mtbc | Public mask-wearing for SARS-CoV-2

I am reasonably persuaded that an effort toward widespread mask-wearing is useful in the present circumstances. Sure, there are issues: with the supply of medical masks, people knowing how to handle and wear them, having a mask making them more likely to go out at all, etc.; to me, those seem addressable with public information campaigns. Admittedly, the efficacy of public mask-wearing is not clear: people should know that masks may hardly help, we just aren't sure. So long as they maintain other measures like hand-washing and social distancing, by my reading there is enough evidence that masks probably do help and there are good non-linear effects from modestly reducing the contagion rate. I remain curious as to what extent Her Majesty's Government may finally come around to such a view.

There are plenty of people stuck at home now who know how to sew. Our approach was to use elastic and quilter's cotton to make what are basically washable holders for disposable filters that we cut from HEPA vacuum cleaner bags, there is a wire sewn into the cloth to mold around one's nose. I find the resulting mask to fit quite well and to be comfortable to wear and breathe through and my guess is that, while being no guarantee whatsoever, not even yet incorporating a nylon stocking overlayer, it does help me not to spread the virus if I am infected. When I stopped at the grocery store for perishable foods today, now some way into the lockdown, it was fairly busy but I was surprised to see only one other person wearing a mask, apparently a manufactured one. Perhaps it is good to be seen in a mask to help to normalize them.