With Omicron, we now
know that it is more contagious and more quickly
contagious than some of the other variants that we've seen.
So that's why the recommendation to upgrade from cloth to surgical
if possible and then again, if you're in a tight packed space
where you can't distance
and there's a lot of people to try to do an N95 if possible.
So these are really nice.
They're pretty inexpensive.
These are all supposed to come with three layers,
even though you can't see them as nicely as with some of the cloth masks.
But this is a big reason why they're so popular, is because you know
that if they're,
you know, from a reputable distributor, for example, this one is from BYD,
which is a reputable company, that you know
you've already got the layers that you need.
You don it essentially the same way, you put it around your ear
and then kind of pull up here,
adjust your nose piece and then make sure you pull it down
and around your chin
so that you don't want your chin exposed and you don't want any portion
of your nose exposed.
So like for this one, here's one of the tricks that you can use
both for yourself if you want a better fit and also for children
if you have difficulty finding a smaller mask size.
You can do what we call the tuck-and-knot method.
So basically you fold the mask in half like this.
And then you make a knot on each
side of the loop as close to the mask as you can.
So I'll do that now.
OK, so I've got a knot here, and it's pretty close,
about as close as I can get it to the edge and you do the same thing on the other
side.
OK, and then what you do is you open the mask back up
and then you take this excess material and you tuck it underneath this loop
like so and then you do the same thing on the other side.
And then you don the mask like you did before.
So the difference now is you've got this
excess material tucked in nicely on either side.
So as opposed to the sides being open,
now I've got a nice, a better seal here.
So again, my nose is covered.
I've got the malleable piece bent towards my nose.
The sides are nice and tucked and then I'm underneath my chin. And again,
this trick will also work for people with smaller faces
and you can also use it for a child if you don't have a smaller mask
handy for the kids to use.
So a couple of common mistakes that we see are incorrect wearing.
Just putting it on without any sort of fit over the nose or over the chin .
I see a lot of this, which is not very helpful
because my nose is exposed so I can expose others and I can easily get exposed.
We also see a lot of, you know, the chin kind of hanging out on the bottom.
And then again, just overall, not great fit.
So again, the nose, the chin, and then that neat little trick
that I showed where you can knot and tuck in the sides to kind of get in that gap.
The other common mistake that maybe you don't see,
but I know that people do is re-wearing these masks way too many times.
So the recommendation, ideally, is that you keep this on as long as possible.
So for example, if you're going outside, outdoor,
running errands all day long, then instead of taking it off,
putting it on, taking it off, putting it on, it's best to just leave it on
if you can, even when you're in your car driving to your next destination.
The other thing, too, is a lot of times when we handle our masks, we're fussing
with the inside and our hands are dirty or the outside is dirty
and now we're touching the inside of the mask, which is also not very helpful.
And then they say no more than 24 hours for one of these masks, especially if
it's visibly soiled or dirty.
Even then you
really shouldn't wear it more than 24 hours.
But again, if you do and you do reuse it,
you want to be really careful about how, let's say I've worn this mask now.
So when I take it off, I want to make sure my hands are clean
if possible.
I want to try to avoid touching the outside or the inside of the mask.
Take it off like this.
And then ideally, you would store it by itself in something
where it can breathe, but is closed off.
So a paper bag is a great example, like those old school lunch bags
that we used to use.
Just put it in there
and then when you're ready to use it,
take it out by the ear loop, again try not to touch the mask,
and then put it on again and make sure you've got the fit.