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Reinventing Cloth Masks in the Face of Pandemics
Author(s) -
Salter Stephen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/risa.13602
Subject(s) - face masks , pandemic , covid-19 , face (sociological concept) , internet privacy , computer security , computer science , sociology , virology , medicine , social science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , outbreak , disease , pathology
Because asymptomatic carriers of COVID‐19 produce respiratory droplets that can remain suspended in air for several hours, social distancing may not be a reliable physical barrier to transmission. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, however, some governments were reluctant to mandate public mask use out of concern this would worsen shortages of respirators for healthcare workers. Cloth masks with a filtering effectiveness of 70–90% can be made from widely available materials, and are a better option than respirators for the public. Countries could rapidly implement Effective Fiber Mask Programs (EFMPs) to use local resources to mass produce effective and affordable cloth masks, and to engage the public in their correct use. EFMPs could be a cost‐effective measure to ease isolation while limiting new infections during pandemics. EFMPs could also protect healthcare workers by increasing the supply of respirators for their use, reducing their risk of acquiring the illness from their communities, and by reducing the number of patients they must treat.