Flight Crew Mask Usage (COVID19)
 

Now that the CDC is recommending we wear masks, I’m considering wearing one. Forget how it may look, if it can prevent the virus from entering the nose and mouth, why not wear it?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...t-coronavirus/

They’re only about a month late with their recommendations.

Mask usage for most of us (untrained, masks not fitted perfectly, unknown mask quality) are basically to prevent YOU from spreading any diseases you might have to other people...not a bad idea. When I came home from my last overseas pattern, I wore one in public in case I had something that was spreadable.

My wife makes them. Roundabout way a nursing home found out and is buying all she can make for $2 each. Basically almost let’s her break even while keeping her mind busy and helping others.

Crew members are getting infected...The CDC recommends the public wear masks. If a mask can prevent the spread of the virus, it can prevent the virus from penetrating the mask.

No. It catches stuff if you cough, sneeze, or spit when you talk. Larger, heavier particles have more inertia, so they don't make the sharp turn and instead hit the mask.

When you inhale gently, the air comes around the edges of the mask, not through it. So any very fine drops will go around the edges with the air.

So it might help you to not spread, but probably isn't going to keep you any safer.

Actually, there is a lot of good epidemiological evidence that the SIZE OF THE INOCULUM affects the outcome if you are infected. That’s why even relatively young (30s and 40s) healthcare workers who get it occupationally are having significantly worse outcomes than age-matched people with community acquired infections. When it comes to infecting dose, size does matter.

If you inhale a lot of viral particles the viral load increases faster, giving your body less time to develop immunity compared to inhaling (or acquiring through hand-mouth contact) just a few viral particles. A mask may make the difference between a severe or a mild case.

Also, right now most areas are having each new patient infect an additional 1.2 patients. Once we get that number below 1.0, the epidemic will burn out. If we can decrease the spread by just a smidge, we start to win. Can a homemade mask do that? Possibly.

Can’t hurt to try.

According to the CDC there is a safety benefit for those who aren’t infected to wear a mask. Didn’t a directive recently go out for US servicemen to wear masks? Why shouldn’t “essential workers” wear one?

N95 Mask media filtration ~ 0.3 microns
Corona virus about 120nm

like a human walking through the opening of the NASA hangar door.

But it looks like you care and is an outward sign of “compliance”, a supremely important factor in any totalitarian state, such as Communist China.

It's not filtering individual viruses, which are statistically harmless anyway (kind of like one sperm isn't going to get you pregnant).

It's filtering aerosols, tiny blobs of spit, snot, etc suspended in the air (the viruses are in the aerosols). You can rest assured the N95 is adequate for that.

As excargodog pointed out above, it's entirely reasonable that a large initial exposure (higher inoculum) will be more challenging for your immune system. So it might be worth catching as much of it as you can, even if you can't get it all.