Fri 3/20: Making masks and volunteering in a quarantine. Two actions.

Action #1 – How to make masks.

Update 3/23/2020:  Ventura County needs masks!: Go here for their specifications.

Update 3/25/2020: Ventura’s mask-making volunteers have made the New York Times! Check out the bottom paragraphs of this article! Also – check out this video of the project from KEYT. Local high school students are also using 3D-printing to create face shields for medical workers. Ventura County is full of awesome people!

• There are no CDC ratings for homemade masks! If you are marketing them, DO NOT IMPLY that your masks are “CDC-approved” or that they achieve an “N95 rating.” This is false advertising and can create dangerous overconfidence in their users. The CDC states that homemade masks can be used for droplet protection when there are no alternatives. “…homemade masks are not considered PPE (personal protective equipment), since their capability to protect HCP is unknown. …Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to the chin or below) and sides of the face.”
• If you are donating masks to an institution – ASK what requirements they have.  Material type? Nose wire? Filter pocket? Length of ties? We’ve collected a number of options below. For Ventura County, use this one.
• If you have commercial masks and gloves you can donate to medical professionals – go here.
• If you have skills to volunteer – website contact, connects to medical or government agencies – go here.
• If you’re intending to use the innards of furnace filters in your mask, make sure they don’t contain fiberglass.
• Are you an organization in need of homemade masks? Fill out this form.
• Are you a medical professional in need of fabric face masks? Fill out this form.

The options below are from the internet and physician friends. The stock of professional masks is dangerously low. Our medical professionals are worried that their need to stretch out the lifespan of protective equipment like masks and gloves could be putting patients at risk. They, along with their colleagues around the world, are searching for options and are sharing information on homemade solutions.

We will update as new information come in. We’ve included a variety to allow for skill sets and equipment, as not every one has a sewing machine. Online sources suggest twist ties and paper clips as “wires” for nose bridges and using rubber bands for elastic. Though nowhere near as effective as the nano-technology of commercial masks, the droplet protection afforded by cloth masks increases with the fineness of the cloth used, the number of layers, and attention to fit. They must also be washed daily and handwashing hygiene must be maintained at all times.

Note: none of these options are as effective as commercial masks! They may even be counterproductive. Learn more about face masks below in “Deeper Dive” at the bottom of the post. 

Option 1a – double sided shaped, vertical seam/no nose wire/ no filter pocket

Download face full scale mask pattern here and instructions here.

Quote from source: “You actually have to be a decent seamstress to sew these, between 30 and 45 minutes… These are DROPLET protection masks–very good for community spread prevention if used properly (ie the wearer avoids innoculating their face by adjusting the mask with unwashed hands), but not suitable for ICU use or for taking specimen

Option 1b – double-sided shaped, vertical seam, but with nose wire and filter pocket

Ignore her reference to medical professionals using both sides without sterilization. Written instructions here.

Option 1c – double-sided shaped, vertical seam, ties.

Video and instructions here

Option 2 – no sew option/paper/nose wire/face shield 

This article and video is from Hong Kong. Paper is not the most effective choice. (See “Deeper Dive” below)

Option 3 – no sew option/coffee filters/no pocket/nose wire

Here’s a video on making face masks from coffee filters. There are no studies showing the efficacy of coffee filters for this purpose. They may just keep one from touching one’s face.

Option 4 – double-layer rectangle /no pocket/no nose wire

This is from Deaconess Healthcare. They are asking for community volunteers to make them for their hospital. Video and instruction sheet are here. (if you don’t use elastic, make top ties at least 16″ long.

Providence St. Joseph Health in Renton, WA, is also asking for volunteers who have sewing machines to pick up kits to create 100 masks each. We are currently working on getting their mask specifics.

Option 5 – double-layer rectangle/filter pocket/no nose wire/ties

Option 6 – double-layer rectangle/pocket/no nose wire

Another solid rectangular option with pocket: Illustrated instructions from buttoncounter.com (scroll down towards the bottom) #buttoncountermask.

Option 7a – Double-layer rectangle//nose wire/no pocket

This is a good video for beginning sewers.

Option 7b – Double or triple-layer rectangle//nose wire/no pocket

Faster version here.

Option 8 – Double-layer rectangle/filter pocket/nose wire

Option 9 – Shaped rectangle with bounded edges and integral ties, no pocket

Instructions here.

