This post was written by a local woman who is suffering from Covid-19. Her name has been changed.
My name is Susan. I am a healthy 35 year old with no known underlying health conditions. I live in Rankin County with my husband and three kids. This is my experience with Covid-19. I am on day 17 and you will find that most Covid patients count their days with this virus in order to keep up with our symptoms and what day it is while we are in quarantine.
I began having allergy symptoms while doing yard work on May 30. The next day I wasn’t feeling well but since I wasn’t running fever I thought surely it was just allergies or a summer cold. On June 2, I realized I couldn’t smell or taste anything. I sprayed perfume, Lysol, Febreeze, and couldn’t smell any of it. I couldn’t taste my lunch at all. It was as though I was eating cardboard. This was not due to any sinus drainage. By that point, I barely had any drainage. I knew the CDC added loss of smell and taste to the Covid list of symptoms a few weeks ago. I made an appointment with TrustCare for the same evening and had a nasal swab test. The nurse informed me the next day I was positive and needed to immediately quarantine from the rest of my family. Since the clinic already prescribed Omnicef and Zyrtec D, she told me to continue taking those and manage my symptoms. My husband went to get tested then and thankfully he was negative. We chose not to put our children through the test since they weren’t showing any symptoms. Since joint pain and loss of taste and smell were really my only symptoms at that time, I thought surely at my age this is the worst of it. I was so wrong.
On June 5, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe joint pain, shortness of breath, chest tightness, deep dry cough and gastrointestinal symptoms. The next 7 days were hell. The joint pain made me feel like an 85 year old with arthritis. Joint pain in my hands, legs, lower back and feet. Sometimes it hurt to even walk. My o2 sats would drop as low as 88 but would return to normal range within a few minutes so I was able to stay out of the hospital. This was the up and down pattern over the course of the week. Even with my o2 sats returning to 97-98 range, I still felt as though an elephant was sitting on my chest. I was lying on my stomach and doing breathing treatments every few hours and could not find relief. I couldn’t take deep satisfying breaths. I could only take shallow, quick breaths. After four days of this, a friend of mine who is a respiratory therapist and a life saver to me, suggested I call my doctor to add Symbicort inhaler to my regimen. When I called my doctor it was obvious I needed some help. My anxiety was through the roof. I wasn’t sleeping because I couldn’t breathe. Let’s face it, when you can’t breathe your body goes into fight or flight mode. Panic ensues and your body can’t rest. The doctor ordered some anxiety medication, the Symbicort inhaler, along with changing my antibiotic to a Zpack. Two days later I was finally on the mend. I was able to breathe and get the rest I needed for my body to heal. I am still extremely exhausted. I believe it’s because my body worked so hard for 2.5 weeks fighting this virus and now it’s able to rest. Even though I can breathe again and my joint pain is gone, I continue to have a dry cough and my sense of taste and smell have not returned. I have been warned that I will feel the effects of Covid-19 for several weeks to come as my body continues to heal. I may be hit with sudden exhaustion or shortness or breath.
Once you are tested at one of the drive-thru testing facilities, the Health Department, or at a clinic, I highly suggest calling your regular family physician to make her aware you’ve tested positive and set up a Telehealth appointment. I felt as though I was thrown out to a pack of wolves when I tested positive. There’s really nothing anyone can do for you except manage symptoms, but your family physician will have open communication with you. She knows your medical history and it is a trusting relationship. I should not have waited over a week after my results to get my family physician involved.
While sick I have taken Omnicef, Zyrtec D, Tylenol, Albuterol breathing treatments, Zpack, Symbicort, Asprin 81 mg, anxiety medication, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, and Turmeric. I also kept a cool mist humidifier going and Vick’s Vapor Rub all over my chest. I couldn’t smell it but I could feel the effects of it.
I get asked a lot about where I may have been infected. I think it is dangerous to speculate or place blame since I haven’t known anyone who has had Covid-19. The irony is my family has been very careful. I am usually mindful of wearing masks, using hand sanitizer, washing my hands, and socially distancing. Our 4 year old’s daycare has been closed since spring break and our middle-schoolers have been home since spring break as well.
