Why are health personnel demanding for N 95 masks?
Don’t they know that the pore sizes of N 95s are much larger than size of an average coronavirus?
What additional benefit can N 95 mask provide?
See, virus is not some kind of bird or flying insect. It needs a vehicle to move around, e.g. aerosols or droplets, which are usually produced when you cough or sneeze. Its the size of that vehicle which matters when you want to protect yourself against infection.
Size of droplets are reasonably high and enough to be stopped by masks. Yes, triple-layered surgical masks are good enough.
But, healthcare professionals need N 95 ones.
Why?
As stated by CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) :”In case of N-95, when properly fitted and worn, minimal leakage occurs around edges of the respirator when the user inhales air. This means almost all of the air is directed through the filter media”.
Unlike N-95s, other face masks are loose-fitting and provide only barrier protection against droplets, including large respiratory particles. They do not effectively filter small particles from the air and do not prevent leakage around the edge of the mask when the user inhales.
Then, why only healthcare personnel? In that case, I also need such masks.
No, seriously, you don’t. Its all a case of probability depending upon the place where you are spending your hours.
Healthcare personnel are working in high-risk set-up, where density of infected droplets are way higher than the usual places. Even amongst the healthcare personnel, people who are handling suspected COVID-19 cases are required to get more protection.
I hope you are not roaming around in crowded places where lots of people are constantly coughing and sneezing at a close distance and with running high body temperature. Trust me, that is the situation in most hospital wards presently.
If you compare this with full-fledged war, do every civilian need the same kind of protective gears as the front line soldiers do??
Just try to remember, we are in acute shortage of trained healthcare personnel. If due to inadequate protection, even a small percentage of them fall sick, the situation will be hopelessly grave. And secondly, an infected healthcare worker can spread the disease exponentially, as he/she can potentially infect all patients he/she attends to.
So, try to help those people who are truly risking their lives to help you all.
Raise your voice for better protective gears for healthcare personnel.
And if you belong to those section of educated and rich individuals, who have hoarded loads of expensive masks for your own protection, please donate them to your Government. We need those and we are not getting those in adequate numbers.
Trust me, you cannot protect yourself from this pandemic until and unless community spread is prevented. And to make such prevention possible, you need to protect them who are trying to protect you.
Help the health workers – doctors, nurses, technicians, hospital workers.
If you don’t, not even your God can help you.
