My friends doctor became ill and had to phone all of his patients to let them know they needed to be tested. How sad. My doc is only seeing patients via phone until the peak comes down. That should have been the case for all vulnerable patients.
Cargo Van Will we be able to work through Coronavirus?
- Thread starter Solar
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The regular surgical masks and the homemade cloth masks, they're not going to protect the wearer from a virus. The virus can easily enter your nose or mouth through the gaps around the mask, and will pass right through the material, anyway. But they prevent the wearer from exhaling their germs where other people can breathe them in. It's not 100% effective, but it's pretty good. It will help tremendously if people who are carrying the virus, but don't know it and are asymptomatic, from spreading it to others.
Doctors use regular surgical masks to keep their own germs from infecting a patient during surgery. Depending on the type (Level) of surgical mask, it stops the wearer from shot in the nose and mouth by sudden spurts of bodily fluids, like a sudden gush of blood during surgery.
If your want to protect yourself from the virus, you need an N95 mask, and critically it needs to be tight fitting with no gaps due air or virus to enter. An N95 mask filters out 95% of particles, down to as small as 0.3 microns. The coronavirus is quite a bit larger than 0.3 microns, so it can't get through.
By, the way, the "N" in N95 means the mask is NOT effective with oil-based aerosols. They have special industrial masks that are effective with oil aerosols.
But if your want a homemade N95 mask, in a pinch 3 layers of paper towels will filter down to 0.3 microns. One or two layers will not. Coffee filters will not. A better homemade N95 mask will have, like as an insert to a cloth mask, a cut out section of a vacuum cleaner HEPA filter bag, as HEPA filters are specifically designed to filter down to 0.3 microns.
Doctors use regular surgical masks to keep their own germs from infecting a patient during surgery. Depending on the type (Level) of surgical mask, it stops the wearer from shot in the nose and mouth by sudden spurts of bodily fluids, like a sudden gush of blood during surgery.
If your want to protect yourself from the virus, you need an N95 mask, and critically it needs to be tight fitting with no gaps due air or virus to enter. An N95 mask filters out 95% of particles, down to as small as 0.3 microns. The coronavirus is quite a bit larger than 0.3 microns, so it can't get through.
By, the way, the "N" in N95 means the mask is NOT effective with oil-based aerosols. They have special industrial masks that are effective with oil aerosols.
But if your want a homemade N95 mask, in a pinch 3 layers of paper towels will filter down to 0.3 microns. One or two layers will not. Coffee filters will not. A better homemade N95 mask will have, like as an insert to a cloth mask, a cut out section of a vacuum cleaner HEPA filter bag, as HEPA filters are specifically designed to filter down to 0.3 microns.
I get the impression that the people at work, who are wearing the cloth bandanas, they think they are protecting themselves. So i need to put folded (3)paper towels inside a cloth mask or surgical mask for a n95 like protection? That would offer protection for the individual themselves correct?
Don't forget to protect what doesn't get talked about enough.
Your eyes. A portal of infection. If we really wanted to clamp down on the spread,
we would also be wearing eye protection.
But I guess that's not as cool as a mask
Your eyes. A portal of infection. If we really wanted to clamp down on the spread,
we would also be wearing eye protection.
But I guess that's not as cool as a mask
A better long term solution is a HEPA filter, but yes, paper towels inside a cloth mask will offer that protection.
In all fairness to the bandana, it's not entirely useles. In a hospital setting where coronavirus might be prevalent, a bandana is pretty much useless. But out in the real world, at Walmart, the grocery store, at work, any kind of a barrier, impediment to the virus, and kind of friction preventing the virus from just having its way with you, is gonna help.
The Plexiglas barriers at the stores, those are certainly not going to stop air from flowing around them, but it'll help with the direct transmission of your virus. Eyeglasses help reduce the amount of virus that's likely to gain entry into you via the eyes. Goggles like the kind you probably have with you or that they hand out at shippers would be better, and sealed goggles would be best.
I have these really gnarly goggles that are the same type that military and police tactical units wear, that fit tight around the eyes and head, and make me look exactly like Batman. They are actually convertible so they can be worn like regular sunglasses, they aren't air tight, but will filter out dust, smoke. But I wear eyeglasses, especially required when driving, so I rarely wear the goggles because I cage wear my glasses at the same time. Once or twice a year I'll visit a shipper where they are much better than standard goggles. But if I were to visit a COVID-19 wing of a hospital, where the virus is pervasive, I'd be wearing them with my N95 mask.
Just so a Google search for safety tactical goggles for many examples of such goggles. These are the ones I have.
Pyramex XSG Ballistic Goggle Kit with Black Frame and Clear, Gray, and Amber Lenses
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Senator Chuck Schumer, to prove he's both better and smarter than Trump, period, wearing a mask in public like a boss.
I had to go out today to pick up a few things from the store, and had one of the masks my wife made, when I parked the car and put on the mask, before I got to the store I had to turn around and go back to the car and take it off, I thought I was suffocating. I guess im not going to go out into public for a while. I probably had the virus already but not totally sure and wont take that chance for others sake.
Looks like he needs his mommy to show him how to correctly put that mask on.
So, your wife made you a mask you can't breathe through? Is the secret inner layer made of plastic bag? Is she trying to tell you something?
Rep Shiela Jackson Lee (D-TX) wearing what appears to be a diaper with a very disconcerting brown stain in the middle.
What symptoms did you have? If you don't mind me asking. I think I might have had it too.
