Due to the staggering amount of misinformation during the Covid-19, I will post this as nothing else but my personal opinion. I hope to help clear up a lot of the confusion surrounding the use of masks for the benefit of all who visit our practice during this time.
There is a conflict of opinion whether masks are helping to slow the spread of the Corona virus or not. I believe that a lot of the negatives were borne out of initial non availability of masks, and so a rationalisation-if we cannot get them, let us believe that we do not need them. Other factors were probably not against the masks but their implementation.
I do believe that they work and a recent study from Hong Kong shows a near perfect correlation between early masking and timeous flattening of the curve as opposed to countries who delayed their reaction. Asian countries have for many years used masks in public to control the spread of germs due to their densely populated cities and higher number of outbreaks of new strains of flu. So, this is nothing new.
Back to the negatives. I do believe that if we use non-disposable masks, they must be washed daily and allowed to dry in full sunlight. Our noses should not stick out the top as this defeats the object, and we must be conscious of how clean our hands are when handling our masks.
