Messages around wearing facemasks in public still seem to be mixed. So we have brought to you the views of some of the researchers who have looked at what evidence exists, whether this is for personal benefit or to prevent onward transmission.
Hector Chapa, Clinical Assistant Professor, Director of Interprofessional Education, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University believes the balance of evidence suggests that it is worth wearing them to reduce onward transmission. You can find his summary here.
A new study published in Nature on 3rd April 2020, believes that “Surgical face masks significantly reduced detection of influenza virus RNA in respiratory droplets and coronavirus RNA in aerosols, with a trend toward reduced detection of coronavirus RNA in respiratory droplets. Our results indicate that surgical face masks could prevent transmission of human coronaviruses and influenza viruses from symptomatic individuals.” click here
While all kinds of personal protective equipment is in short supply, crafters and 3D printers have taken up the challenge of helping out local healthcare workers. For person wear people are often improvising and social media is full of suggested patterns, some are using heap filters from vacuum cleaners as filters. Others are using simple origami-like folding. See here for example.
What does matter, for those who choose to wear them, is that masks are properly washed after wearing at least 60 degrees (World Health Organisation found that 56ºC was sufficient to kill the corona virus that causes SARS. Other research (Rabenau HF et al suggests that 60ºC was required (click here ).
The truth is you don’t need to be able to sew to make a makeshift mask, should you choose to wear one.