Why Wear a Mask?

 I don't make a habit of posting 'public service announcements' but I think that this one is important. In the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, scientists were convinced that you couldn't pass on your infection unless you had a persistent cough, fever, or loss of smell - but that didn't explain how a whole choir caught the virus after one practice, or opening up a bar created a 'hot spot' when nobody was exhibiting symptoms.

Dr Camilla Rothe, a doctor in Germany figured out in *January* that people could be infectious while still being 5 or 6 days away from having any noticeable symptoms - and sometimes having no symptoms at all. Her discovery got smothered by 'more knowledgeable scientists' and some governments who already had enough problems dealing with something they thought they could measure - like SARS. Now however, this 'asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission' for COVID-19 has finally been acknowledged - even by the slow-to-react World Health Organisation.

But the real kicker in all of this is that every time these seemingly healthy but infectious individuals breathe out while speaking, or singing, or running - they are discharging clouds of virus particles as aerosols. These are not sneezing 'droplets' that fall to earth within 2 metres, these are like smoke particles that hang about in the air and are active for something like 90 minutes. The stiller the atmosphere is, the more the cloud hangs around.

Some estimates put the number of infectious people walking around with no symptoms at up to 30% - 60% of the total infected population.

When you take the above into consideration, it follows that being in an enclosed space - supermarket, pub, restaurant - is a potential hotspot waiting to happen.

One solution of course is simply to avoid potential hotspots, but failing that the very best defence we have right now is to wear masks/face coverings when we are anywhere that aerosol transmission can occur. A mask, worn by the seemingly healthy person - who is actually carrying the virus - will help to cut down the flow of virus particles when that person is speaking or just breathing.  Not 100% but way more effective than not wearing a mask. And your mask will help protect you from breathing in this cloud. This is less effective for the receiver than it is for the transmitter, but it helps. And it could be you spreading the virus for 5 - 6 days before you have symptoms.

So the conclusion is that everyone needs to be wearing a mask when indoors, on trains, buses, etc. even if they think it looks uncool.  

The alternative is pretty simple:  Don't wear a mask, don't encourage your kids or others to wear a mask and once the pubs and nightspots open up - breathe in the virus cloud and create a flare-up leading to a new local lockdown, re-closing your businesses and setting back the economy and the recovery.

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