about 20%, but outbound transmission is reduced by over 80%.

I think the whole "Wearing a mask protects others not you" is an over-simplification. Probably true of very basic cloth face coverings, but I struggle to believe that a well-fitted mask with a filter doesn't offer at least some protection compared to no mask at all.

It is almost impossible to prove when or where anybody has caught covid
in a country with community transmissions
and a high proportion of asymptomatic people

there are no proven cases of catching it from hard surfaces either

I had a colleague (NHS role) that developed CoVid despite wearing PPE at work. Impossible to say wether she caught it from work though.

There is no evidence that wearing a mask protects you, however if you have it and don't yet have symptoms or are a symptomatic, then it can help to prevent spread it further.

Thank you all.

Lilypond2 and Fascinatingcarrot that is what I would have thought too, it must give at least some protection to the wearer too. Interesting statistic MRex 20% reduction is not much but perhaps enough to reduce the viral load and make it less deadly.

I hope your colleague is alright Catchingbabies.

Consider buying a FFP2 or even FFP3 mask from eBay. They’re proven to considerably lower your risk provided you wear and handle it correctly.

Interestingly, wearing a mask may increase your personal chances of catching COVID if it causes you to fiddle with your face and ingest particles you wouldn't have if you weren't wearing a hot, uncomfortable mask.

Spain has some of the strictest & earliest implemented mask rules in Europe & their confirmed infection rates are now the worst in Europe in terms of infections-per-million, which at the very least suggests masks aren't any kind of magic bullet. At the opposite end of the spectrum Sweden is generally mask averse & are doing rather well. Again no magic bullet. I follow the mask rules personally but I'm a bit ??? about the way they've been seized on as The Great Precaution. Teebee's point makes complete sense to me & was IIRC the argument advanced back when official advice here & from the WHO was against masks.

I wouldn't recommend an FFP3 to a primary school teacher personally, no one will be able to understand you! Maybe just pop it on when you need to be very close to a pupil?

I work in a Scottish primary school. I work in the lower years and I am the only one who wears a mask most of the day. I use a disposable one ( mainly as I have had a cold and cough - tested and negative - I didn’t want to pass it onto pupils as they are sent home to be tested if they develop a cough, temperature or loss of taste/smell) There have been no issues with children hearing me or understanding me. School bought us masks with a clear panel but they are hard to work in. Every time you inhale the mask sticks to your mouth and nose and it feels like your being suffocated, not pleasant! I. The upper years staff have a 2metre distance at the front of the room and I think a few wear masks whilst teaching and for all parent interactions if required
I was very apprehensive about returning but it’s feeling more normal now and any unwell child is taken to the isolation room by SLT immediately to await parents and any siblings also go. The family must then isolate awaiting test results. 17500 children were tested in Scotland last week!
Good luck with your return to school. Keep you class washing their hands throughout the day it takes time but will also help reduce the spread of infection and wash yours all the time, I wash my hands every few minutes! However I still caught a different virus so it can’t work that well!

There are a couple of examples of situations where masks have been shown to be likely to have been protective to the wearers that I have seen reported: a Starbucks in S. Korea where only the staff who were not wearing masks were infected by a superspreader who visited the cafe. None of those who were wearing masks were infected. Also, a hotel in Switzerland where staff who opted to wear visors got covid 19, but not the staff who chose to wear masks.

Where there is a choice to wear masks or not, I suspect those choosing to wear masks are likely to be more careful generally with mask and hand hygiene, and regular mask replacement, than is the case when everyone is expected to wear masks. Where everyone is expected to wear masks, you can only hope that this will protect others, as most people are extremely dim about mask hygiene, so probably are risking trapping covid 19 virus in their mask and then merrily breathing it in.

I was also of the belief that a mask such as an FFP2 offers some level of protection to the wearer.Can anyone provide evidence to say otherwise?

Seeing as the most likely to transmit or catch covid is at home, it would be sensible to wear your mask there. If it works.

@Treesofwood - If someone lives alone, home is not the place they are most likely to catch covid 19 . Home is only dangerous if someone in the home caught covid 19 in the community, first... Most people would rather minimise their risk of getting covid 19 in the community, amongst people they don’t know, so that they can feel psychologically more secure when they get home, even if they ought to continue to be on high alert in the place they feel safest.

Also, if anyone in the home is known to have covid 19, then guess what? The official advice is for both the ill person and their carer to wear masks when in the same room together.

If masks worked they would work for all viruses not just Covid.

We would be seeing lower transmission of common cold, flu etc. I haven't seen anything suggesting this is the case. More people are dying of flu and other respiratory illnesses than Covid currently

Obviously. Masks don’t provide immunity. Nothing provides immunity, if anything did we wouldn’t be stuck in a pandemic

Think about how many healthcare workers contracted the disease whilst they wear masks as standard (around COVID positive patients)