Psychological effects of the face mask

Used mine today at the supermarket.  Didn't care if people reacted so I did not notice.  I am a grouchy old lady so I do what I want.  As my mom says I am in my last quarter of my life I am going to do what I want and don't care.  She is 97 and going strong.  LOL I do take after my mom!

It is a personal choice....if we were in China, Japan or South Korea, a face-mask in public would be necessary gear. 

I saw a woman in a CVS drug store today wearing a mask....it looked pretty dirty and ill-maintained. 

As a consulting hospital infection control coordinator, I can tell you that masks are VERY limited value for this pandemic: 

a) they are mostly good for protecting family members from active cases of COVID-19, and in a health-care setting - these paper masks are meant to keep doctor/nurse spit out of open wounds in the operating theater. 

b) unless someone coughs/sneezes right in your face, you won't catch this from the air....droplets don't last that long.  Most corona virus disease is from exposure to contaminated fomites (especially door knobs), and this one is increasingly looking like it has a strong fecal/oral component:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85315

New research from China indicates that the novel coronavirus is also spread by fecal-oral transmission, not just by respiratory droplets or environmental contact.

Hong Shan, MD, PhD, of Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, and colleagues noted that the gastrointestinal tract is a welcoming environment for the virus, also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) CoV-2. "Our immunofluorescent data showed that the ACE2 protein, which has been proved to be a cell receptor for SARS-CoV-2, is abundantly expressed in the glandular cells of gastric, duodenal, and rectal epithelia, supporting the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the host cell," the team wrote.

A facemask also might make you more aware of touching your face. Afterall it is a barrier.

For the past several weeks, I've been making pre-dawn visits to a few 24 hour stores.  I tend to shop very early in the morning for very specific items that are on sale.  I don't browse, I don't stand in any lines, and I always use a self-checkout lane.  My attire is essentially the same every time I shop: sneakers, sweatpants, a flannel shirt, and my oldest, rattiest winter coat (which I keep zipped up).  I also wear UVEX brand wrap-around safety glasses, a North brand P-100 respirator, and Condor brand blue nitrile gloves.  The net effect is that employees and shoppers alike tend to avoid me like the plague, which pleases me immensely.  When I return to my car, everything goes into large plastic tubs my trunk.  No purchased items share my cabin air space.  I remove and bag my nitrile gloves (which will be discarded), then I remove and bag my P-100 respirator and my safety glasses (which will be cleaned, quarantined, and reused).  I also remove my ratty winter coat before getting behind the wheel, and it stays in the trunk, too.   As soon as I'm inside, I lock the doors with the remote control, I use hand sanitizer, and I slip on a pair of light gardening gloves before touching any control surfaces.  At the end of each trip, my clothes, my coat, and my gardening gloves go into the drier at a high setting, and my sneakers get a wipe-down before going out of rotation for a while.  (They never actually come into the house.)  My key fob also gets a wipe down.  Finally, I wash my driver's license, credit cards, and my concealed carry card with soap and water, and then I take a shower.  I haven't carried a wallet in this century.  My two licenses are always in my right shirt pocket, and my two credit cards are always in my left shirt pocket.  Some of you might think this is excessive, but each and every step in my procedure is calculated to keep me as safe as possible before, during, and after my shopping trips.  And, of course, it's actually a lot of fun to see how people react.

Hi KiwiMum.  I'm in Lake County, Illinois, which is mid-way between Chicago and Milwaukee.  I'm within a 20 minute drive of several 24-hour businesses, including gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, and "big-box" retailers in northeast Illinois and southeast Wisconsin.  The "big-box" retailers, such as Meijer and Super Wal-Mart, have groceries, cleaning supplies, household goods, kitchen, and pharmacies.  Since mid-January, I've made the rounds to 7 of these places.  Initially, I only wore gloves during my excursions, but as soon as COVID-19 landed in Washington state, I began to wear a respirator.  All in all, I've found this a fairly pleasant and satisfying experience.  I get up very early, I'm out the door by 2 or 3, and I'm back home by 6 or 7.  Although I really didn't need much for myself, I've made special trips for friends and family members who have been unable to visit these stores.  Unfortunately, the people I care about the most (my daughter, my girlfriend, and my ex-wife) all continue to work, so they're always 14 days away from being able to join me at my "safe house", as we like to call it.  Therefore, I've been shopping very selectively and very carefully on their behalf, and we arrange for transfers of goods.  As things now stand, I have preps for four people for 6 months or preps for myself alone for 24 months.   I'm sorry to run a bit off-topic, but these shopping trips in the wee hours are more like a mission to me, so I don't really mind the inconvenience of the hours or the elaborate PPE protocol.

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