How to put on a mask.

It’s important to note that disposable face masks have a very specific lifespan. While there are some with longer lifespans or that have replaceable filters, the most common face masks on the market are single use items. Each one of those is only good for a few hours and involve handwashing hygiene to be effective.

Action #2 – Local volunteer needs

Besides face masks, here are some other important volunteer needs our community needs right now:

• United Way of Ventura County is recruiting people to help in the 211 volunteer corps, which can be done remotely from home. To sign up or get more information, go to http://www.volunteerventuracounty.org/.
• Ventura County Area Agency on Aging (info here) is seeking volunteers to make food deliveries or work in the agency’s senior nutrition garden to help harvest produce. Contact lois.vcaaa@ventura.org with your name, phone number, and cities where they can volunteer.
• Food Share needs volunteers to help sort donations, pack boxes and help out pantries. The organization is trying to double how much food it can provide as needs increase. To volunteer, go to foodshare.com/volunteer. To donate, go to https://foodshare.com/donate/.

Deeper Dive

One of the offices Trump shut down, along with the White House Pandemic Response Team, was the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, removing behavioral scientists who could have helped advise on exactly how to get people to actually follow instructions necessary to manage this crisis. Our current situation regarding mask usage is a case study in how NOT to communicate.

• Health experts, including the surgeon general of the United States, trying to preserving our inadequate supply of masks for health care workers, have stated  that the public didn’t need masks. This contradiction confused ordinary listeners. How do these masks magically protect the wearers only and only if they work in a particular field?
• The public was also told that the effective masks, the N95, needed professional fitting to be useful.  People have been repeatedly lectured on how to wash their hands but the message that they aren’t capable of learning to properly fit a mask hasn’t worked. The general public senses they are smarter than that.
• We are surrounded by images of other countries’ citizens wearing masks 24/7, along with World Health Organization (WHO) officials. Hong Kong health officials credit universal mask wearing as part of the solution and recommend universal mask wearing and Taiwan immediately ramped up mask production. We constantly compare our school results to those of these countries but don’t we trust them now?
• We are told to wear masks if we feel sick. However, we can also see reports that coronavirus can spread days before feeling any symptons. Even if one does have “symptoms”, should one wear a mask if it’s turns out to be just a cold or allergies when masks are in such low supply? Not being able to access tests for COVID-19 makes this a hard problem.

It’s no surprise that this whole campaign has backfired, as empty shelves and widespread price gouging will attest to. Supplies of a crucial type of respirator mask are dwindling fast, which could lead to multiple accidental infections of patients by health care professionals with no proper protective gear, or one trying to stretch the use of one beyond manufacturer recommendations.

Please leave the professional grade masks for the professionals!

Germany is joining South Korea and other countries in banning exports of medical masks and US stockpiles contain only 1% of the 3.5 billion masks that we are estimated to need. US mask makers and Chinese exporters cannot keep up with our demand. A medical supplier, Michael Einhorn said “We’re having to make tough decisions every day on who gets masks and who doesn’t. Do masks go to the suburban hospital or the 911 responders? It’s a huge responsibility, and we know we’re going to make some mistakes.”

When should a non-medical professional wear a mask here and here.:

“The one time you would want a mask is if you’re sick and you have to leave the house,” stated Dr. Perencevich. “If you have the flu or think you have COVID, that’s when you’d put on a mask to protect others. In your house, if you feel like you’re sick, you should wear a mask to protect your family members. If you are caring for someone with COVID in your home, it is wise to wear a mask when in close proximity to that person, who should also wear a mask, Dr. Perencevich said.” WHO added that there’s no evidence masks protect ordinary people going about their daily business. More important, handwashing and social distancing.

Why are N95 masks so effective?: N95 masks are tighter fitting and thicker than surgical masks. While surgical masks can block only large-particle droplets, N95 masks filter out 95 percent of all airborne particles when used correctly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that they be used only by people with infectious respiratory illness and health care workers who treat or otherwise come in contact with them. Even the best masks are effective only when used with proper hand-cleaning.

Why can’t we make more faster?: Masks are actually pretty complicated constructions and now there is now a global shortage of the “melt-blown” fabric required to make them. Melt-blown fabric is an extremely fine mesh of synthetic polymer fibers that forms the critical inner filtration layer of a mask, allowing the wearer to breath while reducing the inflow of possible infectious particles. “We’re talking about fibers where one filament has a diameter of less than one micron, so we are in the nano area,” said Markus Müller, the sales director at German company Reicofil, a major provider of melt-blown machine lines.

