PDF facemask pattern: https://bit.ly/2J43QVY
My understanding is the coronavirus is about 100nm in diameter. However I’ve also heard the virus tends to be attached to small mucus or water droplets that are airborne, which means it is much larger, possibly on the micron scale.
However I don’t know what size particles a fabric mask would filter out.
Also I hear contradictory things about masks, some say they work and some say they don’t.
You can sew face mask but not surgical masks, unless you have the right spun-bonded polypropylene material and a sterile environment to make it in.
Fair enough. I used the wrong terminology. I should have said “face masks”, and if Wesley Clark is correct then maybe this isn’t a workable idea.
Maybe for the people who care for infected persons, it’s better than the alternative of no mask?
A hospital about 10 miles from the Seattle epicenter started a 100 million mask challenge. https://www.providence.org/lp/100m-masks?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0
If you’re in the area and willing to commit to making 100 masks, they will provide the materials for people to sew at home.
There is also a link for how to make your own face mask.
It’s not a hospital I use but it looks legit…
One of my daughters was born there.
We already know (from Chinese hospital experience) that ordinary surgical masks and gloves don’t prevent all infection, and do prevent some infection.
Certainly for people who have contact with infected persons, a face mask on the infected person is better than no face mask on the infected person. It doesn’t even have to be very good – for nose and throat droplets, a loose fitting close-weave cloth makes a huge difference. The question is, for regular repeated contact, how long will you last before you get infected anyway?
Our healthcare workers and first responders are heroes. Hopefully they can be properly protected.
The articles I have read on this, about hospitals asking people to sew masks, say the homemade cloth masks won’t help filter out the virus and protect a healthy person from getting it but they will help prevent a infected person from spreading it by containing the droplets.
They are requesting the masks to made so they can give them to infected people to wear. Heath workers are still advised to wear N95 masks if available or surgical masks as a second choice.
I mean for a health care practitioner, they will need very high quality PPE.
But if you’re just going to the grocery store and don’t want to inhale someone elses airborne droplets, hopefully makeshift masks will help.
You have to ask yourself, for what purpose do you want to wear face mask? As someone has already mentioned, if you’re trying to stop viral infection, even a commercial grade surgical mask is not going to stop that because the material that it’s made of is porous enough to let microscopic viruses pass through. That’s not what surgical masks are for. You will need something like a N95 respirator to do that and that’s not something that’s simple to make. You might have better luck making a homemade hazmat suit.
For people who are in close contact with an infected person like caregivers and healthcare workers, definitely wear a mask or something to cover your face and that of the infected. This will “catch” sneezes and coughs from those infected, and act as a barrier to the mouth and nose area of those giving treatment. Again, it won’t stop viruses, but it will reduce the risk of infection by blocking saliva droplets that viruses piggyback on. In this case, something (anything) to cover your face is better than nothing. Plus, in this situation you’d want to wear eye protection as well but for some inexplicable reason people are ignoring this entrance to the mucous membrane and fixated only on the mouth and nose. Front line healthcare workers are wearing full face visors when possible.