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Simple masks
From Appropedia
It boils down to (self)education: the mask not as a prevent-all but as one more element in the slow-down strategy, together with hand-hygiene, social distance, asynchronous transfer, etc. A handful of memes, possibly in an educational package.
If, say, 50% of people in a community contribute to slowing down transmission, we would be better off. The value of the slow-down strategy is easily explained: at any one time there would be more healthy people taking care of less ill. This would be useful whatever the CFR may be.
Quite possibly, having something sensible you can do is also valuable.
There’s http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no06/05-1468.htm which gave birth to this page. How can we improve on this?
We can focus on:
- information about usefulness: such as this.
- design
- better filters
- better fit
- ways to messure performance
- acceptability issues
- how to make them and more specific instructables
- how to use them
- distribution of masks themselves, the know-how, and the whole handful of memes
- …
[edit] Comments
I once saw a recommendation for a “home-made” mask made out of Indian saree silk. That is silk which is very thin, extremely tightly woven and easy flowing. You can probably get hold of a few yards at the nearest Indian tailor or cloth shop. The description, if I remember correctly, was to fold it until you have 8 layers, then shape in a form that covers mouth and nose. It is nowhere near the quality of an N95 mask, but it is washable and cheap.
- This page was taken from Simple Masks on the Flu Wiki.
