Coronavirus mask tip

[John K]

Hi Guys,

Tip from my sister in law, a nurse out there somewhere on the front line about home made masks. She sews a double layer cloth covering where you can insert a coffee filter in between.  After use, dispose the filter and wash the mask.

Got to add a couple thoughts. The masks will stop big blobs of slobber from hitting you in the face, but the micron size of the virus can get through the weave, so a mask may help, but does not confer invincibility.

Second thing about the coveted N95 masks. It's not that the weave can filter out nano particles better than a hardware store dust mask. Fit is the difference. You can have the best protection in front of your nose but about useless if you are breathing in around the sides and have just been nuked. The N95's have a thin metal ridge that is easily bendable and can conform the fit to the face, especially around the upper nose and eyes.  You can cut a thin strip of a tin can, sew it into the rim of a home made cloth mask and bend to fit.

Everybody stay safe.

John

 

[Sheens]

afaik really good results come if also the person speaking/coughing/sneezing wears a mask.

here in Netherlands, Government don't approve saying wearing masks gives a false feeling of being safe. 

yet at the same time they're developing a smartphone app that alarms when you're near a person who's registered with the virus.

They know better than millions of Asians (who experienced pandemic before) and were doing better than us in many other areas.

They're making it a long stretch here....hope you're better off...

Italy are close to the turning point it seems, hope they're getting more people recovered than sick come in...soon. 

Then they're halfway..

Edited April 7, 2020 by Sheens

[John K]

Thanks Sheens, and pray that you, loved ones, family are safe.

Masks definitely help stop some spread from the infected to those not infected. Protection for the not infected public is something we have not worked out yet as far as carved in stone recommendations, but masks make some sense in that logic as long as we don't wallow around in the residue we take home on the mask, courtesy our last trip to Walmart.. Advice always in flux as we try to learn more. Latest and greatest three months from now will not be like it is today.  No lawsuit failure of our professionals. We are just learning in a blind sided challenge. Best we can do is best we can do at the time.

Social distancing is currently twice what I had to adhere to in a hospital setting when somebody was exploding from some god awful plague. Was 3 feet (barbaric English foot-pound system).  6 "feet" probably okay for COVID even if an overly explosive specimen can shower the area in bliss for nearly 30 feet. Still, wash hands after an outing and don't touch your face before you wash hands. Harder done than said, but you can have the bug crawling all over your skin and likely not get infected. Transfer the bug from hands to mouth, nose, eye membranes, and you may got problems up the road. These are the portals of entry.

Plain hard core dish washing soap breaks down the viral encapsulation and kills the bug. Would advise a normal 70 percent isopropal alcohol in a spray bottle to disinfect at home.  I know they say 60 percent isopropal, allowing you to dilute the Rite Aid generic brand a bit with water, but don't fork with it. Just use straight out of the bottle.

Just because someone has not slobbered all over you, does not mean that her or she has not slobbered all over the produce and even canned goods you are walking out of the store with. Please rinse incoming goods thoroughly, rotgut tap water okay.

My opinion only. The bug is causing more fear and economic damage than the bug itself. Not to let our guard down, but there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Given the vast number of mild and asymptomatic cases NOT REPORTED, the bug is guardedly less lethal than the death statistics we read in the morning blog. Not to downplay even one death as a statistic since even one COVID death is a tragedy to some family.  We will get through this as a planet and I think come out stronger for the lessons we have learned.

All stay well.

John

 

[Michael A.D.]

13 hours ago, John K said:

The bug is causing more fear and economic damage than the bug itself.

You might want to take this much more seriously.   I am in New Jersey and hundreds are dying every day.   This is a severe crisis.

 

[mettelus]

A mask also keeps you from inadvertently touching your own face. People do not realize how ingrained or common this habit is until you start touching a mask.

The culture difference between Asia and Western nations is immense. People in Asia wear masks if not feeling well to protect others and let others know. Western culture is to save oneself. NZ's approach was a good one... assume you have the virus and wear a mask now to protect others (and thereby yourself).

