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During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention andWorld Health Organization made it clear that, unless you're sick or are a medical professional, you do not need to wear a face mask.

On February 29th, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted:"Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!"

Adams' message comes with good intentions. With COVID-19 cases soaring, doctors, nurses and other frontline health-care workers confront a severe shortage of masks and cautioning people against buying them can help offset the problem.

Butother countries have already taken aggressive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by telling citizens to wear masks, even if the masksare homemade.

Last week, George Gao,director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told ScienceMag.comthat the "big mistake in the U.S." is that people aren't wearing masks. "This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role," he said. You've got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth."

Gao has done significant research on virusesthat have fragile lipid membranes called envelopes a group that includes SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and how they enter cells and move between species.

"Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections," he continued. "If they're wearing face masks, it can [help] prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others."

So far, U.S. health officials have not offered guidelines or regulations around homemade masks and since commercially made ones are almost impossible to find, your last resort is just starting making your own.

You can find a variety of mask designs online, but simple yet promising one comes from a recent study published in the medical journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

Researchers analyzed 2008 studiesfrom Public Health England(which evaluated a range of household materials that, in the event of a pandemic, could be used by the general public to make masks) to create a D.I.Y. guide.

"These studies found that T-shirts and pillowcases made into a mask using the design [below] may act as a barrier against influenza, or help limit spread by a person with symptoms," according to the study's authors. "We have no data on COVID-19, but it's not unreasonable to assume similarity."

They also stressed that "the wearing of face masks will only offer limitedprotected, and should notbe considered as sufficient protection. Additional preventative measures need to be adopted."

Face mask template:

(Template and instructions C/O:Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Click here to enlarge.)

Supplies:

Simplified version of step-by-step instructions:

Important reminders:

Most people have the basic materials tomake a mask right now. It's time to call forth the "can do" American spirit and encourage people stuck at home to start sewing.

Doing so can save existing stock for healthcare professionals as manufacturers ramp up production in the coming months. If you're healthy have any unused commercial or medical-grade masks lying around, consider donating them to local hospitals.

Instead of obsessing over ill-conceived mixed messages, let's starting viewing mask-wearing as an act of solidarity and make it the new norm (at least until this pandemic over).

Nir Eyalis a behavioral psychology expert and instructor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He is the author of the best-selling books"Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life"and "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Building Products" andhas written for Harvard Business Review, TIME and Psychology Today. Follow him on Twitter @NirEyal.

Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years

Visit link:
Why we should all start making our own face masks during coronavirusand an expert-approved guide on how - CNBC

This entry was posted on April 7, 2020 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Preventative Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |