There is an incorrect, dangerous post on the recommended list about ambulance personnel not wearing masks, and it needs to be taken down because it will mislead people in ways that will put them at risk. You will never see ambulance personnel wearing masks, because they know what they are doing. With all respect to the diarist, the posting presents a serious lack of knowledge about masks and is the kind of information that misleads people.
There is a *reason* why the experts in ambulances do not wear them, and we should stop assuming that our instincts are more reliable than the knowledge of experts. In fact, if i saw ambulance personnel wearing masks, I would report them. Wearing the kinds of masks the diarist has in the photograph in the diary, which are the only kinds of masks that could even theoretically be worn in a situation involving emergency pick-up and transfer, presents a far more significant risk to ambulance personnel of contracting an infection, thus increasing the risks to patients.
Hospital personnel with repeated exposure or extended exposure to a single patient who is in place, not being carried around, etc, wear for self-protection what is known as N-95 respirator mask — or, a less effective version, the duck billed masks. These are not simple slide-over-the-face masks. They require repeated fittings and annual testing — quite extensive — for each individual mask on each individual person. They have a seal onto the face, and during the fittings, medical personnel are supposed to wave their heads around violently to make sure the seal does not break. The duck billed are less effective, and are primarily designed for surgery. I will get into that further down.
The standard masks everyone is thinking about have far greater risk. They get wet as people breathe, and wet cloth is an incredible attracter of viruses because if a virus touches there, it not only attaches, it moves. Because the dampness — even imperceptible — caused by breathing extends past the mouth, when a virus touches it can slide directly in front of mouth or nose that are breathing. At that point, the virus is breathed in. COVID-19 usually infects about the trachea, and it is there that the disease stays mild. Directly breathing in the virus brings it down to the lungs, which leads to a serious or critical infection. From that point, the lungs can begin to “leak” as the tissue becomes porous from the virus and the liquids kept out of the lungs seep in. That is the first step toward potential death if the stress on breathing either prevents effective transmission of oxygen or a general organ shutdown.
Those masks are used not to keep disease out, *but to keep it in.* Medical personnel in a hospital, because they are exposed to viruses all the time, wear the masks thought of in that diary for short periods over a patient who is settled in a single location. They do this so that, if they have been infected, they do not breathe droplets onto the patient who might not be infected. Moreover, they change those masks constantly for the very reason that they cannot become wet without risking them. (Surgeons wear these all the time, but obviously not to keep out viruses. They are wearing them so that microscopic droplets from their mouths are not accidentally dripped through breath into open body parts.)
COVID-19 does not fly around in the air. The only way to breathe it in is through getting it on your face, into your mouth or nose. The transmission is from virus to hand, hand touching object, someone else’s hand touching same object, hand to face. Medical personnel are specifically trained about this. In other words, through their training they have the highest probability of keeping the virus away. By wearing the masks you are talking about, they have the highest probability of infection.
N-95 are kept for extended periods, unlike the disposable ones. But someone carrying people around, aggressively moving and in need of being heard in a complex situation should *never* wear one, because once again it can be a source of contamination and if the seal is broken, it is now a dangerous object.
Infectious disease specialists and those who work with infected patients have extensive training on how to wear an N-95. They are not throwing people around, or running all over the place when they put them on. It is rarely a physically chaotic situation for the person wearing an N-95. In only the most extreme circumstances can a poorly tested seal break.
For the less-safe version, there are two kinds of duck-billed mask: One with a flap that hangs down, separated from the mask, and a triangular one that that is built so the mask is like a pyramid, with the mask away from breathing areas. These are not as effective as N-95s, but avoid the “getting spit on patient” danger far better, and remove the “breathing in” problem. However, these once again cannot be worn in a chaotic situation. If the flap pushes up, the wetness literally hits the face and the person is infected. If the pyramid is crushed, same thing.
The diary on the recommended list, however, could lead people to freak out when they see ambulance personnel not wearing masks or even lead them to hesitate calling an ambulance. Please, we have enough disinformation out there that is putting people in danger. Please, someone try and get it deleted.