There’s many things that I believe people need to be aware of that aren’t just medical effects of this virus. The Mississippi Department of Health contacts every patient who has tested positive. The MS Department of Health has to hire more nurses to conduct contact tracing more timely. They are understaffed at the moment, so I was not contacted until June 10. That is an entire week after my positive test result. The MS Department of Health put me under mandatory quarantine for 14 days. It is the Department of Health’s policy to place household members under mandatory quarantine from the date they contact the patient. Since I wasn’t contacted until June 10, my family is now under quarantine until June 25 regardless of testing negative and having shown no symptoms. Despite the fact they are not likely contagious by June 25, but this is the policy. That is nearly an entire month for my husband and children. That is quite mentally challenging. My concern is what will happen when schools open this fall. Children can’t have 25 days of absences. The way the virus is spreading I am afraid we will see many children under these types of quarantine orders from the state. I hope the Department of Education and the Department of Health are working together to make mindful decisions with these types of orders for our students.
As far as testing goes, I am proud to say that as a Mississippian we have made tests readily available. There’s many states still having a hard time with testing. TrustCare is not my primary medical clinic. I knew that they were one of the clinics doing both Covid-19 tests and the antibody tests. You can go to their website and make a Covid-19 test appointment online for the same day. You can also call the MS Department of Health and they will direct you where to go. With this being said, I have heard of other clinics around town who are offering antibody tests to currently symptomatic patients. It is very important that we all know the differences in the nasal swab tests and the blood antibody tests. If you have symptoms you need a nasal swab test. If you are curious about a past illness from a few months ago and are not currently sick then an antibody test is for you.
Last week, the Governor said “when in doubt get tested.” as he answered questions during a news conference. I whole-heartedly believe that and it will be my motto for the foreseeable future. I never ran fever over these last few weeks. If I had waited until the respiratory symptoms started to get a test, I could have exposed many more people. I understand Covid-19 awareness has been decimated by the current national climate. However, Dr. Thomas Dobbs gives us a considerable amount of information daily on the local level as to what is going on here in our state.
Yes, the economy wins. We all have to work in order to keep a roof over our heads and feed our children. This doesn’t mean we can’t continue to be proactive in our approach to Covid-19. Continue to wear your masks now more than ever, wash your hands, keep hand sanitizer in your car, purse, backpack, take immune boosting supplements and continue to socially distance. Please stop shaming people for being proactive and wearing masks. They are trying to protect others from whatever virus they may have. I, myself, was spoken to so degradingly on a post I made to my own social media account as though what I am currently going through is all fake news and I’ve drank the koolaid. Unless you have gone through this hell, or your family member, or you are a healthcare worker taking care of Covid patients daily please be mindful of what you say to others. We need kindness, empathy, encouragement and just decency because being quarantined to your bedroom for 2.5 weeks is a very lonely, mentally challenging situation. We miss human interaction and our families. My case is considered moderately mild since I was able to stay out of the hospital but there will be many who end up much worse than me. My heart goes out to each of those patients and their family members.
Monday, June 15, 2020
A Covid-19 Patient Speaks
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35 comments:
Glad she is recovering. I hope more people take the virus serious. One of the biggest mistakes was how the media reported "mild" symptoms. I also think we need to focus more on how people recover instead of just talking about how many recoveries we have had. Some people are going on months, still feeling the effects of this virus.
11:09. I agree. It would be helpful to know the after effects on those who survive. Survival doesn't mean there are no permanent effects. There's the 41 year old actor from Los Angeles who lost a leg to blood clots and the 20 year old woman from Chicago who had to get a double lung transplant. Both survived, but are hardly flourishing.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/20/actor-nick-cordero-has-leg-amputated-because-of-covid-19
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-woman-double-lung-transplant-chicago/
The incidence of people having what most of us consider serious symptoms is pretty high. The consequences are a lot worse than the flu and last for a longer period of time. It isn't something to be dismissed out of hand because the death rate is "only" about 0.6%, even those that survive can have long-lasting effects from the disease.
Please do all you can to contain the spread of this disease even if it is nothing more than wearing a mask when you go out in public.
Thank you for sharing your personal experience. We have also been made to feel foolish by family and friends for being extra cautious. Ironically, we have sought to protect those very dear to us due to some underlying health conditions...
"I am OSHA 10&30 certified. I know some of you are too. I don’t really know WHY OSHA hasn’t come forward and stopped the nonsense BUT I wanna cover 3 things.
• N95 masks and masks with exhale ports
• surgical masks
• filter or cloth masks
Okay so upon further inspection OSHA says some masks are okay and not okay in certain situations. If you’re working with fumes and aerosol chemicals and you give your employees the wrong masks and they get sick you can be sued.