The machines that make the fabric costing upward of 3.8 million euros ($4.23 million) and are themselves are not easy to make because of the exacting precision required, says Müller. Reicofil’s Müller says he gets more than four dozen requests a day, mainly from China, to buy melt-blown fabric and production lines but has to turn nearly all of them away as making a single machine line takes at least five to six months.

China, the major manufacturer of the fabric, is retooling other types of factories to make masks, and is starting ten new melt-blown production lines. “Before the outbreak, the going price for one ton of melt-blown fabric in China was under 6,000 dollars a ton. But now, it’s about 60,000 dollars,” said a sales staff surnamed Guo at Xuzhong Guohong, a major supplier of melt-blown based in Hubei province, the center of virus outbreak in China. “The [shortage] issue is quite severe. Otherwise, why would the price be jacked up so high?”

Surgical masks offer less protection. They fit loosely around the nose and mouth, and fine, virus-laden airborne particles could be inhaled with unfiltered air around their edges. So a makeshift substitute like a bandanna or handkerchief that fits more loosely will filter out even fewer particles.

“Surgical masks provide less protection than N95 masks, and my guess is that bandannas would provide even less,” Rabinowitz said. Randomized studies that have tracked infection rates have found that surgical masks are just as effective as N95 masks at preventing the transmission of viruses, possibly because they prevent users from touching their face.

What about homemade masks? Would a bandana work?

• NOTHING WORKS WITHOUT ADEQUATE HAND WASHING! (WHO video)
• The NCBI states that homemade masks are not as effective as commercial face masks and should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals, but it would be better than no protection.
• Dr. Arnold S. Monto of the University of Michigan’s Department of Epidemiology and School of Public Health said the loose-fitting surgical masks “are modestly effective — the problem is they are not nearly as effective as the N95 respirators.”
• Reports, including this one by the NCBI, with a summary here discourage their use based on their tendency towards increased risk of infection due to moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration. 
• “One problem is that masks can become contaminated on the outside, and when you touch them, you can contaminate your hands,” – Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, a University of Washington professor
• The Director-General for the Department of Health of Thailand – “The droplet from coughing and sneezing is around five microns and we have tested already that cloth masks can protect against droplets bigger than one micron,” Panpimon said, adding that the masks needed to be washed daily.

If you want to make one, what material works best?

According to a studied performed at Cambridge University during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, while surgical masks perform the best at capturing Bacillus atrophaeus bacteria (0.93-1.25 microns) and Bacteriophage MS virus (0.023 microns), vacuum cleaner bags, tea towels, and cotton T-shirts were not too far behind. The coronavirus is 0.1-0.2 microns, well within the range for the results of the tests.

• The median-fit factor of the homemade masks was one-half that of the surgical masks. Both masks significantly reduced the number of microorganisms expelled by volunteers, although the surgical mask was 3 times more effective in blocking transmission than the homemade mask. 
• That a homemade mask should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals, but it would be better than no protection. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;0:1–6)

What about paper towels?
Not a good first choice…Tested against .3 microns, a single layer of paper towel captured 23% of particles and a double layer only 33%.

Reading:

• What you need to know about surgical masks, N95 respirators and coronavirus (knoxnews.com)
• What is your furnace air filter made of? (brennanshvac.com)
• We don’t have enough masks (atlantic)
• Pandemic planning: Recommended Guidance for Extended Use and Limited Reuse of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators in Healthcare Settings (CDC)

• Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of Facemasks (CDC)

• Trump administration scrambles to offer guidance on what to do if hospitals run out of basic supplies for coronavirus (wapo)

• Direct Relief delivers critical medical supplies to Cottage, Public Health Departments (KEYT)

• Calling All People Who Sew And Make: You Can Help Make Masks For 2020 Healthcare Worker PPE Shortage (forbes)

• What are the best materials for making a mask (smartairfilters.com)

• Can a face mask protect me from coronavirus? Covid-19 myths busted (guardian)

• OK, she’s totally wrong about the spread of the coronavirus, and she probably wishes she could remove the front 30 seconds, but good information on difference between mask types.

• Information about Sewing Masks in the time of COVID-19 (equilter.com)