Ubiquity

As the swine flu outbreak deepens, panicked citizens of North America are donning face masks. In Mexico City’s downtown square, the Zócalo, for example, the army handed out face masks, and customs officials on U.S. borders are wearing protective personal gear, such as gloves and masks. But do surgical masks offer effective protection against viruses? In 2003, Jon Cohen wrote that the SARS virus, which is just 100 nanometers in size, can easily pass through such barriers. And there’s every reason to believe that swine flu, at 80 to 120 nanometers, can, too. From: Do Surgical Masks Stop Swine Flu? Probably not. (Slate)

Wearing one is at least reassuring. Seeing everybody else wearing one (as the newswires stockpile examples) is not.

(image: Daniel Aguilar/Reuters. Mexico City April 29, 2009)

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Tags: flu, masks, news, politics, Slate, swine flu

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If it keeps you from touching your nose and mouth, it will have gone a long way towards keeping you safe. As one who frequently wears latex gloves at work, and who has allergies, it’s unbelievable how many times I touch my face and hair and don’t realize it until I put on the gloves. Of course, your face starts to itch as soon as the gloves go on, but still….
Rima

One way to make money in our world – buy surgical mask futures.
central texas

It is an interesting cultural difference. When I first began to travel in Asia (Japan in particular), I noticed people wearing face masks and thought in a typically American way, “what are they afraid of”. After a while, I learned that the masks were usually worn by those who had a cough or cold and were there to protect others, not themselves.
Perhaps a difference in our national view of society, ME .vs. us.
In any case, the masks do make it less likely for a cough to expel as much virus-contaminated material and so probably will help in places where the virus is more broadly distributed.
Thirdeye Pushpin

I was in the Zocalo earlier this week. It was mostly empty at night except for a number of people doing ancient aztec dances “concheros”. a type of ritual dance of purification. I would say about 70% of the poeple in the day were wearing masks. The masks were being recommended as prevention against contraction of the virus. I think the masks create a moisture basin an inch from your mouth to catch and support cultures, and that their best use is as prevention of spreading the disease if you have it. I looked at them as a badge of fear….
travy

i saw japanese tourists wearing them in the subway yesterday and it was really right out of a dystopian sci-fi movie with the dirty corridor lined with puddles and the conductor’s voice reverberating off the walls and the tourists laughing behind their masks running for the train. strange times…