In a recent online discussion about home-made cloth masks for Health Care workers, somebody asked "Why do they (nurses) bother wearing them? I thought the masks won't protect them."
My response: Here's another way of thinking of it. In healthcare locations we have a situation that is comparable to neighborhood parks, streets, and certainly supermarkets. Many people moving around in a limited space. More opportunities for droplets generated by speaking (yes!), coughing or sneezing to get INHALED by another person - the primary contagion mechanism. More opportunities for droplets landing on surfaces where somebody will touch them (or the dried residue) and get "material" on their hands or gloves.
Wearing masks in non-COVID19 areas of a hospital, including receptionists or folks working at a desk, helps reduce the likelihood of workplace contagion. That's why authorities have finally agreed on having everybody wear cloth masks (speaking now of non HC workers, the general population).
I don't believe I have COVID-19, but I do not know.
I could have it and be in the pre-symptom incubation period. Maybe I have the disease, but am asymptomatic. Regardless of having COVID-19, if I am out in public and "innocently sneeze" as so many of us have done all our lives - long before COVID19, I don't want people near me to freak out.
Or if I cough a bit, as so many of us have done all our lives when our throats are dry or we have a very minor cold... same thing: I don't want people near me to feel unnecessarily anxious. Sorry if I'm adding to the broken-record chorus - thousands repeating this. It's useful: humans typically need five or six encounters with a new concept in order to really learn them.
WIDESPREAD USE OF CLOTH MASKS BY HEALTHY CITIZENS AND WORKERS HELPS BEND THE CURVE; SLOW THE SPREAD OF COVID-19; REDUCE NEW INFECTIONS... BY REDUCING THE NUMBER OF DROPLETS BLASTED OR BLOWN INTO THE AIR.
So actually, nurses in hospitals (and the rest of us) DO protect ourselves by wearing cloth masks. We're part of a collective effort to slow the spread of the disease. Reduce overburdening of the hospital where that nurse works. Reduce the likelihood that she'll have to work extra hours or lose her day off because of another hospital employee getting infected.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel a bit silly wearing a cloth mask in public, while walking in my neighborhood or grocery shopping. And when I see somebody NOT wearing a mask, I have mixed feelings: "I'm really hyper about this" mixed with "that person really should be wearing a mask". It's like halloween or a costume party. We're less self-conscious if most of us are... wearing masks!
It's the right thing to do.
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For information and guidelines from the authorities:
CDC resources: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
CDC page on "cloth face covers" - includes lots of useful "DIY (do it yourself)" suggestions. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html
WHO https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
(Center for Disease Control and World Health Organization, respectively)
