Masks for covid-19

Not political. It is real. Due to lock down (internationally and interstates), I can’t source food grade plastic sheets from reliable sources. I don’t wan’t to buy re-packed plastic sheets online without knowing the chemical ingredients and safe melting points. 100% cotton T-shirt masks seem the best we can do in the current situation. It is much more environmental friendly solution as well.

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Well, thinking of that… I wonder why this paper wasnt extended with a future work? like use common fibers in cloth, and give the correct Kg and milliliters for make the most effective and widely possible application (I wonder if some one in the world can replicate this with more fibers on COVID19).

I wonder, thinking on the point of environmental friendly, now I think what have made the Chinnesse about desinfectation (I cant recall what they have used), could be made with water and salt?.. so public surfaces would be covered with salt… and they will be active until washed away be rain (dont know if surfaces with salt could kill also all those influenza and related… I mean… wow salt!!!), even you can make a type of cotton candy coated with cristals and put it as filters for buildings! and the list goes on and on…

It is still to perfect to be real… but it is on nature from some years now… so.


So at the night I spend some time making the saturated solution, making it boil and then submerging the 3 blue filters I have (I think they are water proof because was not easy to make them “transparent” to the eye). The drying is long, I mean they where on a surface the whole night and they are not dry.

So the process of making them is a little longer, but you can make them for the week.

Sorry, I attach some images I got while doing it.

  1. First some water with some salt

  2. Then mix and boild the water (I guess this make it more easy to dissolve the saturated salt)

  3. Submerge the filter, in this case the blue ones see how the water didnt enter the “cloth” is not “transparent”, so with a spoon I kept weating and pushing inside until completely soaked (transparent I guess, it should be more easy with other type of materials not water resistant)

  4. Put them to dry, it could take some time… maybe more than 12 hours?? so prepare before hand to let the salt crystalize (I think the crystals are not visible on image but they are there)

  5. This is what is left on stove


Usage

Wel, I put one of them wet and take a breath, and it was fresh, guess because isnt wet… but the feeling is just a little different, becaus you feel the salt… and I think it will be no problem to use it with that extra coat, waiting for them to be completely dry.

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Thank you very much for your video (incl. the publication and data summary) and this wiki on protective masks!

This is true data science at work! :smiley:

(We already prepare our first masks at home.)

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You may enjoy this article. :blush:

This engineering group has another method, and is open sourcing the plans for masks.
http://www.plhae.com/montana-mask.php

Dr. Sonia Mehta, an anesthesiologist, has teamed up with a local seamstress to create a face mask that has passed the N95 test and can be made from recycling materials already in use in hospitals.

In this interview, she and Claudia Cometa discuss the details of this innovation. For the pdf file that can be used by others to make their own, go to https://lnkd.in/eYAs4q8.

Spread the words via LinkedIn

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With all due respect, I consider this emphasis on masks very counterproductive. Particularly Jeremy’s tweets about this issue and the YT videos on the topic, including those by Jeremy and some related ones as the one by Lex Fridam.
I find especially worrisome the less-than-rigorous arguments about the importance of masks spread by those who should know better.
The original argument seemed to be based on finding a “common” factor among the countries that had been successful in fighting the virus. A very unfortunate graph showing data from those countries (China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore) and concluding how all of them used masks, was spread by Jeremy and others. This is a textbook example on how not to interpret correlational data. To quote my own tweet reply: you could just as well have plotted chopstick frequency use and concluded about the importance of carving up yours. At the same time the most probable takeaways from those examples were overlooked. Those are:

  • Very early measures
  • Extensive testing
  • Strict distancing, including nationwide or state-wide curfews

The aforementioned countries implemented some or all of the above measures. Any model of virus spreading would explain why they are important and they have all been endorsed by the WHO, whereas there are few data that prove the effectiveness of masks, in particular home-made ones. The most sensible conclusion would be that we must act quickly, when the number of infections is very low (case of Japan), test extensively from the beginning and promote extensive social distancing (South Korea) or, once the number of infections is substantial, mandate extensive and strict lockdowns (China).

After that, another tweet showed a fourfold set of measures which did include testing but centered on mask using and did not include hygiene, extensive curfews or early measures. The proposed measures included “quarantine of infected people”, implying that more extensive quarantines are unnecessary and can be replaced by masks, even when the number of infected is already large.
A new tweet and video emphasized a new data point: Czech Republic. After the very doubtful first argument, the emphasis seemed very much a case of confirmation bias, particularly because the tweet presented it as if it was a clear-cut case in which mandating masks resulted in a reduction in the number of deaths.
The tweet failed to mention that the Czech Republic had previously imposed a very comprehensive lockdown before any death. The first deaths occurred after masks were made compulsory. Other early measures included restrictions on sales of medical equipment.

I have enormous respect for Jeremy, Rachel and all those involved in the #masksforall campaign, however I strongly feel that their conclusions on this topic are misleading. I stand to be corrected if I misunderstood some part of the argument.

Someone reading this post may think that it is not such a big deal, after all wearing home-made masks can’t hurt, right? It may do some good, even if marginal.

