[nostromo]

If you’ll permit a tangent:

Don't wear masks in your car alone. Or outside alone. Or outside or in your car with people you live with.

Not only does it not do any good, it actually increases your exposure to any pathogens your mask acquired while in public.

Take your mask off when you're not around other people you don't live with. And take it off appropriately (not touching the mouth or nose area with your hands).

Another stupid thing you shouldn't do: wear a mask in public only to repeatedly pull it off to speak.

[interestica]

> If everyone will permit a rant:

> Don't wear masks in your car alone. Or outside alone. Or outside or in your car with people you live with.

That's not useful. Outside alone and then put on if someone approaches? How does wearing it in your car alone increase exposure?

If you've been outside, you want to reduce the amount of times you're touching and putting on/taking off the mask as those are the moments when you're increasingly possibility of transmission (getting on hands, other surfaces). If I see someone wearing it in the car, I'm assuming it's the best practice: reducing the on/off instances.

[nostromo]

> How does wearing it in your car alone increase exposure?

Because any pathogens you were exposed to in public are behind held up against your mouth for an extended period of time.

[rsfern]

But the point of everyone wearing masks in public is to keep pathogens inside of the masks of those who would be asymptomatic transmitters.

The keep-pathogens-out effect is supposed to be this secondary thing, and I’m not under the impression that it’s even that reliable.

[kyawzazaw]

the point of the public masks is to limit the wearer spreading droplets.

[sharken]

I could swear that most people use them to protect themselves, always look out for number 1.

In Asian countries this might be different though.

[amalcon]

They might think they're wearing them for that reason, and I'll certainly take it. That said, it's not terribly effective for that purpose..

[marcosdumay]

Honestly, getting everybody to wear masks so they don't transmit the disease beats getting everybody to wear them right so they don't get it.

Even when doing everything right, the efficacy of the masks to stop people from getting the virus is too iffy to rely upon.

[roenxi]

I could see it being important to get the message out that people shouldn't remove their mask to talk to someone. That might be an easy mistake for the very medically-unsavvy.

[zzleeper]

I have a box of N95s, bought a year ago for unrelated reasons.

Does the same advice still applies for these masks? I fear that handling them increases my risk more than keeping them until I'm back home.

[TeMPOraL]

N95s, properly fitted, can actually significantly reduce your exposure risk to outside pathogens, so don't futz with those. Cloth/homemade masks do not meaningfully stop incoming viral particles, but will prevent your saliva from going ballistic whenever you speak; those are meant to protect others from you, in particular if you're asymptomatic and thus don't even know it.

[dr_zoidberg]

A properly fitted N95 shouldn't be removed unless you're ready to take it off completely and throw away. Seen a lot of people basically ruin those by repeteadly putting on/off, touching the filter, placing them under the chin, etc.

What's more, deciding to wear an N95 should be done if you're sure you're going to be on a high exposure area, and/or wear said mask for extended periods of time (think in hours, 4 to 8 hours).

If you're not a healthcare, or essential worker in a high risk situation, you should consider donating your N95s.

Edit: last paragraph, read as "in general", not particularly directed to P, but partly to GP.

[literallycancer]

OTOH when you are just walking in a middle of nowhere and someone passes by on a bike, if the wind flows in the right direction you can easily get their droplets in your face.

>Take your mask off when you're not around other people you don't live with.

Do you mean that you will automatically get infected if someone you live with does, so it's pointless? Or something else?

[samus]

Practicing quarantine _inside_ a home is terribly hard. The air exchange is very limited and there are too many shared surfaces. Even if you're paranoid about cleanliness and bleach everything twice a day, in the long run you will get exposed to the microbiome of the other people in the household.

Another factor is that masks get wet after some time. This makes breathing harder, which is not a good thing with any kind of physical activity. Also, the humid feeling makes people want to touch their face more.

Edit: people infecting you is not that easy to defend against. You'd neet N95s or hazmat equipment for that. Situational awareness is key to defend against "drive-by infections".

In the long run though, I assume we are all likely to be exposed to the virus. Let's do everything in our power to avoid it where possible to ensure the dosis is low enough that the infection stays asymptomatic. In the best case, it might grant us some immunity.