So do we in the general public need masks after all?

[dewline]

I'm starting to see commentaries from some of you, and links to increasingly credible sources on the matter. I've gone looking over the last couple of days, but the local pharmacies within walking distance are - for the moment - still out of stock.

If I land a job that requires travel soon, this is going to be more than an academic question. Even if I find myself having to travel for an interview...

Comments

[cmcmck]

The view seems to be that they're not actually much use unless prescribed for a specific medical condition.

They seem to appeal to kinky journalists however..........

[dewline]

The staff at my local supermarket have all started wearing them as of last night. The local pharmacy seems to be sticking with gloves for now.

[cmcmck]

Sigh :o(

[thewayne]

I have worn a mask precisely once in the last several months, in early December, when I had a bad cold and had to work closely with two of my co-workers. One was retiring and training two of us in her duties and I didn't want to get the two of them sick. As I was coughing and sneezing, it seemed to be the polite thing to do. And neither of them got sick.

Now, a lot depends on how vulnerable you are or if you are potentially sick.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I've not Kept Up, but from earlier reports, it's the sick that need to use the masks that might be available to civilians. Medical personnel and their masks are different--they don't want to cross-contaminate, and their grade of mask is better at keeping them well when they're dealing with the infectious.

The small aside to that, is that a masked face is less likely to get a hand inadvertently/reflexively bringing germs to the mouth and nose.

I fear that we're going to have people wearing gloves and then touching their face with those gloves, and other kinds of missed point situations. The main issue, barring wounds on your hands, is only clean hands (not post door knob or other shared surfaces) touching mouths eyes etc and washing hands post such contact to not further dirty shared surfaces.

Please, fresh pens and writing implements and then hold onto them. That's the big big vector in a normal post-modern workplace.

[agoodwinsmith]

I think some of it is social signalling.

A grocery store might be pretending it is taking its employees' health seriously.

Okayokay - not pretending, but rather wishing to ostentatiously demonstrate this care. Making sure people don't go without wages if they gets sick is hard to display and get kudos for.

[dewline]

So noted.

(I almost ended up oversharing about my own work practices re: writing technologies reflexively here.)

[dewline]

Your suspicions may be accurate here.

[conuly]

A mask, worn properly, does provide some protection to a healthy person wearing it, and even more to healthy people surrounded by sick people wearing them.

This is true even with DIY masks made from old t-shirts and sheets, though they're not as protective as proper masks.

Masks, worn properly, also help keep people from touching their faces.

Wearing a mask properly is not much more difficult than using a condom properly. You wash your hands before putting it on, before taking it off, and after taking it off. This is true even if you're wearing gloves! (Likewise, you wash your begloved hands every time you touch something that might be contaminated, or when entering a new place.) When putting on the mask, you pull it up over your nose. It stays over your mouth AND nose. You don't touch the front of the mask. When you take it off, you handle it by the straps, not the mask-part. For regular paper masks, you fold it in half, outside facing in, and then throw it out. For cloth masks you can then boil or bleach it, or simply launder as normal... nothing I've seen suggests that coronavirus can't be defeated by a trip through the washer and dryer with soap.

You never ever ever tug the mask down while wearing it in order to touch your face or talk to people face-to-face.