I don’t agree. On the one hand, I think that we, as data experts, should make a point of reasoning accurately about data. On the other hand, I am worried that the campaign might in fact be harmful, for the following reasons:

  • It downplays other, potentially more effective, measures
  • It may induce a false feeling of security in those that wear masks
  • It unfairly questions health institutions (mostly WHO) that are giving very sound (and often disregarded) advice about how to tackle the present crisis.

I apologize if this post appears to be overly critical but I though it was important to express my concerns on this issue.
Please stay safe everybody. I wish you all the best

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It’s the confusing WHO guidance that has precipitated the need for crowd science here. Perhaps if they’d been clear and honest and contemporary up front they’d not be scrambling to understand what their own guidance is. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/03/11/whos-confusing-guidance-masks-covid-19-epidemic/

I can’t find any doubts about WHO’s honesty in your source. It even says that:

WHO is providing important leadership in the current pandemic. On mask wearing, however, its interim guidance seems to generate confusion and would benefit from urgent revisions that clarify these inconsistencies.

I agree that it should have provided clearer guidelines from the beginning, but I can’t see how adding up to the confusion could be of any help.

My understanding from someone I believe to be knowledgeable about disease prevention is the general public does not practice good enough hand hygiene for surgical masks to make a difference when the wearer is healthy. Here is the CDC’s guidance.

Here in Taiwan, which has so far been successful at containment, the government has been making the same recommendation as the US regarding mask use, that “the healthy public does not need to wear a face mask”. The millions they are making are for use here and elsewhere. It may be misleading to suggest their production of masks is linked to usage and stopping the spread. Anecdotally, I saw about 20% wearing them last week and 50% yesterday, whereas during non-pandemic periods I’d expect to see at most 1 in 20 people wearing one.

As I understand it, Taiwan has been successful because they had experience dealing with SARS in 2002-2003 on their own, and their current VP was the health minister at that time. As a result they took this new coronavirus seriously from the beginning. They had a team in Wuhan in early January who said “this looks like SARS” and the country sprung into action. I’ve heard that for known cases, they enforce self-quarantine with a GPS-enabled app and follow up with regular phone calls to ensure the individual remains at home. If you don’t answer your phone, as happened when someone’s phone battery died overnight, the police are at your door within 30 minutes. Many places publicly/privately owned do temperature checks before entering and I’d argue there was already a general awareness of the dangers. That said, it only takes one idiot to ruin things, and there were a few cases of people going to nightclubs when they were supposed to be in quarantine. You can read more on Taiwan’s response here:

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Im so much against the “the healthy public does not need to wear a face mask” or “only the sick should use mask”, think of this report “The high viral load within the first week of illness suggests that the virus can be transmitted from one person to another easily before the patient is hospitalised”.

And maybe you dont get hospitalized at all after all. So a “healthy person” could be potentially a sick person, or a sick person doesn’t need to show symptoms. But how will that person know that is sick and is spreading the virus more in the first week? CANT!!! as simple as that.

So yeah, sick persons should use masks… the problem is that there are lots that are sick but doesn’t know and will not be tested or indicated to wear a mask (more because the misinformation that only the sick should wear a mask) ;).

I think WHO, and in general each and every country health commissions are misreading the “only the sick should wear mask” not being able to see that there are persons that are sick but doesn’t know!, so the better is to wear a mask even if you are really healthy and not just sick at the start of the infection or not showing symptoms at all. (at the end if wearing a mask you get infected by your bad habits of touching your face, not wearing it will be the same habits).

At the end, the mask should be an extra personal disposition added to the other guides your country gives, it only lower the others if you replace, not if you add.

Hope I explained myself and see why saying “only the sick should wear a mask” or the alternative “healthy persons dont need to wear a mask” are misinformation.


Some news paper links: opinion in nyt, regarding taiwan in time from there this 2 months a go.

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Hope I explained myself and see why saying “only the sick should wear a mask” or the alternative “healthy persons dont need to wear a mask” are misinformation.

Taiwan has found success while promoting this strategy so I don’t think it’s misinformation.

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Are we sure we are “experts”? Experts in interpreting data != solving problems with common sense.

Social distancing is “creating barrier by air” (and reducing contacts).
Wearing masks is “creating barrier by mask”, protecting the mouth and nose as we move through any distance.

Hong Kong is a tiny tiny city, the density is comparable to NYC and Tokyo. And yet, there is no lock-down order, only self-isolation and quarantine for positive cases. Many businesses returned to operating, especially the logistics industry. Food and merchandise delivery crew shuffling in narrow streets with pedestrians on the side walks, and yet the new case numbers have been very much under control — the daily new cases of community outbreak is in the single digit. Why is that? Because majority of these people are wearing masks.

Recent influx of returned travelers caused new cases daily in 30-40, many of which went to gatherings, bars, often without masks. Now the HKG government is finally forbidding gathering of 4+ people, and mandating restaurants tables must be 1.5 meters apart. Yup, we need social distancing as well.

But still no “stay at home” orders for the entire 8 million population, why? Because the government knows most (not all) people are aware of the risk of transmission and are either social-distancing, or wearing masks.

