Do face masks offer any protection?

The medical ones don't seem to be much good. They don't fit the face and they seal.
They merely stop you breathing directly on someone.

The industrial ones that are moulded to the shape of your face are much better.

Dentists wear them but that might be to hide their awful teeth

Only if you are robbing a bank.

The tenbob ones you see some of the public wear only protect everyone else, whilst making the user more vulnerable, because he or she more likely to touch his or her face.

Suicide face masks. Beautiful.

You need one that covers eyes, nose, and mouth.
These are the three entry points for the virus.

Can I borrow that chat up line?

Feel free

What we see people wearing are usually dust masks which are not vapour grade, so its anybody's guess how much protection they give.

When the medical people say masks don't help, they must be taking about the ones they supply their staff, which are a complete waste of time.

Listening to a couple of experts on different occasions, they seemed to think you need to be around someone with the bug for fifteen minutes to get infected.
I suppose that's as long as they don't cough all over you.

That 15 minutes sounds wrong, but it would explain why medical staff don't get infected as often as we might expect.

I always though one breath from an infected person would be enough. I think I'll stick with that idea never mind what they say.

Essentially, no they don't.

The only protection they kind of offer is to prevent your germs getting to other people. They take too much precision to fit properly to be of much use to the average person. And at the moment with the shortage of surgical face masks, wearing them can actually make the situation worse. One hospital in Seattle or maybe Washington state apparently got wind of a Walmart selling surgical masks, that the mayor had them confiscated.

The powers that be have recently spent squillions installing face-recognition CCTV so they don't really want everybody wearing masks

Just saw a bloke walking outside wearing a mask.
He moved it down to his neck to allow himself to puff on a cigarette

Didn't do Butch And Sundance any good.

I remember seeing a worker wearing a mask with a hole punched through it, and his cigarette sticking out of the hole.

Vaping is worse. Try avoiding feking clouds of vape as your walking home with your Tesco carrier bag.

Mar 24, 2020 -- 12:37PM, Angoose wrote:

Just saw a bloke walking outside wearing a mask.He moved it down to his neck to allow himself to puff on a cigarette

I saw some bloke with surgical gloves on driving the other day. I say driving, the gloves were more on his mobile phone and eyes not on the road.

Ai, protect me from this virus, but I'll do my best to die in road accident instead.

Just saw my first person wearing a face mask in the Post Office. She also wore rubber gloves for good measure. A customer, as opposed to a member of staff.

Why they arent telling people to use some sort of a mask is baffling, even a cowboy style dusk hankie would be better than nothing, it would if nothing else prevent spreaders, do not understand, perhaps the answer is on this thread already.

There is a severe shortage of protective masks. They need as many as they can obtain for the NHS. If there was a plentiful supply I'm sure they would be advising public to wear them.

Dr Hilary says NO

If your sure they would be advising people to wear them then why are they not advising people to make one Akak? Advising the best material to use ect? Sorry but it makes no sense.The lack of  mask and gloves advice is baffling, as mentioned it can only be because of other reasons,if everyone was at least wearing gloves... Again its odd to say the least.

If they advised people to make them, they would simply start attempting to buy them. The NHS need as many as they can possibly get, without the general public buying them and leaving even more of a shortage. No harm in making your own, but I doubt the government will advise that for the above reason.

So the unofficial  advice should be make a mask and wear gloves,especially in shops and on public transport, been wearing gloves myself but you can't operate a touch screen self service till with them on, so go through the cashier section.Trollys and baskets a big risk of spreading imo, banning trolleys might of helped with the panic buying, but maybe not, hopefully it's calmed. Anyway take responsibility for yourself and touch as little as possible when in shops, only touch what your going to buy. Children should be where possible excluded from shops. Again still a lack of info on how easily it can be spread by casual touching, , they should know all that stuff by now and have updated advice. Nowt thicker than Joe public.Your argument about the masks being needed by the NHS is the reason Joe public is not being advised to try and cover your mouth and nose is.... Where did you get that anyway?

Why do health workers all wear masks if they're ineffective?

Its bloody common sense. Listen to the news right now. NHS staff begging for protective equipment. Look whats happening with the food in supermarkets as well. If the government advised everyone to wear a protective mask, there would fek all left for the NHS on the front line.

THey have the highest grade medical mask
To minimise possible droplets

Mar 24, 2020 -- 5:25PM, Dr Crippen wrote:

Why do health workers all wear masks if they're ineffective?

Because they have to have them fitted properly. The masks are effective but only if fitted correctly. Most people in the street are hardly going to go through all the correct procedure or even know what they are. And secondly when people use them it diminishes supply from where it's really needed. Overall the use of these masks actually makes the situation worse not better.

Guidance here https://www.hse.gov.uk/respiratory-protective-equipment/fit-testing-basics.htm

Darlo Bantam, you've switched from face masks to respirators.

A face mask is different to a respirator.

Here:

Uses for Masks:

    Masks are loose fitting, covering the nose and mouth
    Designed for one way protection, to capture bodily fluid leaving the wearer
    Example – worn during surgery to prevent coughing, sneezing, etc on the vulnerable patient
    Contrary to belief, masks are NOT designed to protect the wearer
    The vast majority of masks do not have a safety rating assigned to them (e.g. NIOSH or EN)

Uses for Respirators:

    Respirators are tight fitting masks, designed to create a facial seal
    Non-valved respirators provide good two way protection, by filtering both inflow and outflow of air
    These are designed protect the wearer (when worn properly), up to the safety rating of the mask
    Available as disposable, half face or full face

So the official guidance is half-baked in that their advice doesn't cover both.

The idea that you need special instructions to fit a mask or a respirator is laughable, when all one has to do is shape the metal reinforced bit that goes over the nose on the respirator, to the shape of your own nose in order to get a decent seal.

So the answer is that disposable face respirators do offer protection for the wearer.

That's a long as you have the intelligence of a monkey needed to fit one.

I bought a job lot of 3M N95 respirators in January
Yeh they do work, and also they stop you touching your nose and mouth, which is something we do frequently & subconsciously
Made quite a bit of cash out of tbf

This is funny, god help us!

https://twitter.com/PeteWargent/status/1235332886879965185?s=20

^^lol.

I think it's so important when shopping at Aldi these days, to wear a full-face respirator with its own oxygen supply carried in a bottle on one's back.

expecting  a shortage of helium bottles.

https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/diy-homemade-mask-protect-virus-coronavirus/

Coronavirus: Chief medical officer tells public not to wear masks

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-uk-news-professor-chris-whitty-no-masks-advice-a9374086.html


Another case of the official line being completely misleading.

Agreed. They had to discourage the public from panic buying and depleting the supply available for the NHS.

i CANNOT BELIEVE ANYONE ASKED THAT QUESTION.

look at what you see on t v
doctors nurses gowned up to the eyeballs with facemasks and gloves ......

not for long though ......