5 ms·
The face masks aren’t especially effective for this disease
by throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
The face masks aren’t especially effective for this disease
- ohazi 7y agoPeople are downvoting the parent, but he/she is correct. So many people misunderstand these masks. Surgical masks protect other people from your coughing / breathing -- they do nothing for you. N95 masks are notoriously difficult to actually fit correctly. A mask with a filter needs to be completely sealed around your face. You should not be able to get any airflow in from the sides. The elastic is usually too weak, the masks themselves are too lightweight, and they rarely have anything but paper touching your face, so you're not going to be able to get any sort of seal with them. The only mask that has any hope of protecting the wearer against inhaling airborne particles is a 3M-style cartridge respirator that's fitted properly. The mask should be heavy, the part around your face should be silicone or rubber, and you should be sweating enough to lubricate the mask so that it acts like a suction cup around your face.
- kingkawn 7y agoAs I understood it their primary purpose was to get the wearer to not absent-mindedly touch their face, which is a much higher vector of infection than airborne inhalation of disease.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoBut because surgical masks are somewhat uncomfortable, it's apparently fairly common for people to touch their faces more to adjust the masks.
- fspeech 7y ago"Surgical masks protect other people from your coughing / breathing -- they do nothing for you." But the mandate to wear masks in crowded public places is to protect others from the wearer. Note there have been few if any reported cases of transmission on long flights from China. This may have something to do with mask wearing by carriers of the disease.
- michaelbuckbee 7y agoSo I'm 100% in agreement with everything you said, but it still sounds like it's a decent idea for people in really crowded areas to wear masks to: 1. Not infect others during the period while they feel fine but are actually spreading the virus 2. As a more effective means of preventing spread via coughing and sneezing.
- ohazi 7y agoI agree with you, but if people in China are spending hours in line trying to get a mask, they're almost certainly not altruistically trying to improve the public health situation -- they've been misinformed about what the mask is going to do for them. Let's be realistic here -- when the public is in a panic, their behavior gets worse, not better.
- wongarsu 7y agoSo they are doing the right thing for wrong, selfish reasons because they are misinformed.
- backupcavalry 7y agoIsn't there also a shortage of masks because everyone's snapping them up and hoarding them? If people who're actually ill can't get a hold of any because of that then I'd argue they aren't even doing the right thing period.
- marshray 7y agoThe insidious thing about this virus is that people can be contagious for weeks before they notice symptoms.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoCitation needed. The incubation period appears to be 2-7 days, with 14 day quarantines used mostly to give margin for error.
- cat199 7y agonot in medicine / physics, but wouldn't they still reduce airflow and so, while not entirely blocking things, still reduce dispersal / inhalation range? agree people should not deceive themselves, however.
- pmorici 7y agoThe parent is wrong. I understand why they might think that since the popular media is spreading misinformation by writing stories to discourage people from hording masks and in the process saying they aren't effective but that is false. The masks aren't a fool proof solution by themselves but in conjunction with other common sense hygiene they do reduce risk greatly.
- pmorici 7y agoThis is false. If used right along with other common sense measures like washing your hands regularly and not touching your eyes / nose / mouth they reduce your risk of catching and spreading infection. [0] [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4868605/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4868605/
- mariushn 7y agohttps://www.livescience.com/face-mask-new-coronavirus.html https://www.livescience.com/face-mask-new-coronavirus.html A regular surgical face mask doesn't protect. A more specialized mask, known as an N95 respirator, can protect against the new coronavirus, also called 2019-nCoV. The respirator is thicker than a surgical mask
- pmorici 7y agoThe NIH study I linked says that they found "no significance difference" between N95 Respirators and surgical masks. LiveScience.com looks like some kind of popsci website. Not sure I would take their word over a study published in a medical journal. Edit: For the unfamiliar N95 is a NIOSH standard that dictates the percentage of particulates that are filtered and if the filter is rated for environments with presence of oil. The letter which can be N, R, or P tells you if the filter is good in the presence of oil. N=Not Oil Rated, R=Oil Resistant, P=Oil Proof. The number following the letter tells you the percentage of particulates filtered and typically come in 95, 99, or 100. Both surgical style masks and respirators can be N95 rated.
- mariushn 7y agoThanks for clarification!
- neurocline 7y agoAccording to my wife, the medical professional, surgical masks do protect you - if you change them every few hours. Wearing the same one all day, much less for days in a row, is worse than no mask at all, when it comes to protecting you. Of course, wearing a mask protects other people from you.