Masks Work & How To Make Your Own Face Masks

Same here. If I can’t taste my air, how can I be sure I’m breathing?

The disease is easily spread by people who might even be completely asymptomatic, onto surfaces and other people in their immediate vicinity, mainly by droplets from their nose and mouth. The widespread use of masks just makes sense to me: they’re very much proven to reduce the spread of an infected person’s droplets, which means less of the virus is spread to others. The reality is that the West as a whole didn’t take on board the lessons from e.g., SARS and MERS, so we were caught out and don’t have the infrastructure, culture or supplies to address our domestic outbreaks in the optimal way. Having only enough masks for our medical personnel means more people will be exposed and get sick; but it’s the lesser of two evils, the alternative being that medical staff are even worse off and get sick and can’t function, and then everyone else gets sick anyway.

From The Lancet article cited above (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30134-X/fulltext):

“WHO currently recommends that people should wear face masks if they have respiratory symptoms or if they are caring for somebody with symptoms. Perhaps it would also be rational to recommend that people in quarantine wear face masks if they need to leave home for any reason, to prevent potential asymptomatic or presymptomatic transmission. In addition, vulnerable populations, such as older adults and those with underlying medical conditions, should wear face masks if available. Universal use of face masks could be considered if supplies permit. “

They also acknowledge/suppose early in the article that governments might be advising against the general use of masks because of the potential for Joe Public to panic buy them into shortages for critical workers. Since there are massive shortages anyway in Europe and the Americas, it’s a pretty reasonable supposition.

S. Korea’s top epidemiologist is very strongly in favour of the general population using masks. He also attributes S. Korea’s exemplary handling of the pandemic, in part, to the generalised use of masks. It’s an interesting watch in any case.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gAk7aX5hksU

My money’s on the WHO advisory changing to ‘everyone wear masks it’s now proven to help’ once most of Europe and the US have managed to stockpile enough for their employees, and when Trump’s buddies have managed to get their $ into the production line.