Yes. It will be contaminated with whatever cooties they exhale. And the closer they hold it, the more containimated it will become. Not only that, but every other object within about 6 feet could also be contaminated.
Potentially, yes. Better to wash your hands before touching your face. That's why the strong need to disinfect surfaces, not just the surfaces that people have touched (fuel pumps, door handles, etc.) but also surfaces that people might touch (counter tops, credit cards, money, which is why it's important to wash your hands after touching nearly everything). The reason or disinfecting surfaces that people haven't touched, but might, is because of the exhaled coronavirus that floated around and landed there.
But there are still some questions about surface contamination and transmission. Not much question about the frequently touched surfaces, like door handles and such, Those are going to be more than contaminated enough so that transmission is likely to occur. You saw that Israeli video PSA, right? It's that easy to transmit germs of any kind. The question becomes the dosage amount, or the amount of contamination. WIll standing next to someone infected be enough for their exhaled cooties to infect you? With Tuberculosis, actually, yeah, it can be. But probably not with most corona and rhino viruses. But 15 or 30 minutes will be enough.
We know the virus can survive for up to a few days on various surfaces. But is it still viable enough to infect you? It depends on how much of it there is. There are still no documented cases (as far as I know) of contracting the virus solely from a surface transmission. But that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. It certainly can. If you go to the grocery store. unpack the groceries onto the counter (put frozen and refrigerated items in the freezer or fridge), and then just let everything else sit there for like all day (per my doctor). If there's any virus on them, it will be greatly reduced after several hours before you put them up in the cabinets.
Better to be safe than sorry. Wash your hands (or at least use sanitizer) after every time you touch something foreign. Assume everyone you meet has the virus, an act like you do, too, and assume everything outside the home is just slathered in virus. It's OK to touch it (assuming no paper cuts or other wounds), but make sure you wash your hands before you feel up your face.
This is Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
This is Rep Al Green (D-TX)
Sheila Jackson Lee (Chairwoman of the Congressional Coronavirus Task Force, and isn't that funny), Mayor Turner, and Al Green...
All from Houston.
HOUSTON! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
As the illustrious Barack Obama would say, C'mon, man!
This is Rep Al Green (D-TX)
Sheila Jackson Lee (Chairwoman of the Congressional Coronavirus Task Force, and isn't that funny), Mayor Turner, and Al Green...
All from Houston.
HOUSTON! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
As the illustrious Barack Obama would say, C'mon, man!
The last paragraph, it's basically me in nutshell. But it gets to a ridiculous point where even if you clean your hands, you start thinking that it's not enough. Also, you realize how many things you touch, and assume it may have the virus. Especially if you have a job where you touch a lot of things. Continuously washing or sanitizing hands and also cleaning all equipment you may have touched and wondering if it's cleaned good enough. I used to sanitize my hands often before as just a general sense of practicing good hygiene, but this is a new protocol and is exponentially more tedious and stressful. And I imagen many others might feel the same way about it.
I go into the Pilot/FJ to get some drinks, usually 2 or 4 1-liter bottles of something (Diet Dew, Arnold Palmer Half & Half, whatever). FIrst I sanitize my hands and put on my mask. I touch the door handle to enter the store (never grabbing it in the middle like everyone else, I'll grab it with 2 fingers by the very bottom, using my left hand only), then the cooler door handle (same way), and grab the drinks with my right hand. Then I go to checkout and pay with a debit card, using my little finger on my left hand to enter the PIN. I then take the bag of whatever I bought to the van, I immediately sanitize my hands, then take a Lysol disinfectant wipe and wipe down the steering wheel where I grabbed it entering the van, and the door handle where I closed the door. Then I wipe down the bottles (which I should use a different wipe for that, because you're only supposed to wipe one area per towelette, but I don't). Then I put the bottles into the fridge. Then I remove my mask and sanitize my hands again. Then I lightly spray the mask right hre it sits with Lysol spray.
And that's just me doing one simple thing. It's very stressful.
I can't imagine the stress you must be under. I'm not even sure what all I'd do. I'd definitely wear a mask, even if it's just a bandana, as a method of reminding me not to touch my face unless I've sanitized my hands first. I might be tempted to wear gloves, and change them out every hour, and sanitize my hands evey time. If no gloves, I'd sanitize my hands once an hour. I mean, what you're dealing with is probably (mostly) clean, with the amount of viable virus dwindling rapidly by the hour, but you never know, and even if it's contaminated, it won't be by a lot. So to prevent contamination buildup on my hands, I'd sanitize once an hour. At least. I'd wipe the steering wheel several times a day. Anything else I touched in there I'd wipe it down at the end of the day.
I do feel for you.
The only symptom I had was a fever for 2 days, other than that, I felt fine, my wife had a fever, cough and she lost her sense of smell for a couple of days.
I had a hacking cough about 2 and a half months ago. Weezing too. Kind of like a " smokers cough". I thought at the time that my flu shot I had back in the fall didn't do anything to help.
Some of the things I'm seeing. A lot of people get it. Wearing masks, distancing etc. Just some still don't realize some of the things they're doing though. Like if you see someone with a mask on, don't assume you can get close to them, talking etc. They may not be properly protected. If you see someone with a mask, they are protecting you and MAY protecting themselves too depending on what protection they are wearing. Don't assume though. I still see people want to get close and start talking, not wearing a mask. ( just human nature and habit though) But you have to back up.