1) N95 masks: are designed for CONTAMINATED environments. That means when you exhale through N95 the design is that you are exhaling into contamination. The exhale from N95 masks are vented to breath straight out without filtration. They don’t filter the air on the way out. They don’t need to.
Conclusion: if you’re in Stewart’s and the guy with Covid has N95 mask his covid breath is unfiltered being exhaled into Stewart’s (because it was designed for already contaminated environments, it’s not filtering your air on the way out)
2) Surgical Mask: these masks were designed and approved for STERILE environments. The amount of particles and contaminants in the outside and indoor environments where people are CLOGG these masks very Very quickly. The moisture from your breath combined with the clogged mask with render it “useless” IF you come in contact with Covid and your mask traps it You become a walking virus dispenser. Everytime you put your mask on you are breathing the germs from EVERYWHERE you went. They should be changed or thrown out every “20-30 minutes in a non sterile environment”
3) Cloth masks: today three people pointed to their masks as the walked by me entering Lowe’s. They said “ya gotta wear your mask BRO” I said very clearly “those masks don’t work bro, in fact they MAKE you sicker” the “pshh’d” me.
By now hopefully you all know CLOTH masks do not filter anything. You mean the American flag one my aunt made? Yes. The one with sunflowers that looks so cute? Yes. The bandanna, the cut up t-shirt, the scarf ALL of them offer NO FILTERING whatsoever. As you exhale you are ridding your lungs of contaminants and carbon dioxide. Cloth masks trap this carbon dioxide the best. It actually risks health. The moisture caught in these masks can become mildew ridden over night. Dry coughing, enhanced allergies, sore throat are all symptoms of a micro-mold in your mask.
Ultimate Answer: N95 blows the virus into the air from a contaminated person.
The surgical mask is not designed for the outside world and will not filter the virus upon inhaling through it. It’s filtration works on the exhale. (Like a vacuum bag it only works one way)
Cloth masks are WORSE than none.
The CDC wants us to keep wearing masks. The masks don’t work.
Wash your hands. Sanitize your hands. Don’t touch stuff. Wash your phone. Don’t touch people. And keep your distance. Why? Because your breath stinks, your deodorant is failing, your shoes are old and stink, that shirts not clean, I like my space. Trust me I can hear you from here. Lots of reasons. But trust me. The masks do not work.
*Occupational Safety & Health Administration sited.
The top American organization for safety.
They regulate and educate asbestos workers, surgical rooms, you name it.
If your mask gives you security wear it, just know it is a false sense of security!
I'm glad she is on her way to recovering from it, but, just because she had scary symptoms, doesn't mean your or me will. In fact, a large number of infected patients have no symptoms at all.
Sorry about this lady's bad luck, but throwing 40 million people out of work (millions of those jobs aren't coming back) and destroying hundreds of thousands of small businesses hasn't been worth it.
Nice cutnpaste 1147.
Not all N-95 masks have exhalation valves.
"Spate of new research supports wearing masks to control coronavirus spread" Let's see, who do I trust, the scientists, doctors, and researchers worldwide, or 11:47? Ima go with science. Masks DO work. And they cost almost nothing to use.
Sick of the DeMaskulated posting drivel not based in fact. But, but, I'm OSHA certified..... Spare us, Cletus. Get back to your drywall job.
"Cloth masks are worse than none"-that is an outright LIE.
Plus, OSHA doesn't regulate medical equipment alone, son, and is not even the primary regulator.
You take a smidge of info and spread conspiracies and lies. That's just stupid. Masking for medical purposes is the purview of FDA, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is only on particulate matter. Stop LYING and spreading lies.
But thanks to KF and the lady posting some truth about her experience. We are seeing our state let its guard down and the twits cause needless suffering.
Wear a mask. Social distance. Even KF does it!
KF, thanks for posting her perspective.
Glad she is recovering. Very well written, too.
Very happy she is on the road to recovery. Hope this information will help people understand the importance of the personal responsibility of protecting themselves as well as others
Technically, now a mask with a one way valve is a Respirator...which is BS. The writer above is correct about masks catching & retaining droplets, then those droplets breaking up when exhaling or inhaling & spreading.
