We hear a lot about masks, tests and PPE, don’t we?
So let me tell you about face masks. Here’s the thing: There are two kinds of masks. Medical ones that is.
There is a surgical mask — that protects you from me. You don’t want whatever I am sneezing. Not into your face. Not into your abdominal wound or heart bypass.
Then there’s the other kind. Serious masks. The ones protecting me from you. I don’t want your sneeze. I’ll pass on the cough droplets, if that’s okay.
So that is why the medics and nurses and other hospital staff are so hacked off.
We get the protect-you-from-me when it’s the wrong way round. The wards are full of staff wearing the wrong mask. We are protecting the infected from us. Even on Covid wards. Do you get the madness of it?
So we get a bit angry about the wrong mask. A surgical mask — it’s like putting a plaster on a bruise. Actually that’s a bit harsh. They might be a bit better than nothing.
But the thing that really gets up my nose, so to speak, is “guideline creep”. For years it has been standard to use a top respirator mask for a patient with flu.
Then — oops — we didn’t have enough. Answer? Make more masks? No! Change the guidelines! Easy. Recommend a pointless mask instead.
Wearing a surgical mask on the Tube or in a shop is a decent thing to protect your co-commuters. But not you. To protect you — you need the real deal.
