Have you noticed that wearing a face mask makes you invincible to all form of disease?
I spent my early years working in the Hospital Service and working in operating theatres and being trained in sterile techniques.
For two full years I worked in trauma theatres side by side with orthopaedic surgeons who were obsessed with cross-infection control, so I have a little bit of a handle on cross-infection.
I provide Implant surgery in a (semi) sterile environment so I understand the concept of not touching things.
I understand that surgeons clasp their hands in front of them when they’re scrubbed up and when I teach this to other people I remind them of the story of one of my former consultants who scratched his nose in that position while waiting for a patient to be made ready for surgery and then looked and me and said “after 30 years you would have thought I wouldn’t do that” before he changed his gloves again.
And now I watch people who were frightened who now think they are invincible because they put a mask on.
Some of the really clever ones also wear gloves so then they can touch whatever they want.
They then keep adjusting their face mask with their gloves, passing whatever is on their gloves underneath their face mask to let it incubate before they breath it in.
There is an argument that you shouldn’t wear a bike helmet because it makes you take more risks, perhaps that argument also applies to the mask.
Information is beautiful is a wonderful site that gives really objective information about lots of things but particularly, for me, COVID-19. There is a terrific table in there about the effectiveness of things that you can find at home that you can make into masks.
The most effective mask is a tea towel with a coffee filter underneath which gives you close to 80% protection.
If you wrapped a tea-towel around your face and washed your hands 6 times a day, the likelihood of contracting Coronavirus if you’re careful when you’re out and about is almost 0.
If you take into consideration the fact that you’re likely to come across someone who is asymptomatic with Coronavirus is about 1 in 400 and you have a tea towel wrapped round your face and you wash your hands, the risk is less again.
If you limit the amount of time that you go out and are careful when you’re in shops and wear a tea towel around your face and wash your hands 6 times a day… well you get it don’t you.
You don’t need to buy face masks, you just need to educate yourself or someone needs to educate you in the best way to take small simple measures to reduce the risks.
On a slightly parallel track to this, one of the best ways to kill all types of Coronavirus's are soap and water.
Is anybody thinking in Dentistry about getting patients to rinse with soap and water before we start treatment because if we do that pretty much all the Coronavirus in the mouth will be dead and then we can reduce all the PPE to 0.
Blog Post Number - 2381
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