A guide to using nonmedical masks from freeamfva's blog

A guide to using nonmedical masks

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised its guidelines on face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now recommending everyone voluntarily wear fabric or cloth coverings while in public to prevent spread of the virus.To get more news about surgical mask company, you can visit tnkme.com official website.

There are some critical things to know about how to use a nonmedical mask correctly, because when used incorrectly, which is pretty easy to do, you could actually put yourself and others more at risk. Physicians at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) break it all down.

We are talking cloth masks, not surgical masks or N95s.
Surgical masks and N95s should still be reserved for health care workers only. They need them the most, as they are on the front lines caring for patients during this pandemic.

If you see a health care worker wearing a cloth mask, it is likely that they are wearing it over their personal protective equipment (PPE) in an effort to make the PPE last longer, said Hilary Fairbrother, MD, MPH, an emergency medicine physician with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.
Using a fabric covering is a supplement to social distancing guidelines, not a replacement.
Your best defense against COVID-19 is to practice social distancing, wash your hands frequently, and only leave your home for essential errands. According to the World Health Organization, the virus is spread through droplets. You’ve probably heard that a lot, but what does that mean? Michael Chang, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with McGovern Medical School and UT Physicians, explains:

“At the most basic level, droplets are large infectious particles that will fall out of the air quickly, within minutes, due to gravity and weight from a higher moisture content. Airborne particles, called ‘droplet nuclei,’ are a smaller part of the droplet, and they can float in the air for hours or more. You have to be closer to someone, within six feet, to transmit a virus via larger droplets.

Many respiratory viruses, COVID-19 likely included, can infect you through multiple routes, including the nose, mouth, and eyes. The droplets can also survive for around 72 hours on surfaces, so when you touch a contaminated surface you can still bring the virus up to your face,” Chang said.
If you wear a cloth mask, do not touch it.
“What most people are just now starting to realize is how much stuff they touch in a day, followed by how many times they touch their faces,” Chang said.

Masks of any kind are uncomfortable and can cause you to touch your face more by constantly adjusting it. This can be problematic, as that is precisely how the virus would enter your body.

“Once you touch the cloth part of the mask, you have to consider yourself contaminated and wash your hands immediately,” Fairbrother said. “If you must adjust it, only touch it by the strings or the ties in the back.”
Make sure the cloth mask covers your nose and mouth with a snug fit that does not touch your lips.
A tight fit with the mask covering the nose and the mouth, without many gaps, with a very fine material should help catch droplets, Chang said. However, the mask cannot be so tight that it touches your lips.

“If a cloth mask is touching your lips and droplets have saturated the fabric, droplets could then be directly entering your mouth,” Fairbrother said. “Try to wear one with a high thread count for added durability.”

Chang says the reverse is also true, where your droplets could spread through the mask to others.

“Depending on the fabric of the mask, you can imagine pressing the cloth mask up against your lips, nose, and eyes, with the moisture build-up from your breath, then transmitting the infectious agent through the mask,” Chang said.