Having used expensive durable Respirators for several years daily in an industrial environment, I was concerned, & sought answers. Our respirators were heavy, with head gear made from military grade webbing, allowing it to be cinched as tight as possible to maintain seal. The replaceable chemical cartridges, still had N100 particulate filters that attached on the top of the cartridges. Must be clean shaven every AM, but even 5 o'clock shadow would affect seal to your face. Some areas required the use of moon suits, with twist off plexiglas hoods, connected to a dedicated breathing air system. We didn't deal with Bio hazards, but no footwear, or clothing worn onsite was allowed past the Dirty Room. Your personal clothing/footwear worn to work, wasn't allowed past the Clean Room. No company vehicle was allowed off site without being decontaminated.
Typically, N95 & P100 (oil resistant) masks are used by commercial painters & drywall/sheetrock finishers. A N95 (N = not oil resistant) is designed to only filter out 95% of particles larger than 0.300 microns (millionth of a meter). Any crease, or even brushing the mask against something can affect that part of the masks filtration. Its impossible to maintain a seal on your face, while performing tasks. When speaking, jaw movement will break the seal. Durable, reusable Respirators with replacement cartridges, require Fit Testing, & each time used, positive & negative pressure testing, & cleaning. Isoamyl Acetate, Saccharin, or Bitrix kits are used to determine if leaks occur using taste. By definition, an aerosol is defined as 5.0 microns & smaller. When someone coughs, speaks or sneezes, aerosol particles are created. Even a mask rated at N100 will filter 99%, but 0.300 microns is still the smallest size. For comparison, a human hair cross section is 50 microns. The smallest particle your eyes can detect is 40 microns. 2 studies have found COVID-19 in sizes as small as 0.125 to 0.004 microns, which indicate that aerosol COVID-19 can pass through a N95 with ease. These are not meant for viruses, which as a general rule, are 100x smaller than bacteria. Tuberculosis is transmitted via bacterium. N95 are recommended protection for treating patients with Tuberculosis.
Then you have to sample the amount of COVID-19 in the area atmosphere, as even powered respirators rated to filter particles as small as COVID-19 have a limit to the concentration they are used in. Permissible exposure limit (PEL) is the regulatory limit on the amount or concentration of a substance in the air. A 0.300 micron dust particle (the smallest a N95/N100 will filter), released in a SEALED Room, with normal Atmosphere, takes around 8 hours to fall the 8 ft height. With air movement, it can travel an enormous distance. Ideally, Hospitals need (1) a negative pressure "Dirty" changing room where all clothing, glasses, footwear is removed & placed in containers for decontamination/disposal. (2) Exposed healthcare providers should go through a shower room to remove any contamination on their body, wearing disposable foot coverings. (3) Then enter a "Clean" room to don their clothing, footwear, glasses that has not been exposed to the hospital atmosphere. This is SOP for employees who work with even chemical hazards.
Scientific debate aside why not just wear a mask for the sake of others? It is a symbol of respect for others. If it helps a little maybe that little will keep it from spreading to you or someone. Keep your distance from others. Don’t walk close by others. We are all in this together.
I have one question, and it's a simple question: How does one 'isolate yourself from your family'?
The cut and paste is nonsense. Nobody will read that crap.
Looks like hydroxychloroquine IS taboo, huh?
According to the latest numbers, nearly 20,000 Mississippians have gone through some version of Susan's story. Nearly 1,000 have died. That's not bad enough to shut down the economy by any stretch, but it is bad enough to get everyone's attention, big time. You do not want to live through being infected, even though odds are in your favor if you are under 65. I'm not under 65, nor is my wife. The thing that captures my full attention is the fear that if I get infected, I will infect my wife before I know that I'm sick. Or that I will affect ANY other person. So I'm following the rules, lying low, and counting on science to do more good than harm. And I'm counting on my community to follow the rules as well. Please help all of us to stay well. Please don't be self-centered.
Many many more Mississippians and Americans still dying of, dare I say, other problems not spelled COVID. But we will focus with pin point accuracy on our most dreaded fear COVID, which will no doubt NOT destroy mankind.
Like most of the community, I'm doing my part by wearing my mask just below my chin. I'm not sure if it's ignorance or a fashion statement, but I'm following along. And I get my medical advice from that Dave guy who is JT's stand-in host.
So she went to TrustCare and saw a nurse, ie, no MD, tested positive and again talked to a nurse only, ie, no MD, then getting progressively sicker, and only becasue she called, she finally speaks to a MD, gets a Z-Pack and is better within 2 days? WTF? This is "medical care"?
My my, how panicked most of you are. Keep it up. Love turmoil.
1:37, sort of hard to respect those who wear a handkerchief for a mask.
