I was doing my grocery shopping yesterday and had to sneeze. Didn’t have a hanky. First, I tried very hard not to make noise, to avoid alarming other customers. There was no noticeable mucus, but I still didn’t want to walk around with a sneezed-in mask. So I removed the mask and wore it inside-out. I don’t know what I’d have done if I needed to sneeze again.
From now on, I’m carry a hanky (or at least a spare mask).
Hand sanitizer and a spare mask.
Leave it until you can get home/to your car. Wash your mask once you get home. By reversing it, now you have germs on the outside. If you touch your mask, then something else, that’s now contaminated.
You don’t want to do that, IMHO. Any germs you might have on the inside of your mask are now on the outside of your mask, exposing others.
Conversely, any germs or virus particles from the outside world that were filtered and sitting on the outside of the mask are now on the inside, likely exposing you to a greater extent than if you had not worn any mask to begin with.*
I would do one of two things: either sneeze into the mask and then replace it if necessary, or briefly remove it and sneeze into your elbow. If you’re inside a store, though, the second choice might not be an option.
*In general, you never want to reverse any used filter, whether it’s a face mask, an air filter, or an oil filter. By doing so, you defeat the point of having the filter in the first place.
Not a big deal. Turn your head away from others. Sneeze. Wash your hands if you can. Consider changing your mask or filter later if it is damp or you need to blow your nose.
What happens when you wet your underpants. You go home and change them. Same with mask but you don’t have to go home. I keep a couple of spare mask in my cars glove box just in case.
They should be treated just like undergarments. Change or wash them everyday, change when they get soiled and don’t share them.
Well, which is it?
