However, just yesterday a Dr Kate Cole of the Australian Health and Safety Institute declared on the ABC AM program that :
“a surgical mask is not designed to protect the wearer; it’s not offering you any protection from respiratory airborne virus”. So it’s simply not enough to protect her from getting COVID – it’s just so substandard”.
The institute put out a media release asking that health workers be supplied with N95 masks, which are able to catch some virus with an electrostatic filter, so long as they are properly sealed to the face. The fact remains however that the virus is almost exclusively being transmitted by close contact, as evidence for its transmission in aerosols is virtually non-existent. That the media still quotes the same single case where people in a restaurant allegedly all caught the virus from one person contaminating the air circulation shows itself that there are very few examples. That so many health workers have caught the virus is further evidence that masks don't work, or not sufficiently well to keep out 100% of virus particles. and Subhi - with you on the Kuffiyeh - a useful opportunity to make a political statement on the Gaza lock down.