Cloth masks may not protect you a 100% from GETTING the virus, but they can prevent you from SPREADING it. So wear masks when going in public.
Health officials in many countries, especially in the USA are advising people not to wear masks. Their motive is understandable because they want to save precious resources, such as advanced respirator masks (N95 and N99) for their medical staff. And their concerns are absolutely justified. Ordinary people should not be hoarding these types of advanced respirator masks, which are urgently needed by doctors and nurses around the world.
However as the below video explains while going out in public (to purchase groceries, milk, vegetables or to withdraw money from ATMs) if every person wears an ordinary cloth mask (which can easily be made at home using a T-shirt), the transmission of the corona virus could be drastically curtailed. One study (in video below) says by as much as 80%.
The corona virus is transmitted whenever an infected person coughs or sneezes. Saliva droplets ejected during this process, infect others. To make matters worse the corona virus can be transmitted even by non-symptomatic persons. The virus may be in a person’s body, and while the person shows no outward symptoms of being sick, he or she can still transmit the virus, when they talk, sneeze or spit.
In India especially many people have the bad habit of spitting paan (betel leaf) and tobacco. Even if a person does not spit, still they may eject saliva droplets during the simple act of talking. Therefore as a service to others, in order to safeguard others, it is our highest responsibility to wear an ordinary cloth mask (fashioned out of cloth) while going about in public. These masks as the video discusses are highly effective in stopping the corona virus transmission, and should be worn during and after the lock-downs are discontinued.
