Dear Friends,
Now is the time for us to protect the vulnerable…
Jeremy Howard, an Australian researcher who works at the University of San Francisco, has started a campaign called Masks4All that aims to encourage people to wear masks in public despite current advice that they are of little use unless someone is infected.
“I specialise in medical data. I’ve looked at every research paper that’s looked into this. There is no question: face masks work,” says Mr Howard.
He gives the example of Japan, a tiny country close to China where everyone wears a mask when they go out. Japan which saw its first virus case ten days before Australia, has 5 times our population densely packed into its cities and 35 million people over 65….. yet the death toll is just 77.
Infections and the mortality rate are still HALF Australia’s.
The death toll in Japan is well below I person per million compared with Italy at 230 and France at 83 people per million.
He said that a key way the virus can be spread is when people talk and tiny bits of saliva are expelled from their mouth towards the person they are speaking to.
“It’s kind of gross, but it happens. The saliva goes up to six feet; it hits your eyes, nose, mouth and you get infected. If you put a piece of cloth in front of the liquid, it doesn’t go any further.
That’s how simple this is.”
So please mask-up when out in public.
Even a scarf around the mouth and nose will help.
Protect yourself, your family and your community.
And let’s all get back to “normality” as soon as we can.
Many blessings,
Stay safe, stay well, stay positive.
Namaste,
Les and Trudi