I thought that was pretty interesting, myself. Previously, I had thought that surgical masks would not offer much protection.
Over on one SARS blog or another, I read that surgical masks need three layers to be effective. This was so early on that it was not scientifically supported by studies, but since you are a medical person I pass it on for your consideration.
When SARS started happening I bought a lot of N95 masks from a hardware store, and called my far away family and suggested that they do the same.
One of my sisters is a nurse who works in a hospital, and she told me that she had access to all the surgical masks that she wants. I told her than N95 masks were recommended and she remarked that they use these for TB patients.
I didn't see a big difference between the results for regular surgical masks and N95 masks, but I know anecdotally that the health care workers who have been infected reported that either their mask slipped during a procedure like intubation, or their eye protection slipped.
Personally, for me a lot of what I feel about SARS is apprehension. I know I am going to die, some day, somehow, and I have a list of odds tucked away in the back of my mind, and now I have to take out the list and recalculate it. I am apprehensive about having a tube shoved down my nose. I had this done to me once and I cooperated but it was very unpleasant. Last year I watched my mother have it done -- she had very bad pneumonia -- and she did not cooperate and it went on for a very long time. Lots of flopping, and shrieking and some bleeding.
I have a cooperative personality and she has an uncooperative personality, so I hope that this broad generalization will hold.
It is the loss of dignity that I fear most. I can handle a lot of pain, I can handle being semi-nude in front of strangers, but I would like to retain my self control. |
