Public health calls for masks
Dr. Mylène Drouin said Tuesday that masks “must become a social norm” in closed public spaces. I put mine on before going into the fruiterie just now, and by the time I got out I was glad to take it off again. (Nobody around here is wearing them in the street.)
But it crossed my mind: has anyone realized how much people are going to hate wearing masks when the weather turns warmer?
Blork 17:49 on 2020-04-28 Permalink
The part of the whole mask-wearing thing that people don’t usually mention is that you’re supposed to launder them after every use (unless you’re using disposables). I have two at the moment, but I only go to the grocery store once a week so it’s no biggie. But for people going to work on the Metro and whatnot, technically your mask is dirty by the time you get to work, so you need to wear a different one on the way home, and that doesn’t include any mask wearing you do during your workday. It’s all a bit too much, so people will either not wear them, or will wear “dirty” ones of questionable benefit.
(Filed under hyper-vigilant, in which you wear your mask at the same level of vigilance as you would if you were a surgeon or whatever. Maybe not necessary. But if your mask has caught some particles during your shopping trip, then touching the mask to take it on and off will contaminate your hands, and even breathing deeply will pull the particles right through any homemade mask.)
Blork 17:50 on 2020-04-28 Permalink
Oh, and the above largely does not apply if your primary reason for wearing a mask is to prevent YOU from spreading the virus to others.
DeWolf 19:31 on 2020-04-28 Permalink
I went out grocery shopping today and wore a mask in the supermarket. I guess maybe 50 percent of the customers and 90 percent of the staff were wearing masks. It’s far from universal. The efficacy of masks (especially homemade masks) is questionable, but from what I’ve read, it makes enough of a difference to be worth doing, even if you aren’t wearing them perfectly. I hope more people get into the habit of putting on a mask when they go indoors even if it means they’re wearing their mask a couple more times than they ought to. As many others have noted, masks are primarily useful in preventing you from spreading illness to others, so it really only works if everyone is wearing them.
GC 20:44 on 2020-04-28 Permalink
Definitely far from universal. I went on my weekly grocery-buying trip. Less than 50% of the staff were wearing one and maybe 10% of the customers? When I went out in the evening for a walk, about half the people who were in masks had their noses out and the mas kind of loosely hanging below. Is there really any point if you’re not going to wear it properly?
Also: what happened to the suggestion that people wearing face coverings in public was a threat our culture? Wasn’t that only last year? I guess it really wasn’t about the face covering after all…
Ian 21:49 on 2020-04-28 Permalink
But they said it was an essential feature of our society to be able to see each other’s faces, even to get government services or teach or provide medical services
… were they making stuff up? /s
Kate 10:13 on 2020-04-29 Permalink
Over the last week, I shopped a couple of times, and ran into radically different procedures.
Rachelle-Béry is running a tight ship. You line up, then you’re questioned when you go in, hands sanitized, then you have to clean and sanitize the handle of your shopping cart. Shopping baskets have been taken away. Signs ask you to minimize touching the produce. There’s plexi at the checkout, and the cashier will sanitize the counter after you’ve packed up your stuff.
The other location, a neighbourhood grocery store, no hand sanitizer, no masks, no limits on people going in. One of the cashiers was wearing a mask, otherwise things were much as usual.