The CDC does not recommend face masks for people who are not currently sick. The reason it twofold—one is that unless you have fit the mask to your face properly, which is bloody difficult to do and even harder to maintain, it just doesn’t work. Any tiny gap in the seal sucks air into your breathing space. Two is that even if you can fit it correctly, you have just spent five minutes touching your face, which ups your risk of infecting yourself.
The Lysol wipes is a great idea. Hand sanitizer is only good for so much—they are anti-bacterial and the thing we are fighting now is a virus. If it helps you remember to wash your hands at the earliest possible time, sure.
I hadn’t thought about shower immediately, but that’s a great idea.
The CDC’s recommendation against face masks is a bald-faced lie, intended to prevent individuals from buying them and conserve supplies for health care workers. Wearing a mask incorrectly makes it less effective, but does not reduce effectiveness to zero; it seems obvious to me that, if masks were plentiful, they would be mandatory (as they were in 1918) rather than discouraged.
I’m *extremely* sympathetic to the position that the CDC is untrustworthy and have my own example, but it strikes me so extremely consequential that it would benefit from a more complete justification in a top level post. I’d be happy to collaborate on writing and/or research if that would lower the barrier to entry.
Is touching you face a problem or is the problem touching the places on your face that allow the entry for the virus? If just touching my cheek or jaw line is a problem then why isn’t the virus on my hand not also a direct problem?
Touching your jaw or cheek should be no direct problem for you since you need to get the virus into your airways to get infected. It may be a problem for others since you may have lots of virus particles on your jaw / cheek form sneezing. Also getting stuff from your jaw or cheek into your mouth nose or eyes is more likely than from your hands.
The CDC does not recommend face masks for people who are not currently sick. The reason it twofold—one is that unless you have fit the mask to your face properly, which is bloody difficult to do and even harder to maintain, it just doesn’t work. Any tiny gap in the seal sucks air into your breathing space. Two is that even if you can fit it correctly, you have just spent five minutes touching your face, which ups your risk of infecting yourself.
The Lysol wipes is a great idea. Hand sanitizer is only good for so much—they are anti-bacterial and the thing we are fighting now is a virus. If it helps you remember to wash your hands at the earliest possible time, sure.
I hadn’t thought about shower immediately, but that’s a great idea.
The CDC’s recommendation against face masks is a bald-faced lie, intended to prevent individuals from buying them and conserve supplies for health care workers. Wearing a mask incorrectly makes it less effective, but does not reduce effectiveness to zero; it seems obvious to me that, if masks were plentiful, they would be mandatory (as they were in 1918) rather than discouraged.
I’m *extremely* sympathetic to the position that the CDC is untrustworthy and have my own example, but it strikes me so extremely consequential that it would benefit from a more complete justification in a top level post. I’d be happy to collaborate on writing and/or research if that would lower the barrier to entry.
Is touching you face a problem or is the problem touching the places on your face that allow the entry for the virus? If just touching my cheek or jaw line is a problem then why isn’t the virus on my hand not also a direct problem?
Touching your jaw or cheek should be no direct problem for you since you need to get the virus into your airways to get infected. It may be a problem for others since you may have lots of virus particles on your jaw / cheek form sneezing. Also getting stuff from your jaw or cheek into your mouth nose or eyes is more likely than from your hands.
>60% alcohol hand sanitizer kills many viruses, including the coronavirus. It is not that effective against the norovirus, however.