Covid-19 has an average size of 0.000006mm. Quite small! Bad news? The good news is that this tiny size organism cannot live and move by itself. It moves when attached to another substance. The most likely medium for the virus to travel is droppings from an infected person. It travels with droppings like sneeze, saliva etc. Sneeze dropping for instance has an average particle size of 3mm - a bit big now. So when we use surgical mask, we are guaranteed protection from saliva, sneezing droppings from transporting the virus to infect us. A surgical nose mask has a mesh size of 0.003mm. Please endeavour to use this PPE when you are likely to be in the midst of people. Also take note of the following points:
1. Use the mask aseptically, i.e. free from contamination. That means you must sanitize your hands frequently to avoid infecting the mask with your hands - when removing or replacing it on your nose.
2. Dispose off the mask after you have attended to patients in the hospital or when you have been in the midst of people.
3, For those who are not using the mask frequently and may want to reuse it (due to financial constraint): the mask should be handled in such a way that it doesn't get contaminated. Expose it to sunlight as UV radiation besides the heat (IR radiation) in the sun will sterile it for reuse.
Now this is the ethical reason you should use nose mask:
As we prepare to gradually return to our businesses in few days to come, I feel we should remind ourselves of the moral duty we owe one another - following Emmanuel Kant model and beyond. Testing kits will remain insufficient for a long time, so knowing ones Covid-19 status would still be unreached. Many patients are asymptomatic - I suspect most blacks will be, because of our environmental resilience (a case of malaria and others). This means that many that would have been infected won't show symptoms but can spread the virus. Assuming you carelessly contract the virus because you did not wear a nose cover, it would be understandable being that you were not safety conscious, at best you lacked voluntary compliance. But assuming you carelessly infect others because you didn't know you have the virus and you were not wearing a nose cover, then it would show you are unethical, wicked, and inhumane. Just think of it for a moment: you mistakenly contracted the virus, didn't know you have it, didn't wear mask, infected 50persons in your lifetime, 20 died because of you, but you get treated later and survived it to life till old age having this scenario played on your head all your life. Just think. We have a moral duty to protect our neighbours from ourselves. Rise to that responsibility today.
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