Most people do not respect ignorance.
Kingfish, why oh why do you allow anonymous PPE “experts” to dribble their drivel in public health matters?
I appreciate the writer sharing her experience. Glad she's better. Glad to read that she recognizes that we have to work to pay the bills. She's smarter than most folks on TV.
Thank you to the author for this very well-written, first-person account of her experience. I need these types of reminders, as I have a tendency to become complacent.
Correction to 11:39 a.m.: The reported fatality rate isn't 0.6%. It's around 6%.
"There was a total of 1,761,503 cases of Covid-19 and 103,700 related deaths in the country between January 22 (when the first case was confirmed) and May 30, according to the surveillance report, published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cdc-report-offers-a-detailed-demographic-breakdown-of-who-is-getting-sick-with-coronavirus/ar-BB15waJt?li=BBnb7Kz
103,700 reported deaths / 1,761503 reported cases = 0.0589, which is approximately 6%. That's approximately the upper boundary of the mortality rate that was estimated by the science people around 3 or so months back, if I remember correctly.
A public health announcement to all of the "I refuse to wear a mask" crowd:
Wearing a tin foil hat will not protect you from COVID-19.
Thank you KF for sharing " Susan's" extremely informative and well written post. I'm very grateful to her for caring enough about others to chronicle her experience despite feeling less than tip top.
I'm sure she is discouraged by those who downplay the seriousness of CV 19 and who don't understand the benefits of masking and distancing and other protocols.
Those folks miss the difference between reducing the odds of exposure/amount of virus droplets inhaled and preventing exposure. You also have the problems of those professionals who " don't know what they don't know" and don't get deeply enough into research of other professionals whose areas of expertise is more relevant and so they miss critical details and context. And, lastly, they don't seem to " get" what "novel" implies, that there is much we don't know and we have to work with what is our " best available " information in the moment.
Much of the misinformation is " political" as people have a hard time facing the slightest thing that could make them question their past judgment of a person or group. It is frightening to question your intuition or judgment because if it's flawed in one love or loyalty of a human, it could be flawed elsewhere.
It's called denial. And, the classic example is the abused wife who continues to defend her abuser, blame herself and others for his abuse, and cite all her abusers "wonderful" qualities.
Those who do abuse others psychologically or physically, are the most insecure and least able to self evaluate. In mild forms, they are called " right fighters". They cannot admit to mistakes or failures and have to blame others and remain in control out of the fear their shortcomings will be exposed.
And, then, all this is made worse by the how truly uneducated most Americans are in economics and the American pattern of focusing on " quarter" profits at the expense of " long term" profits and the difficulty those in " business" have of accurately incorporating other relevant disciplines into their models. Sensitivity Training and Leadership Training are great examples of expensive, superficial misunderstandings of psychology.
Those with a serious personality disorder, neurosis, psychosis, dementia and Alzheimer's and poor comprehension abilities can post too. They can even have their own website. Those things do not mean you can't memorize well enough to pass tests and get degrees and have successes in life as the movie " A Beautiful Mind" recounts.
So, I hope " Susan" will just feel sorry for those folks and pay them no attention whatsoever. What they don't know or won't bother to learn will cause them unnecessary pain.
12:05 That's only using positive COVID test results as a base. It is off by a large amount as at least half of infected people are asymptomatic and a large percentage of those that have mild symptoms don't go to the doctor. Our knowledge of the virus has come a long way over the last three months.
When you look at areas that have conducted antibody testing it does look like the true mortality rate for everyone who is infected is between 0.5% and 0.75% with a heavy bias toward those over the age of 60. Covid19-projections.com estimates the total number of infections at May 30 across the U.S. was around 15,500,000 which is almost a ten-fold increase over the number of positive test results.
COVID is much more deadly than the flu, and it has the potential to infect many more people since nobody has any immunity to the virus. It certainly justifies protective measures, but the initial mortality rates of between 2% and 6% were way off target given the now known high rate of asymptomatic infection.
Out of all of that you people only got “masks” out of it? Not the fact that she’s 35 and how long it has taken her to get through the virus? That is well below the age of most vulnerable. Or the health department only put her on a 14 day quarantine while the rest of her family is on 25 days? How is that financially feasible for any family? How will schools handle that? You may not be scared of this virus but if you or someone else in your household gets it, you will be under those same type of orders. But yes masks was the most important takeaway from the article.
