Why is there so much confusion about wearing face masks to protect us from Covid-19? I am NOT trained as a medical professional so take my ideas with a grain of salt regarding protections from the pandemic. Yet would you agree the news information is very bewildering?

As an environmental scientist, I did received extensive training and experience to work on hazardous waste sites. The OSHA initial HAZWOPER class is one week (40 hours). The course is required for first responders to fires, spills, and working around waste sites. For the training we suited up in ‘moon suits’ with oxygen supply (Level A) and wearing respirator filters (level B). We found that these are very uncomfortable for wearing more than 30-60 minutes.

My understanding is that the World Health Organization and U.S. Center for Disease Control have not been recommending people wear face masks (unless you are a health care worker) but guidance appears to be changing to protect against Covid-19. Here’s the latest from NPR and the BBC.

To prepare for my trip to Austria one month ago (blog), all the N95 masks were already sold out from the local stores. I also heard that wearing a N95 respirator must fit tightly and would not be comfortable on a long flight. We also went by the urgent care that normally has surgical masks for patients but ran out. I decided not to wear a cloth face mask, knowing it would not protect me, and I estimate only about 10% of the people that I saw in the Frankfort, Germany airport were wearing any type of face masks. Even fewer numbers of people wore masks at airports in Grand Junction, Denver and Vienna. I did hear that wearing a mask could help prevent touching our face or mouth which I consciously avoided.

Watching the news from Asia, it appears that wearing face mask is mandated and socially acceptable. Did they make a difference in spreading Covid-19? Maybe. Now we are hearing the people with or without symptoms can transmit the virus. So maybe face masks could help keep people who are infected from sharing it with others and the recommendation has been if you get sick to wear a mask.

Here’s a great article from The Atlantic magazine on ways the virus may be spreading in the air and considerations for wearing masks depending on your situation. They mention wearing a mask may result in touching your face more often!

Searching yesterday on Google for how to make a Covid-19 mask came up with the following article from the New York Times article.

Searching on Google for the keywords “pore size of cotton cloth virus” came up with an article from the Malaysia Star news from two days ago that fabric masks are unsuitable to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

To be on the safe side, we decided to learn how to make our own cloth masks.