The use of a coffee filter as the center layer of a cloth mask in the OP is a good one. They do plug fairly quickly from moisture, so an inner layer of cotton might make them usable longer. Anyone who has actually worn masks knows that they plug with moisture fairly quickly under exertion. 

Even if a cloth mask is only 90% effective, it is better than nothing, and you won't be touching your own face when wearing one. 

Without a vaccine, this can recur as quickly as it started, so learning to wear masks responsibly and accepting them as no big deal will help everyone. People not wearing them for vanity, or making fun of others is terrible.

Going forward, Mother Nature has been dumping these out in rapid succession, and the next could be worse. Even some who lived through SARS blew this one off initially.

Edited April 8, 2020 by mettelus

[Byron Dickens]

5 hours ago, Michael A.D. said:

You might want to take this much more seriously.   I am in New Jersey and hundreds are dying every day.   This is a severe crisis.

 

Fact check:

Table 3. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pneumonia reported to NCHS by jurisdiction of occurrence, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/4/2020.*

Data as of April 8, 2020

 

New Jersey:  43

 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm

Edited April 8, 2020 by bdickens

[bluzdog]

15 minutes ago, bdickens said:

Fact check:

Table 3. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pneumonia reported to NCHS by jurisdiction of occurrence, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/4/2020.*

Data as of April 8, 2020

 

New Jersey:  43

 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm

 

Note: Provisional death counts are based on death certificate data received and coded by the National Center for Health Statistics as of April 8, 2020. Death counts are delayed and may differ from other published sources (see Technical Notes). Counts will be updated periodically. Additional information will be added to this site as available.

https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/04/new-jersey-coronavirus-toll-now-at-1232-total-cases-rise-to-44416-with-3k-new-positive-tests.html

 

New Jersey coronavirus death toll now at 1,232. Total cases rise to 44,416 with 3K new positive tests.

Updated Apr 08, 12:51 PM; Posted Apr 07, 1:00 PM

 

Rocky

[antler]

https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest

There's a map of the US states near the bottom. Total deaths as of 7:06pm Apr 8 BST, New Jersey: 1,504

[Tezza]

This is another simple table showing number of infections/deaths in each country. Australia has been doing quite well, we were 16th and now we are 23rd.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

We have been told not to wear masks at the moment but I think the main reason for that is because they don't want the public wearing masks and therefore using up the supply for the medical professionals. We also don't have it out of control at the moment, hospitals are coping well. We jumped to social distancing and isolation in our homes pretty quickly and we have a small population (24.6 million), many of which are already spread out over regional areas.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Tezza

[John K]

To Michael, don't want to downplay the severity of this. One death in New Jersey or anywhere else is too many fatalities for some grieving family. We are in a crisis but all is interwoven into a dynamic where sensible and appropriate response often spills over into a wider reactivity that in itself can cause harm if not balanced. My point is that we are experiencing damage both from the virus and our reaction to the presence of the virus when the social response is maladaptive, based more on fear than fact. Everything across the spectrum from hoarding toilet paper to scams preying on the fear factor and everything inbetween.

I am an optimist. We will soon come out of this. Permanently changed somewhat, but stronger for it. I can predict that we will within a year or so have a vaccine to prevent, medications and technologies to treat. Individual health hygiene will include a yearly COVID shot along with the flu shot because I don't think this thing is going to go away.

Neighbor and friends are sewing masks and came up with another great idea. Sewing two pipe cleaners into the upper part of the mask. Evidently takes two to bend and hold shape.

John

[ensconced]

Yeah, we have got a 'Caronavirus Mask Tip' here, it's quickly filling up with all the used masks, I imagine they will have fill that one in and start another before to long.

[paulo]

13 hours ago, ensconced said:

Yeah, we have got a 'Caronavirus Mask Tip' here, it's quickly filling up with all the used masks, I imagine they will have fill that one in and start another before to long.