Why social distancing is important? Why masks are important?

Importance of Social Distancing and Masks

Sources

• Rich Davis (https://twitter.com/richdavisphd)
• Michael Roberts, M.D. (A hospitalist at EAMC and is the hospital’s current Chief of Staff)

Highlights

• Masks play important role in blocking the droplets coming from throat and mouth.
• By wearing mask and maintaining 6 feet distance the chances of transfer of viruses become very low.

Background

Whole world is suffering from the COVID19 and till now we don’t have any vaccine or medicine to treat the patients suffering from COVID19 infection. If we are going out covering our face and using precautions like sanitizing our hands and maintaining the distance is must but people don't prefer wearing a mask. So, here we are with the benefits of wearing masks and maintaining the distance. The CDC recommended that wearing mask can be helpful in the areas where the social distancing cannot be followed properly like pharmacy stores or grocery stores.

When a person wears a mask then the mask blocks the droplets coming from throat and mouth. It is beneficial for others as well as us too as when we are wearing mask to avoid infection through air. If a person in front of us isn’t wearing mask then the droplets from will be blocked from entering directly in our respiratory system as we have covered our nose as well as mouth with mask or some cloth which prevents the entry of such droplets. The reason for saving us from others is that COVID19 is a viral infection which can spread even before the symptoms appears, it can infect another person too by coughing, sneezing or even talking with another person at close distance. For our health care workers those who are directly in contact with the COVID19 patients are suggested to wear the surgical masks or the N-95 masks.

Rich Davis performed two demos to prove or to explain the benefits of wearing masks and maintaining the distance. His demonstrations helps us understand the importance of distance we should maintain when we are outside. Let's have a look at the demonstrations by Rich Davis.

Experimental Demonstrations

Rich Davis performed two different demos in which he tried to prove the importance of wearing masks as well as the importance of social distancing. He also did experiment on how much feet of distance is mandatory to decrease the chances of infection.

Benefits of Using Mask

In this experiment he took the bacteria cultured petri plates. In this he sneezed and did two coughs by wearing mask and without mask. The conclusion was that the masks play important role in blocking the droplets coming from throat and mouth which leads to the least chances of infection to another person.

Benefits of Maintaining Distance

In another demo Rich Davis tried to maintain the distance and he did experiment on various distances including 2 feet distance, 4 feet distance and 6 feet distance and the outcomes were that by wearing masks and maintaining the 6 feet or more distance the chances of infection were very low as you can see in the picture below.

Conclusion

As we know the whole world is suffering from COVID19 and there is no medicine for this virus so we can take the precautions while going out to save ourselves from this infection by wearing mask and maintaining at least 6 feet distance or more. After coming from outside, a habit of sanitising the clothes and taking a bath will be of added advantage as Corona Virus or other infectious agents may survive on clothes or on our body surface.

References

1. https://twitter.com/richdavisphd/status/1276629360212979712
2. https://www.eamc.org/news-and-media/why-is-wearing-a-mask-important