Brains are so weird.
Apr. 4th, 2020 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bladesparkI've been reading about the mask shortage for weeks now, of course. And it's always come with a little thought that goes something like "Damn, I really don't want to take masks that somebody else might need more, and I don't want to deal with price gouging, so I guess I won't even try to get a mask, but it'd be nice to have one."
In all that time, it never crossed my mind that I might already have a mask on hand. Thought never entered my head.
But all this has been text, or if there are photos of a mask, it's on a person.
Then somebody happened to link me to a meme that showed just the mask, and on seeing the image, my brain went "Hey, pattern matching time! Here is a vivid visual memory of seeing that exact object in a supplies drawer in your studio!" And suddenly I remembered that when I did a bunch of resin dremmeling years ago, I got an N95 mask to keep from breathing resin dust, and I still had it. A quick rummage through the misc. supply cabinet, and there it was!
JJ is out grocery shopping while wearing it right now. :D
(And yes, I know people are arguing about how much good N95s do. I continue to think that they're better than nothing, and people putting out things about the virus size do not understand the difference between airborne in droplets and fully airborne. Ebola was fully airborne, the corona virus is not. So long as you take other reasonable precautions, continue to not touch your face, and sterilize the mask after wearing, they're going to be useful. And if nothing else, they keep you from breathing out as much junk, in case you're an asymptomatic carrier, which also matters!)
In all that time, it never crossed my mind that I might already have a mask on hand. Thought never entered my head.
But all this has been text, or if there are photos of a mask, it's on a person.
Then somebody happened to link me to a meme that showed just the mask, and on seeing the image, my brain went "Hey, pattern matching time! Here is a vivid visual memory of seeing that exact object in a supplies drawer in your studio!" And suddenly I remembered that when I did a bunch of resin dremmeling years ago, I got an N95 mask to keep from breathing resin dust, and I still had it. A quick rummage through the misc. supply cabinet, and there it was!
JJ is out grocery shopping while wearing it right now. :D
(And yes, I know people are arguing about how much good N95s do. I continue to think that they're better than nothing, and people putting out things about the virus size do not understand the difference between airborne in droplets and fully airborne. Ebola was fully airborne, the corona virus is not. So long as you take other reasonable precautions, continue to not touch your face, and sterilize the mask after wearing, they're going to be useful. And if nothing else, they keep you from breathing out as much junk, in case you're an asymptomatic carrier, which also matters!)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-05 07:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 09:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 05:10 pm (UTC)There's several methods. The easiest to do at home requires your mask to *not* have the little metal bit over the nose. If you have an all plastic mask, you just microwave steam it with some water, basically.
Also you can do "natural" UV sterilization by putting it outside in a sunny place, outer surface up, for as long as possible. They don't mention it there, and I couldn't find any actual studies on it, but it's one of those "if you got nothing else, better than nothing" methods.