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cebNot got a lot of spare headspace at the moment.
However, I have been doing research on home-made masks and I may as well write it up here.
There are two use cases; hospital/care workers (and others exposed to people with Covid), and general use masks for ordinary people to wear for reducing transmission in everyday life.
I have not found a request for home-made masks from UK hospitals (in particular, not from my local hospital).
My sister (who's a nurse^Wpractice manager) reckons we may soon be recommended to wear masks whenever outside, and I have started to see discussion in the media in a way which may change to in-favour in a few days. Although home-made masks may not be as good as commercially-manufactured ones, any reduction in viral transmission in an exponentially-growing pandemic is incredibly effective, and I do not want to be buying commercial masks when the NHS is still so short of them.
So, my research. This video compares home-made mask designs with a formal fit test, for use in hospitals. The material used is not one I can get hold of though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBbkn-g-vE
But! As well as being excellent, the video also links to this extremely thorough resource:
Papers about effectiveness of basic masks
and to https://masks4all.co/
I have concluded that, as I am not manufacturing for hospital use, I should aim for practicality and speed, so I can make masks for friends too. I have settled on a design like Option 3 on that page, but have not yet decided whether to hunt around further for a pattern with a filter pocket (I'm thinking maybe not because that will add complexity and make the mask less usable without a supply of filters, which presumably are also in short supply. I have high thread-count cotton, elastic, and buttons (for making headbands) on order.
However, I have been doing research on home-made masks and I may as well write it up here.
There are two use cases; hospital/care workers (and others exposed to people with Covid), and general use masks for ordinary people to wear for reducing transmission in everyday life.
I have not found a request for home-made masks from UK hospitals (in particular, not from my local hospital).
My sister (who's a nurse^Wpractice manager) reckons we may soon be recommended to wear masks whenever outside, and I have started to see discussion in the media in a way which may change to in-favour in a few days. Although home-made masks may not be as good as commercially-manufactured ones, any reduction in viral transmission in an exponentially-growing pandemic is incredibly effective, and I do not want to be buying commercial masks when the NHS is still so short of them.
So, my research. This video compares home-made mask designs with a formal fit test, for use in hospitals. The material used is not one I can get hold of though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBbkn-g-vE
But! As well as being excellent, the video also links to this extremely thorough resource:
Papers about effectiveness of basic masks
and to https://masks4all.co/
I have concluded that, as I am not manufacturing for hospital use, I should aim for practicality and speed, so I can make masks for friends too. I have settled on a design like Option 3 on that page, but have not yet decided whether to hunt around further for a pattern with a filter pocket (I'm thinking maybe not because that will add complexity and make the mask less usable without a supply of filters, which presumably are also in short supply. I have high thread-count cotton, elastic, and buttons (for making headbands) on order.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 05:31 am (UTC)(From the person who found and bagged up all the holey t-shirts and leggings yesterday ...)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 11:02 am (UTC)[*] at least one of them is involved in a formal literature review of mask efficacy, though it's still at preprint stage: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202004.0203/v1
no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 11:10 am (UTC)My conclusion is: for *me*, masks are effective at stopping me touching my face, they probably stop me breathing nearly as many germs etc on other people, and they also seem to work as collective "hey, we're in a pandemic, BACK OFF" reminder when I have to go places where other people are. (see also https://xkcd.com/2290/) I'm not judging other people who choose not to wear them though.
I started off with improvising mouth+nose coverings from a tube-scarf, and then acquired a couple of cloth ones off Etsy. I wear them when I have to go shopping, but not when I'm doing my exercise-outdoors walks, and this is entirely because (so far) I've been able to manage my distance from other people while walking for exercise, but shopping is much more stressful: much less room to manoeuvre, a LOT more people, there's always at least one person who seems to forget about 2m distancing.
When I get home, they come off my face and go into a hot clothes wash and then they get tumble-dried.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 01:53 pm (UTC)I did find that I had to retie it more tightly halfway through after which it was fine; next time I will know to tie it tighter first time out.
(I used this pattern: https://masksforcarers.weebly.com/design.html )
no subject
Date: 2020-04-17 05:44 pm (UTC)