Business owner in a neighboring county. Wife was sick but just thought she had pneumonia. He finally convinces her to go to ER. She dies of Covid when she is getting into the truck to leave.
For most patients, the symptoms are nil or mild. But for a few, such as the woman who wrote this post, they are a bitch.
9:55 The takeaway I got was for people to do all they can to avoid spreading the virus. What else would you do? Obviously a long quarantine and horrible health complications are a huge issue, but that applies to people who are infected and is largely out of their control at that point.
Her story is a warning to everyone.
Don't think bad problems from COVID can't affect you just because you are under the age of 50 and don't have diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity. What can we do to avoid it? Don't congregate in large groups, practice social distancing, and wear masks when in public. So yes, those are the most important points to take away from this article.
Are there clear recommendations on preventing spread? A couple visited us on June 4th for about 6 hours. Most of the time was outdoors, but there was about 2 hours indoors. I've just been informed that the wife has COVID and had symptoms three days after visiting. I'm not sure what the medical community expects me to do. Should I self isolate for a couple of days, so that it would be 14 days after I saw her?
11:05 Yes, you should self-isolate until the 18th which would be 14 days from last contact. You meet the guidelines for "close contact" just by being in an enclosed space for a couple of hours.
You are probably fine. However, if there is someone you have been in close contact with that is at a high risk from COVID complications you might want to let them know to monitor for any symptoms themselves.
Glad she is out of quarantine. Happy to hear family is negative.
The rest was subjective. Time will tell.
God Bless you Susan. Hope you feel better soon. As to those of you who think masks are useless, think: if we all wear them we protect each other from each other’s droplets. We have to cooperate to protect each other. That is not much to ask of each other.
He indicates that P95 masks are "ported" masks. The "P" has nothing to do with a port on a mask. The "P" indicates that it's suitable for use in oil-contaminated environments. He is correct that a ported mask doesn't filter exhaled breath, and they shouldn't be used unless the person KNOWS that they are negative for COVID. Both N95 and P95 masks are available without valves.
Surgical masks. Where did he get the information that these are designed only for sterile environments? These masks are frequently used in non sterile environments and there is zero indication that they need to be changed more frequently in a clean environment vs a sterile environment. He then goes on the say that these masks "GLOGG" (I assume that is supposed to be clog) very easily. and if they aren't used in a sterile environment they are only good for 20 minutes? Again, this is information that has been made up and has nothing to do with OSHA regs. The major reason for the use of surgical masks is to protect the wearer from body fluid splashes more than anything else. He also claims without basis that the masks will then trap the virus and you'll become a walking virus dispenser. How does that work? He says the mask is clogged keeping the virus trapped, so how does it suddenly change to unclogged and spread the virus? Was it not really clogged? How did the virus get trapped? Why didn't it get inhaled? Or is it because the guy has no idea what he's talking about? I'm certain it's the latter.
He then goes on to cloth masks where he again shows his ignorance. "…ALL of them offer NO FILTERING whatsoever. As you exhale you are ridding your lungs of contaminants and carbon dioxide. Cloth masks trap this carbon dioxide the best. It actually risks health." Please tell me how a CO2 molecule gets trapped (which I'm guessing is probably a million times smaller than the virus) but droplets don’t. And droplets is what spreads the disease, and while cloth masks certainly don't filter all droplets, they filter some. Try sneezing into a cloth mask and tell me that it didn't filter anything. But he also states that they get contaminated and trap moisture. Wait a minute. If the cloth mask isn't filtering anything how did it trap moisture? Because the guy is full of BS and just contradicted himself. Trapping moisture is exactly WHY they work. Viruses aren't floating around in the air by themselves. They are attached to aerosols such as water/saliva or mucous droplets. Reducing these aerosols reduces the risk of transmission of the disease.
Viruses are not floating about naked, and that's exactly why N95 masks work very well against viruses and is the standard of care in hospitals for protecting staff from a patient with a viral illness. As I previously stated, viruses are attached to droplets and aerosols which these masks filter very well, and for the same reason, cloth masks reduce transmission.
This guy claims to have 30 hours of training. Wow, 30 hours, that's less than a week compared to the years of training/education that the scientists and doctors have that are making these recommendations. But we're supposed to think that the guy that's got the 30 hours of training from OSHA (where the curriculum is developed from these scientists)and is more knowledgeable than a Ph.D. scientist?
The information is wrong and dangerous because so little of it is true and it encourages practices that can harm others.
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