The following info came from a Chinese friend of mine (they seem to know about these things).

Face masks can be re-used if treated as follows (this assuumes that they are not physically dirty):
Collect about half a dozen (not more) and put them in a bag. Place them in an oven (NOT Microwave) set to 60 Celcius (140F) for 30 minutes (not more). Wash hands!
When 'cooked' remove them and fold so that the exterior surface (blue) is inside. They will then be ready for re-use.

Edit:
As per Kiore's post below I forgot to mention that this method is not suitable for N95 masks - only the ordinary 'cotton' masks.


If you wear spectacles, it will necessary to use a de-misting spray on them since the mask will cause them to 'mist-up' from your breath.

Or hang them up to dry for 72 hours?

What masks?

Likely surgical.

Funny, now they're recommending face masks. So either they were lying their asses off at first saying it doesn't help, or they're lying their asses off now in recommending them. Personally I don't see how they won't help, even if it's just to keep you from touching your face.

As far as I understand it, the issue is that the simple surgical masks (or alternatives like scarves, self-sown masks) don't work reliably in a highly contagious environment. So, it won't protect you in a setting where you have to deal closely with a lot of infected persons. The protection they offer in every-day situations like speaking to a person known to be infected is only partial. The western virologists always look at this aspect.

Western thinking is thinking about individuals. But if you apply eastern thinking and think about everyone wearing masks in public, the small protection effects the masks have in individual interactions between persons is multiplied and the resulting effect of slowing the spreading of the virus can be enormous.

Touching your face is common human behaviour, watch is why it isn't a panacea. If you touch your face and eyes and constantly adjust your mask like I saw someone at the grocery store do last week, it's useless.The result is a wasted mask on an idiot and one less mask for a doctor or nurse that needs it.

Alternatives to surgical masks can be home-made. Use a scarf or sow your own from a t-shirt. That wouldn't affect professional settings where people need professional masks.

Learning how to correctly use masks could be done. Learning not to touch the masks, when and where to wear them and how to correctly dispose of it when used.

If there was a culture of wearing surgical masks in public as it exists in some Asian countries, there would not be a shortage of such masks. China did not have a shortage of surgical masks in the last weeks, only shortages of the filter masks that offer more secure protection.

Yep - face masks without eye covering is pretty useless. I snagged 50 on Amazon ( they were gone in 24 hours ) we will see if we get them.
If we do then I'll donate 40 of them to some appropriate care giver and keep a few for staff going out. I re-use mine but I only wore it for the flight home.

I had two masks in my garage sometime recently, the DIY store ones to protect from construction dust etc. Can't even find them now. The bastard spiders have nicked them.

Yeah - we had a few around we can't locate

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There are a lot of smart people on this one. BTW Pandemic docu on Netflix is also very good.

Rrrrr....

I wonder if coffee filters could do the trick.

Surgical masks are not designed to protect the wearer from the environment. They are designed to catch droplets coming from nose and mouth, thereby protecting the environment from the wearer. This is why dentists wear them for instance - so they don't spit in your face.

Given that CV19 is largely spread by droplets coming out of infected people's noses and mouths, it seems like something from the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious to say that if everyone wore them when out and about, it would slow down the spread.

I wrote to my MP pointing this out about a month ago, but received an irrelevant, bullshit reply, making no reference to the obvious truth that we don't have a stockpile of tens of millions of the things, or the organisational will/ability to have factories make them. Obviously we can't buy them at the moment as there is no surplus for the riff raff.

NineBerry wrote:Alternatives to surgical masks can be home-made. Use a scarf or sow your own from a t-shirt. That wouldn't affect professional settings where people need professional masks.

The problem is that they are going to be ineffective - they might resolve any social stigma you could receive from not wearing a mask, but chances are they wont do anything else.

The WHO still recommends only using a mask if you care for or live with a person who is sick or is confirmed to have Covid-19, or if you are sneezing or coughing.

Ok so first, don't cook N95's (FFP3) masks otherwise known as respirators to sterilize, they are not meant to be reused so design does not allow for this. They have fine plasticy fibers running through them to screen out particles and these will melt meaning either they won't screen particles well, or possibly you could no longer breath through them. The only reasonable sterilizing is via intense UV light or gas. Leaving them to dry for several days is a last ditch resort and there has been some success with using sterilizing vapors but this very early stages. Masks they are a curse right now, I see people walking around wearing high quality n95s on the street while health workers facing heavy viral loads use surgical masks over top of their n95s to make them last a little longer as they get one a week. Yes many countries in Asia people wear cotton masks as a courtesy to others when unwell and yes probably unwell people should wear something droplet trapping to avoid infecting others so easily. As for actual protection from infection most other kinds of masks are useless, note pictures of the 1918-19 flu outbreak, the most visible feature is the gauze masks everyone is wearing instead of doing other things, possibly useless at best, at worst worse than useless causing more infections as gave false sense of security, people went to movie theatres with masks on.
Masks detract as in 1918-19 from the key messages; do not congregate and wash your hands. I have access to high quality PPE I can choose from 5 sorts of n95 I have available to suit my mood or whatever, but I have avoided wearing an kind of mask outside in public so as not to encourage this habit I wear only when dealing with infected patients when I am not able to effectively use other barriers. If culture changes as it seems likely I have home made some cloth masks to reassure the shop assistant when I go shopping, and in enclosed spaces that can't be avoided then yes everyone would benefit assuming anyone could be infectious from a droplet cover, this has not been in doubt in areas with sustained community transmission.
I see the White House has just decided to make masks recommended, if your feel like it, up to you.. possibly one of the most insipid and useless orders ever given. End result is that people will feel compelled by culture change to wear, or will not be able to enter premises without a bandanna or something over their face. Possible result is that this will make things much worse, people will rely on masks and anyone who has studied health and safety will know that protective equipment is the final resort when dealing with hazards, or possibly even worse the health systems will collapse due to inability to protect health workers causing increased morbidity and mortality.

laklak wrote:Funny, now they're recommending face masks. So either they were lying their asses off at first saying it doesn't help, or they're lying their asses off now in recommending them. Personally I don't see how they won't help, even if it's just to keep you from touching your face.

"They" are right both ways. Face masks do and don't help. It just depends on the mask you use. Mine works a treat. Nobody comes within ten metres of me when I wear it.

Trump says, "If people – as an example, on the masks – if people wanted to wear them, they can. If people wanted to use scarves, which they have – many people have them – they can. And in many cases, the scarf is better. It's thicker. I mean, you can— if you— depending on the material, it's thicker."

Some materials are thinner, but some are thick, very, very thick — I've seen them. Some scarves are thicker and some are thinner, but you can wear them. I've seen people wearing them, a lot of them.

LucidFlight wrote:Trump says, "If people – as an example, on the masks – if people wanted to wear them, they can. If people wanted to use scarves, which they have – many people have them – they can. And in many cases, the scarf is better. It's thicker. I mean, you can— if you— depending on the material, it's thicker."

Some materials are thinner, but some are thick, very, very thick — I've seen them. Some scarves are thicker and some are thinner, but you can wear them. I've seen people wearing them, a lot of them.

And in Trumps case thicker is better - look who's "president"