Are you wearing a homemade mask? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Are you wearing a homemade mask?

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Everyone's trying to do their best here in Philly but people are still somewhat confused. Today for instance, two carjackers were wearing corona virus masks. Good, right? Wrong. They were wearing N95 masks, which should be reserved for medical personnel. Here is a quote from the inquirer article:

"The CDC stressed that people wear homemade cloth masks, instead of N95 or surgical masks, like the carjackers wore, that doctors and frontline workers desperately need. "
 

HuskyHawk

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I have not yet, but I may. About the only thing I can think of is either a handkerchief, which may be too small to utilize the non-sewing method, or a bandanna, which, to paraphrase Dave Barry, will make me look like a colorful bank robber.

What is everyone doing?

Yes. My wife has been making them for several days now. She went to the post office and mailed several packages to people today.
 
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My daughter is a physical therapist and originally was neutral on me wearing one saying it will help in certain situations such as crowds, but her advice was simply to avoid crowds, wash my hands. and use wipes. I followed her advice. But this weekend she drove down to my place and gave us some hand made masks that her PT group put together. Now she strongly suggests that I wear it whenever I go out grocery shopping or even walking around the neighborhood. I am now wearing a mask whenever I go out, but really trying to minimize any leaving the house. Did a major shopping the other day and if we run low on food I'll do take-out which a lot of restaurants are doing in the metro Boston area.
 

pj

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Everyone's trying to do their best here in Philly but people are still somewhat confused. Today for instance, two carjackers were wearing corona virus masks. Good, right? Wrong. They were wearing N95 masks, which should be reserved for medical personnel. Here is a quote from the inquirer article:

"The CDC stressed that people wear homemade cloth masks, instead of N95 or surgical masks, like the carjackers wore, that doctors and frontline workers desperately need. "

This is crazy advice. Healthcare workers discard their masks frequently. I bought N95 masks in January for family and employees, but one each, and we disinfect them regularly. One mask will last forever if it is cared for properly.

CDC should be figuring out how to manufacture masks, not advising people not to wear them. The reality is that the general public wearing N95 masks would do more to protect frontline healthcare workers (by reducing total number of cases coming in for care) than a few extra masks in hospitals, given that extra hospital masks only cause healthcare workers to use new masks rather than to re-use disinfected masks (which are perfectly fine).
 

RichZ

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My son-in-law's business uses the N95 masks, and he buys them my the case. Had a good supply before this thing broke out. So we have an ample supply. I've been wearing it when I go out to the doctor or to pick up a grocery order.
I don't wear one when I'm fishing, but I've been fishing alone and staying the hell away from other boats. Social Fishtancing.
Saw one of the local guides on the river with 4 customers in his 22 foot boat. All behind the center console.
 
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This is crazy advice. Healthcare workers discard their masks frequently. I bought N95 masks in January for family and employees, but one each, and we disinfect them regularly. One mask will last forever if it is cared for properly.

CDC should be figuring out how to manufacture masks, not advising people not to wear them. The reality is that the general public wearing N95 masks would do more to protect frontline healthcare workers (by reducing total number of cases coming in for care) than a few extra masks in hospitals, given that extra hospital masks only cause healthcare workers to use new masks rather than to re-use disinfected masks (which are perfectly fine).

N95 masks require training and fitting to be more effective than other masks. You really think the average person would wear them properly?
 
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I'm not wearing one when I walk around town with my family and/or dog. My plan is to wear one when I go to a store, but I've been able to avoid that for 10 days now and don't see a need for a visit for at least two more weeks. We've been successful getting deliveries for everything (even Tyler Phommachanh (which was starting to get low because we didn't hoard) if my delivery shows up).