There were cases of supposedly home-quarantine folks being seen on the street: 77 of them were found yesterday, and 40 of which, were reported by nearby folks because they saw the colored wrist-band of those who are suppose to be staying at home. Such reporting of quarantine violation would not be possible, if the people around weren’t able to protect themselves first with masks, and were within the social distance.

In high density cities, masks are very effective in reducing/limiting the virus transmission, without any lock down. Without the masks, HKG would come to a grinding halt, or the medical health care system collapse overnight, like that happening in Italy, and threatening NY.

Masks, while inconvenient to some extent, translate into some degree of freedom in movement out and about, as we grind through the pandemic. This is common sense. As households rush to grocery stores to stock up, which scene is more dangerous: everyone waiting in long checkout lines without masks, or with? Which scene is more convenient: everyone without masks but are required to stand 6 feets apart anywhere in the store, or everyone has mask on, and maintain reasonable distance, and the store can handle more customer volumes in the same amount of time, everyone gets in and out quicker, goes home sooner.

We must not forget to apply common senses when we are faced with ever increasing amount of data.

As we face more data than ever, we are at best students only, not experts in this new field of data analytics. Let’s try to make sense of lifeless data along with common senses, instead of assuming, or entitling ourselves as experts.

Let’s see how trustworthy WHO is. Is the following fair?

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned against global overreaction to the COVID-19 outbreak. The statement comes on the back of a series of panic stockpiling, travel curbs and event cancellations across the region. The WHO said new data from Chinese health officials hinted at slowing infection rate — over 80% of cases out of China have reportedly been mild, with the number of new cases falling since early February.” — February 18, 2020.

I doubt WHO is cleaner than the data we have to process. Using your analogy @echon:

  • It may induce a false feeling of security in those who believe every word from WHO (the emphasis are mine).
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This is exactly right. Providing data sources alongside the summary recommendations is absolutely paramount. The data is not complete and that means recommendations must be nuanced. Once you throw in competing data with politics, economists, and the pseudo-science of behaviouralism, recommendations from authorities naturally become untrustworthy. Share data. Reference data. Review data. Switch off mainstream Tv.

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I believe guidance from the CDC on wearing masks has been consistent through previous administrations. The first I heard of this topic being politicized was when paper products were rumored to be in short supply due to making masks, and people started buying all the toilet paper. A company was later fined for starting this rumor. I think it’s great to share how to make homemade masks and the materials’ effectiveness, and I also trust the CDC’s guidance on PPE usage.

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Request for Technical Explanation.
Greetings from Texas. I am a layperson, and interested in producing my own masks for my family, and if successful, for my community. I am particularly interested in the use of salt as a modification to to a virus barrier.

I have seen many articles on the research, and tried to read the report published in Nature, but I’m just not able to make enough sense of what I’ve read to cook up some home brew. Would someone better at reading this type of research be able to “translate” for the rest of us dummies how we might be able to most effectively permeate our masks with a NaCl solution? Obviously I can throw some table salt into some water, but I don’t want to assume this is beneficial without a greater degree of specificity.

Thank you!

Well, Im no expert, but 1L of water could only dissolve up to 250 grams of salt or 1/4 of a Kg. An over saturated solution is to put more solute than the dissolvent could dissolve, that is why you need a hot solution so it can dissolve more salt than normally and get a saturated sollution (I guess is similar to other over saturated solutions). When I was dong this, I just put a lot of salt, but couldnt mix all of the salt on ambient temperature water, it was until “boiled”.

But the “main problem remains” that the study is short in providing test for only 1 filter “the middle layer of three-ply surgical mask, polypropylene (PP) microfiber filter, was coated with NaCl” and in the start “When tested with tightly sealed sides” so that means no filtrations of air in any place (you know when you put a n95 you need to check that there are no filtrations and readjust, so I guess a tape or something could work?). But I think it could up a little a in house filter, bad that there are no studies for normal fabrics (so we know how good could they be compared to that 100% of this coated filters).

And remember, this is to add to other recommendations, not to replace, also will be good how to watch how to wear a mask even this mask should not be as hazardous as n95 that not deactivate the virus, I think correct handling would be good to know.

On the efficacy and importance of masks, in this very recent interview with Gao, the man overseeing the China’s CDC, said:

Q: What mistakes are other countries making?

A: The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.

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This design from University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital is easy, fast and cheap to fabricate. Follow the links to the original page for the research including electron microscope studies of materials.

Original: http://tinyurl.com/HK90mask

My version DIY how-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-2ElKi1F6E&feature=youtu.be

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Folks, to raise awareness for #masks4all I created a simple visual with 3 demands that everyone can make to their senators/congressperson. Democracy.io enables this via email. But I’m wondering if there is an easier way to place a call directly - i.e any free app that has this flow - enter address to view senator number to click to dial from phone. Does anyone know?

Also, do folks have any feedback on the 3 asks? Should I make it simpler? 1 ask only?
Here is the visual:

Also if anyone is a better UX designer and can improve this crappy slide or embed hyperlinks in jpegs, please reach out! Thanks!