{"id":85231,"date":"2020-07-30T10:28:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T14:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/?p=85231"},"modified":"2024-10-08T02:51:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T02:51:23","slug":"masking-up-the-what-and-wear-of-face-masks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/masking-up-the-what-and-wear-of-face-masks\/","title":{"rendered":"Mask Up! \u2013 The What and Wear of Face Masks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Illona Meyer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted the \u2018Roaring 20s<\/em>\u2019, but, alas, 2020 has kicked this decade off not with a bang but a whimper. COVID-19 is here to stay, at least for now, and we have to protect ourselves by wearing face masks and keeping our distance from our fellow man, insofar as far as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Credit: <\/em>DIOP via <\/strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To Mask or Not to Mask?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

What is the deal with face masks? Are they necessary? Do they work? Should you wear one? The short answer: YES, YES, and YES<\/em>. The slightly longer answer, from the Centers for Disease Control<\/a> and the World Health Organization, is that masks should be worn in public settings\u2014especially<\/em> in spaces where social distancing is difficult (such as, for example, in a grocery store).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier during the pandemic, the CDC and WHO were actually advising the public \u2018not to wear masks\u2019, which is a stance the anti-mask-wearing brigade is still purporting. However<\/em>, this advice was based on the fact that, many months ago, the infection and transmission rates were much lower than they are now and health organizations were attempting to dissuade people from panic-buying medical masks, thus making these unavailable to the healthcare workers who desperately need them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now<\/em>, these health organizations\u2014as well as all respectable doctors and infectious disease specialists\u2014are advising that, with the COVID cases being as high as they are, and there being many, many <\/em>suppliers manufacturing cloth face masks (see our top picks below!),  all <\/em>citizens (barring those with severe breathing problems) should wear a face mask when in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality of the rate of infection now is that we cannot know who (or how many people!) that we come into contact with may be infected. A number of people who do get infected and test positive are and remain asymptomatic, so neither they nor you might even know that they pose a COVID-risk to you. Moreover, the risk of transmission is not limited solely to an infected person coughing on or near you, an experiment<\/a> using high-speed video found that hundreds <\/em>of micro-droplets are released into the air by the utterance of a single sentence. This is where wearing a mask will protect and prevent you from inhaling or releasing any COVID-containing droplets: the experiment found that nearly all of these droplets were blocked when the mouth was covered with a damp washcloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Mask<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to masking up, remember these dos and don\u2019ts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n