My plan was to wear one of the few surgical masks we have, then a cloth one over it to keep the surgical mask from getting contaminated as easily (and because the cloth ones look tougher). There's been so much mixed messaging about masks (I think it's deliberate misinformation and I'm not a conspiracy guy usually). The best I can interpret, the surgical mask gives a bit of protection to the wearer. The cloth mask just helps others (still good if we all wear them), and stops you from touching your face. Our plan was to wash the cloth mask and recycle the surgical mask after a week or two when any virus would be gone. I have no idea if this is helpful to us, but it doesn't seem like it would be harmful.

I just lost a friend today. He, his wife and father-in-law were on lock down since they all had health issues. Daughter did some stuff outside the house. He, his daughter and father-in-law got COVID-19 disease and he and the father-in-law died. Even though the death rate seems small, it seems a lot bigger when you know the person. Stay safe everyone.
 
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I'm wearing an N95 painter's mask for now. My wife ordered real masks online but who knows when they'll get here. I've been wearing gloves for weeks.

I went to Coscto and Stop & Shop yesterday and I would say well over half the people there were wearing gloves and a mask. I saw very few masks on my trip to the grocery store last Wed; seems like my part of CT has been doing a good job heeding warnings and following the advice given by the CDC. The mask thing caught on quickly.
 

CL82

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I'm not wearing one when I walk around town with my family and/or dog. My plan is to wear one when I go to a store, but I've been able to avoid that for 10 days now and don't see a need for a visit for at least two more weeks. We've been successful getting deliveries for everything (even Tyler Phommachanh (which was starting to get low because we didn't hoard) if my delivery shows up).

My plan was to wear one of the few surgical masks we have, then a cloth one over it to keep the surgical mask from getting contaminated as easily (and because the cloth ones look tougher). There's been so much mixed messaging about masks (I think it's deliberate misinformation and I'm not a conspiracy guy usually). The best I can interpret, the surgical mask gives a bit of protection to the wearer. The cloth mask just helps others (still good if we all wear them), and stops you from touching your face. Our plan was to wash the cloth mask and recycle the surgical mask after a week or two when any virus would be gone. I have no idea if this is helpful to us, but it doesn't seem like it would be harmful.

I just lost a friend today. He, his wife and father-in-law were on lock down since they all had health issues. Daughter did some stuff outside the house. He, his daughter and father-in-law got COVID-19 disease and he and the father-in-law died. Even though the death rate seems small, and seems a lot bigger when you know the person. Stay safe everyone.
I’m very sorry to hear this. It is a potent reminder of just how scary this stuff is.
 

storrsroars

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Seems there was an epiphany over the weekend. Looked like 90% of folks shopping today were wearing masks, many of the homemade variety and quite stylish. Maybe only 40% were wearing masks on Friday.

My wife fired up her sewing machine in first time in over a decade to make me a nice one with an earthtone dish towel backed up by an old Brooks Bros striped button down shirt, with the elastic supplied by an old pair of tights. She's making more tonight.
 

pj

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N95 masks require training and fitting to be more effective than other masks. You really think the average person would wear them properly?

Maybe not, but any mask adds value. Surgical masks are good enough. Cloth masks are a little risky because they can hold virus, and therefore should be frequently cleaned with detergent.
 
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Does this work:

1586213320871.png
 
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I haven't yet because I haven't gone anywhere where I'd be within 100 feet of anyone in the last couple days. My wife said she ordered some from someone in our town who is making them.

Someone needs to make ones with UConn on them. If I'm going to look ridiculous with this thing on it might as well have a UConn logo on it.

Btw, it's pretty easy to make your own. Maybe I'll use an old UConn t-shirt to do this.

 

storrsroars

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Someone needs to make ones with UConn on them. If I'm going to look ridiculous with this thing on it might as well have a UConn logo on it.

Good idea. I think I still have one of those crappy $5 shirts being plugged on here couple of years ago. I'll never wear the thing (in fact I think I last used it for painting), but if I can salvage the logo....
 
