Please Wear a DIY Cloth Mask in Public by Brad Feld

The post was originally published on the blog Feld Thoughts.

The CDC finally issued guidance to Use of Cloth Face Coverings to Help Slow the Spread of COVID-19. If you go out in public, please wear a “Cloth Face Covering.”

I’m using every ounce of energy that I have to avoid talking about the politics of any of this. Rather, I’m focusing on actionable things with clear reasoning for them.

Before I explain why this is so important, here are two websites that clarify the types of face coverings I’m talking about. Specifically, these are homemade (or DIY) cloth face coverings.

• CDC: Use of Cloth Face Coverings to Help Slow the Spread of COVID-19
• Colorado Mask Project: Provide all Coloradans with DIY masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

You do not need an N95 mask. You do not need a surgical mask. You do not need a mask you buy in the store. You just need a cloth face covering that you can make yourself at home.

There has been endless discussion about the efficacy of masks in general, and more specifically for “the public.” There are plenty of recent credible discussions about this from sources like the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic?). Feel free to wade through all that stuff, but here’s the punch line.

The Main Benefit: If you are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, you can spread the virus to healthy people. This means that even if you don’t have symptoms, you are sick and can spread the virus to others. When you are wearing a mask, it helps prevent you from spreading the virus to others. The virus spreads through droplets coming from your mouth and nose. If your mouth and nose are covered, the cloth mask catches the droplets when you sneeze, cough, breathe, and talk.

‘The mask worn in public space isn’t supposed to protect us but rather others from us. In turn, we are protected by masks worn by everyone else. Therefore, everyone should wear them, we do not know who is infected and who is not. They don’t have to be FFP3 masks, it’s a waste of money in the public sector,’ suggested Ph.D. Tomasz Deptuch, Interventional Cardiologist.

1/ Maseczka noszona w przestrzeni publicznej chroni nie nas, a przed nami. Nas chronią maseczki noszone przez wszystkich innych. Dlatego powinni je nosić wszyscy, sami nie wiemy kto jest zarażony, a kto nie. Nie muszą to być maseczki FFP3, w przestrzeni publicznej to marnotrastwo https://t.co/7sjhUof3aj

— Tomasz Deptuch, PhD (@TomekDeptuch) March 29, 2020

Secondary Benefit: We touch our faces thousands of times a day. The virus lives on surfaces for a long time (possibly up to 72 hours) and in the air for an indeterminate amount of time. We are constantly touching things the virus settles on. Then, when we touch our faces (especially our eyes, nose, or mouth), we infect ourselves. A mask lowers the propensity for us to touch our own face (it’s an interesting psychological phenomenon).

Tertiary (and unclear) Benefit: A debate rages on about whether a cloth mask acts as an effective physical barrier to breathing in the virus. If it does, with any level of efficacy, this is merely a bonus to the first two benefits.

I think the best paragraph from the Science article Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic? is:

But the greatest benefit of masking the masses, Cowling and others argue, likely comes not from shielding the mouths of the healthy but from covering the mouths of people already infected. People who feel ill aren’t supposed to go out at all, but initial evidence suggests people without symptoms may also transmit the coronavirus without knowing they’re infected. Data from contact-tracing efforts—in which researchers monitor the health of people who recently interacted with someone confirmed to have an infection—suggest nearly half of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions occur before the infected person shows symptoms. And some seem to contract and clear the virus without ever feeling sick. 

Right now, you have no way to know if you are infected when you aren’t showing symptoms, and given that it’s springtime in the US many people will have allergies so it’s even harder to tell who is sick. Given the completely inadequate testing activities right now in the US, along with lack of contact tracing apps, effective isolation for people who are sick, and the overall challenge of getting everyone to actually stay at home, by wearing a mask in public, you are protecting other people from you in case you are infected.

‘Responsible wearing of masks will limit the spread of the plague and thus – we are convinced – will save many lives,’ PPOZ Doctorswrote in the official letter to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski and to Chief Sanitary Inspector Jarosław Pinkas.

Finally, please do not buy or use medical-grade masks. There is still a huge shortage of these in the health care system and it’s expected that the shortage will continue. You’ll hear phrases like “surgical masks” and “N95 masks.” You do not need to wear one of these – they are needed for our front line medical workers.

‘Effective are ordinary, multi-layered, accordion, and even made at home masks. Masks have another important advantage: they limit involuntary movements of the hands: scratching, rubbing, touching the lips and nose. This is another threat of infection. In our opinion, the mask is more important than disposable gloves. Hands can always be washed,’ explained the president of PPOZ, dr Bożena Janicka.

Instead, make your own mask. And wear it whenever you leave your house.