why are most mask-wearers now wearing the inexpensive surgical masks (blue/white) rather than fabric ones? Safety or just lost interest in having beautiful masks?

[loveyouradvice]

Just that really - I'm still wearing fabric ones and was thinking of getting some silk ones for people as christmas presents....

What do you think?

Fabric ones become wet so fast when on the tube. Paper are more comfortable.

Surgical masks are affective, cloth ones are for fashion. I'd rather not catch anything than have someone comment on a fashion mask.

I've just been watching a woman who conducted a university study into the effectivenes of masks. She said that the surgical masks are the best (and can be washed several times and re-used), but that a well fitting cloth mask is better than an ill fitting surgical one. She also agreed that wearing any mask is better than not wearing one at all.

Those blue disposable masks take 500 years to break down. They are not just paper.

@Rabblesthecat

If someone bought me a mask for Christmas if use it as toilet tissue before I’d ever use it as a mask

My daughter just put some on her list!

Silk ones are better for your skin for longer periods of time (flights for me). After silk then blue ones. Cotton ones don't agree with my skin at all.

I wouldnt be very bothered by a face mask for an xmas 2021 pressie though Im afraid.

Silk ones may be better for you skin, but do they do a single thing to combat transmission? In fact do they achieve anything other than advertise that you're a person who cares?

@jay55

Fabric ones become wet so fast when on the tube. Paper are more comfortable.

They're plastic, not paper

@HesterShaw1

Silk ones may be better for you skin, but do they do a single thing to combat transmission? In fact do they achieve anything other than advertise that you're a person who cares?

So we're expected to have manky skin, and never mind the environmental issues with the disposable ones.

Well surely the point of wearing masks is to reduce transmission, so we should wear the most effective ones.
I've not read any research saying that fabric ones are better than the disposable ones, but I'd be interested to see it as what I've read suggests the opposite.
Yes disposable masks are dreadful for the environment just as the amount of wrapping and plastic involved in every lateral flow test is shocking - all interestingly made in China as well - but if not spreading and catching Covid is the number one goal, then there appears little way round that.

A lot of generalisations here. Not all fabric masks are the same cambridgemask.com/ Cambridge masks are excellent.

Yes disposable masks are dreadful for the environment just as the amount of wrapping and plastic involved in every lateral flow test is shocking - all interestingly made in China as well - but if not spreading and catching Covid is the number one goal, then there appears little way round that.

It also doesn't help that a lot of people are too stupid to cut the straps on their masks to reduce the dangers for wildlife!

I've never done a lateral flow test so I don't know how much plastic is involved but it amazes me how too years ago it was cut down on single use plastic but now no one seems to care.

Perhaps Boris should be looking at that as well as his other green schemes.

Aaargh! Two years ago, not too years ago!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Aaargh! Two years ago, not too years ago!

Yes, single use plastic concern is SO 2019. Now it doesn't matter.

I agree about LFTs

Skinnytail the valved masks : will they not just pass your virus out into the surrounding air and into the airways of others?

I've just ordered some of these:

brilliantmasks.co.uk/collections/style-collection

I have to wear a mask when I'm away from my desk in the office and I'm not wearing the disposable ones as we have also been told we need to put the plastic mask inside a plastic bag for disposal! I know I could take it home but I'll probably forget it's in my bag.

As I said in the other thread I think there is a lot of misunderstanding of WHY people are wearing masks. Many people are wearing them purely because it's not socially acceptable not to. In Scotland it's still required almost everywhere.

If I'm a child in senior school wearing a mask then I'm not thinking about what's most effective, I'm thinking about what I can tolerate all day:

When I go to Tesco I am not thinking about whether I might be spreading anything to a randomer on the bread aisle. I'm thinking that I need to conform with the norms and stop that randomer hissing at me to "wear a fucking mask".

Disposable doesn't mean disposable- I've been using the same one for weeks. Others have been kicking about the car just as long.

Purely for show.

I still wear clothes masks as do our friends. I really don't like the single use plastic surgical masks Though I re cut a pattern that fits far better & followed WHO guidelines in most effective fabrics etc, so make triple layer with silk, cotton & polypropylene, which with nose wire, don't fog up my glasses either.

The people who used fabric masks are the people who didn't feel they needed to take the safest option, so are more likely to have stopped using masks.

This is a sweeping & incorrect statement, though having made quality & effective masks to sell & then had to compete with retirees in outlying villages knocking out not fit for purpose masks out of bits of old sheet, I can see where it comes from, given that a lot just wanted something to get into shops with & couldn't care less whether it worked or not so long as it was cheap. They were the ones dumping masks ASAP, not those of us who made or bought quality fit for purpose masks

I wear the blue ones sometimes as they fog my glasses less and are less sweaty on my face

@JustButtingIn cambridgemask.com/products/valve-deactivator

That's a built in "flaw" that requires action by the user.
But yes if it's individual protection you are aiming for those superior cloth masks are an option. An average cloth mask is far less effective in any comparison I have seen (the Bangladesh study I just read about again to refresh my memory and they kept improving the cloth masks and still they were markedly less effective on the population wide level) than the medical masks.

@RichTeaRichTea

That always was the message in the U.K. too

It's interesting, in the US people seem to obsess about which brands of mask are best, go out of their way to buy really extreme types and such.

While I am sure the conditions in a lab might show there is a difference, in reality I think that is such a minor variable.

I use the disposables but then again very rarely go anywhere I need one.

@KrispyKale - it does actually have a layer of filter, it's not just an open hole.

I've just bought some new fabric ones for shopping as I've had my other ones for over a year!

But I have the FFP2 ones for the train, though I do reuse them after a few days.