Between when I saw this image on The Guardian and bounced it from my phone to my desktop, it had rotated off the top screen, so I can’t snag the URL of the page it was on. It may be [guard]
Sultan Anshori reports for Reuters that more than a thousand people attended a prayer at Besakih Hindu temple in the town of Karangasem, expressing gratitude for the handling of the new coronavirus on the island and seeking blessings for the start of a “new normal”.
Check out the masking technique in operation:
If you want a case study of “how to do it wrong” this would suffice. “More than a thousand people” and just a few of them wearing masks correctly.
I see the same thing at my local grocery store; I am the only person in the place who is wearing it right.
I’m still prepared for if I really need to mask up. I have a pressurized air mask that I’ve rigged with a HEPA filter; it’s what I wear when I am grinding lead paint off of wrought iron bars. It’s driven by a battery pack that clips on your belt (I got one on ebay that had no battery pack and jiggered together a USB power connector hooked to a USB charge-pack) and it makes a funny whine while the compressor motor is running. It’s like wearing an air conditioner on your face and – if I were going to go to an airport or get on a plane – it’s what I’d be wearing.
Most people around where I live seem to be wearing their masks correctly, but I have seen a few people just covering their mouths and not their noses. I don’t know where people got the idea that this was an effective use of a mask!
I suppose if this prayer involves singing or other oration (a major risk factor for spreading droplets), then having your mouth covered is better than nothing. Generally, with the masking supplies and education available to most people, “better than nothing” is probably a suitably ambitious goal.
IME, hanging a mask by the ear straps is very convenient, compared to using head straps, but the support is rather flimsy (that is, unless the straps are tight enough to make your ears hurt after a while). Not only you can’t get a reasonably tight facial seal, but the mask slips very easily below your nose, especially if you have to speak. I sometimes wonder if some people hesitate to correct their masks for reasons relating to hand hygiene, or if they’re just that oblivious.
I rather like this one:
https://imgur.com/gallery/Kitu3mu
I’m not personally too worried, as I’m not really prone to illness, and I’ve never really gotten anything beyond an annoying annual cold, but I don’t want to be a vector. So I wear a mask when I leave my apartment, try not to get too close to people (I do that anyways…), and try not to touch things, and wash my hands thoroughly.
But everytime I do go outside, I see people not wearing masks, or have them on their chin or hanging off one ear, and even more puzzling, covering their mouth but not their nose. why?
You think they’d let you on a plane in a rig like that?? Or in an airport come to that?
Re people with masks covering only their mouths: they’re obviously mouth breathers, so they’re doing it correctly!
Protecting others from their spouting BS is worth something, I’m sure.
My “favourite” was the genius I saw with his mask pulled down so he could smoke his cigarette.