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At grocery store today. A somewhat elderly lady, I'll say somewhere between 55-70, was in produce section wearing a mask which covered her mouth but not really her nose. I watched her lower her mask a bit so she could itch her nose near the nostrils and then put her mask back up to where it was. These are the people we live amongst.
I'll repeat an earlier post....the scariest thing about Coronavirus is that my health is impacted by the stupidity of other people
 
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The mask strategy, as proposed, is to protect others from you.
yes, but also learned yesterday it also helps you as it will minimize what you inhale and it appears this virus is dose dependent....from a very knowledgeable phd...
 
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I'm not wearing one when I walk around town with my family and/or dog. My plan is to wear one when I go to a store, but I've been able to avoid that for 10 days now and don't see a need for a visit for at least two more weeks. We've been successful getting deliveries for everything (even Tyler Phommachanh (which was starting to get low because we didn't hoard) if my delivery shows up).

My plan was to wear one of the few surgical masks we have, then a cloth one over it to keep the surgical mask from getting contaminated as easily (and because the cloth ones look tougher). There's been so much mixed messaging about masks (I think it's deliberate misinformation and I'm not a conspiracy guy usually). The best I can interpret, the surgical mask gives a bit of protection to the wearer. The cloth mask just helps others (still good if we all wear them), and stops you from touching your face. Our plan was to wash the cloth mask and recycle the surgical mask after a week or two when any virus would be gone. I have no idea if this is helpful to us, but it doesn't seem like it would be harmful.

I just lost a friend today. He, his wife and father-in-law were on lock down since they all had health issues. Daughter did some stuff outside the house. He, his daughter and father-in-law got COVID-19 disease and he and the father-in-law died. Even though the death rate seems small, and seems a lot bigger when you know the person. Stay safe everyone.
Condolences...

Another approach with the masks if you have several...just rotate them...wear a mask once...leave it in the garage and don't wear it again for 3-4 days.
 
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I can actively turn my head and avoid others, but can’t control my heavy breathing and baseball spitting habit when I run. So it’s more like me protecting others.
But hey, I’ll do me
I wasn't being critical, please don't mistake my tone. I assumed you were running where others aren't, i.e. the suburbs where it's easy to avoid other people while running. The "do you" comment wasn't intended to be snarky. That said, I think if "actively [turning your] head" was sufficient, we wouldn't need masks.

It comes down to how crowded/confined the area is. Outside running? Usually it's easy to avoid others. Inside a store, not always.
 
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I wear a survivor buff pulled over my head with the eyes cut out.
 

Hans Sprungfeld

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I just lost a friend today. He, his wife and father-in-law were on lock down since they all had health issues. Daughter did some stuff outside the house. He, his daughter and father-in-law got COVID-19 disease and he and the father-in-law died. Even though the death rate seems small, and seems a lot bigger when you know the person. Stay safe everyone.
Sorry to hear of your loss. Yesterday I hit that milestone in an admittedly lesser way, with the death of a Facebook friend.

It may seem like not so big a deal, but I greatly reduced and capped my Friend count at 302± 18 months ago, and this guy survived every time I deleted someone in favor of a new addition. I learned the news from a 39 year old mom, who along with her husband and two sons under 5, has been successfully working through the symptoms after they all tested positive on March 30th.

TODAY, I went to multiple food stores, armed with a well-considered list, and a good sense of the stores' layouts. I kept a bright orange bandana on steadily for 3 hours. It kept me from potentially infecting others (that's the #1 point) and from touching my face.

Back home, everything went right into the laundry. And I won't leave home except for walking in nature (and maybe biking soon). I'm stocked for the next week, which includes provisions for virtual holiday gathering meals, replenished perishables, and some fill-ins.

At Costco, the guy who rang me out at the cash register said, "We're all either surgeons or bank robbers now."

I see no good reason not to proceed this way moving forward.

In a certain way, whatever male, "I'm not gonna do something [fill in your word] like that" reluctance/resistance underlies not wearing a mask has a vibe akin to men who die of prostate cancer because they're not 'into going to doctors.' Apparently, that POV makes up the largest population of men who die of prostate cancer, rather than get successfully treated for it. A billboard once said that they die from "stubbornness."
 
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