Cloth Masks for COVID-19: Using a Band-Aid as a BulletProof Vest

This guideline was published in January, yet they are still not known by many in the US these days. Source: China NBN Inspection. Copyright belongs to the original creator/author.

There is a new trend in town — sparked not by fashion, but by fear and legality: wearing masks. Less than a month ago, one in the US could be jeered and shamed for wearing a face mask in public. Now those words are muffled behind a mask. Whether you see someone with medical grade equipment masks or someone with a few rags dangling from their ears, you know that no one wants to be a victim. And with local governments and stores mandating facial coverings, most of us have to comply regardless. This has lead way for a new market popping up: HomeMade Cloth Masks.

Cotton masks, sold at a price higher than best possible medical grade sterile N95 mask, become new fashion on Nextdoor. We tried explaining the key filter is melt blown fabric — what causes the global shortage, not cotton — since two months ago, but who listens to folks with no impact?

The Cloth Mask

You probably have seen these homemade masks being sold on online marketplaces and on the corners of the street. Some of these masks were made with good intentions while others were made to cash in.

Here are some benefits of the cloth mask:

1. It makes you feel psychologically safe.
2. It stops SOME of the fluids from coming out your mouth and nose.
3. It keeps your nose and lips warm.
4. Credits our neighbor on nextdoor.com for this one: It now prevents you from breaking the laws in many places!

You won’t find virus protection on this list. The smallest particles are 0.06 microns, and the largest are 0.14 microns. Without the meltblown fiber that many of the N95, FFP2, and KN95 standards use, viral particles will freely move through both sides of the mask. Even if someone coughs with this mask on, the visible threat might not be there, but the unseen dangers of the virus will be as prominent as ever.

These cloth masks are not PPEs because they don’t protect you from anything, except maybe the cold. At this point you might as well use a scarf or a bandana; those are fashionable and can keep your neck warm too.

The CDC

The CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings.

It is not that we don’t want to trust the CDC, but that they are limited in what they can do. The purpose of protection is to be proactive, rather than reactive. The CDC, WHO, and major health organizations, just like many people, have all been reactive.That is the only way for them to prevent mass panics. If they said everyone needed medical grade masks, hospitals and doctors would get angry that their sources would be taken away. If they had declared the possibility of a pandemic very early on, they would be accused of fear mongering. The only thing they could do is take conservative, ineffective steps to avoid stepping on too many toes. Their entrance is not in protecting you but making sure the public is minimally affected. So instead of blindly following them, it is very important to read between the lines if you want to protect yourself.

If you are a healthcare worker who wants the best quality/price ratio for N95 masks and other PPEs to guard you when in ICU, check out the PPE section of Herbal-Pal.org.

If you are not a healthcare worker but still need day-to-day protection, we have the disposable masks for you too.

References:

https://www.china-nbn-inspection.com/blogshow_146.html

“N95 mask shortage comes down to this key material: “The supply chain has gotten nuts.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/n95-mask-shortage-melt-blown-filters/

More detailed comparison. Copyright belongs to the original auth/publisher shown in the image.