Viruses can enter through eyes...
So, yes, you need mask plus goggles or full mask. Not just cover mouth
and nose.
On 3/22/20 12:22 PM, Norman Yarvin wrote:
On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 08:50:24AM -0700, Rand Simberg wrote:
Masks are for the infected, to keep them from infecting others. TheyWhat, they've gotten to you too, Rand? Come on, think. Masks filter
provide little/no protective benefit for the uninfected.
things, including viruses; and they filter on the way in as well as on
the way out. Yes, if you have one infected person in a room with four
uninfected, and your choice is who to put the mask on, you put it on
the infected one. But it's even better to put masks on all five.
Now, viral particles are commonly smaller than pores in masks, but
what's exhaled or coughed out isn't a pure viral particle but rather a
watery droplet with viruses and other crud in it; even after it dries,
it's normally much bigger than a viral particle. Maybe a virus will
still get through the mask, but even if it does, there's still value
in minimizing the inoculum. Inhaling a thousand viral particles is a
lot worse than inhaling ten; the latter might not even manage to
reproduce successfully. Even if you are infected, there's value in
being infected by a smaller inoculum: it gives your immune system more
time to gear up to handle it. A huge inoculum can turn even so-called
"non-pathogenic" germs into killers.
It's pretty clear why they came out with that line about masks not
helping: they were trying to stop panic buying and save masks for
health care workers. Lying that masks don't help is easier than
admitting that they, the people who were supposed to prepare for a
pandemic, hadn't stockpiled a proper supply of them. But the obvious
inconsistency still makes them look like their real talents would have
been in circus work.
With the R0 of this disease being around two, we don't have to stop
every case of it from being transmitted to stop it as an exponential
threat; we just need to stop half of the transmission. Even if masks
just did 10%, that'd be a noticeable help. (The right sort of mask
does nearly 100% -- and I'm sure plenty of us have them in our
garages, for use in spraying paint, sanding, or whatever. If they're
not full-face, goggles can be added; ones for swimming will do.)