Are you going to send a mask with your kid to school?

[Anonymous]

NYT article by reporter who was in China duringSARS
Wash your hands
Wash your hands
Avoid crowded places
Wear mask travel (?)
If sick STAY home don’t go to work and spread
Child sick no school
Wash hands

[Anonymous]

No mask.

And actually, you can get coronovirus through eye droplets anyway. Mask won’t help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but I bought a case of Lysol wipes this weekend. DH took 5 to his school. I took 5 to mine. DD took 7 to hers (One per classroom).

I also gave DD a bottle of hand sanitizer.

So you and your husband are teachers?

We are a two-teacher HH, and this never crossed our minds.

Yes, we are. We both have some health issues so we’re pretty vigilant about cleaning our classrooms and encouraging student hygiene. Hard to do when the bathrooms don’t have liquid soap, warm water, or paper towels.

What MCPS schools do not have warm water, soap or paper towels?

Our MCPS MS runs out of toilet paper and paper towels regularly!

[Anonymous]

Um there hasn't even been one transmission of this disease on US soil at this point. The only people who have it in the US got it abroad. Sure this could change -- but at this point please keep the freak out to a minimum.

[Anonymous]

First case from person to person just confirmed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No mask.

And actually, you can get coronovirus through eye droplets anyway. Mask won’t help.

I don't see the need for wearing masks at school now.

But saying because " you can get coronovirus through eye droplets anyway. Mask won’t help" is not right either. A bullet can kill a soldier through the chest, so a helmet won't help?

[Anonymous]

I'm sure my kid would find a way to use the mask improperly and therefore increase his risk of infection. Like have it face up on a table while someone sneezes and then put it back on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it gets to the point people should be doing this, school should be cancelled.

It is likely not going to get to a point when people SHOULD be doing this. But if some people choose to do this, there is nothing wrong either. People in different cultures can have different ways of dealing with things. I have once been to Japan during a business trip, and I saw many people on the street (not a crowded city, no pandemic etc. going on) wearing masks. Nothing wrong with that even though it was not something I was used to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Microbiologist here.

No, there is no reason to walk around with masks in the USA right now, except perhaps in international airports and on board international-bound airplanes.

However, thinking about this for future pandemics, if your child needs to go to school wearing a mask, it means the school system should consider closing temporarily. Hopefully we will never have that scenario here, but this is one of the measures epidemiologists need to plan for.

Apparently there is no legal "need" for the schools to shutdown. The schools must consider many factors before making such a decision.

However each individuals can choose to do what they feel like, as long as it does not interfere with others. I personally agree that under the current situation, the risk is rather low. But I do not see a problem if others would like to (ask their kids to) wear masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Microbiologist here.

No, there is no reason to walk around with masks in the USA right now, except perhaps in international airports and on board international-bound airplanes.

However, thinking about this for future pandemics, if your child needs to go to school wearing a mask, it means the school system should consider closing temporarily. Hopefully we will never have that scenario here, but this is one of the measures epidemiologists need to plan for.

Apparently there is no legal "need" for the schools to shutdown. The schools must consider many factors before making such a decision.

However each individuals can choose to do what they feel like, as long as it does not interfere with others. I personally agree that under the current situation, the risk is rather low. But I do not see a problem if others would like to (ask their kids to) wear masks.

Not sure why you're talking about a legal need. If there is an epidemic in the USA, the CDC will make recommendations, which will be echoed by all federal and state governments. Closures will happen if they are recommended.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'm sending my high school son to school with a mask and a "I love my mommy" tee-shirt. Should work out well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Microbiologist here.

No, there is no reason to walk around with masks in the USA right now, except perhaps in international airports and on board international-bound airplanes.

However, thinking about this for future pandemics, if your child needs to go to school wearing a mask, it means the school system should consider closing temporarily. Hopefully we will never have that scenario here, but this is one of the measures epidemiologists need to plan for.

Apparently there is no legal "need" for the schools to shutdown. The schools must consider many factors before making such a decision.

However each individuals can choose to do what they feel like, as long as it does not interfere with others. I personally agree that under the current situation, the risk is rather low. But I do not see a problem if others would like to (ask their kids to) wear masks.

Not sure why you're talking about a legal need. If there is an epidemic in the USA, the CDC will make recommendations, which will be echoed by all federal and state governments. Closures will happen if they are recommended.

then just remove the word "legal" from my post. There is no epidemic in the USA and schools are not going to close under the current situation.

Yet it is entirely the choice of the individuals whether they want their kids to wear masks - I wouldn't do it but I can understand those who want to. It is a simple choice based on each individual's assessment on the risk level (it is higher than usual, how high is high enough? that's personal choice).

[Anonymous]

One way masks could stop you getting the flu is by stopping your hand touching your mouth or nose. Aside from inhaling droplets, you can also get the flu from touching anything with the flu virus on it—the armrests on public transport, say—and then touching your face. And people touch their faces a lot without even realising it. A study from New South Wales found that people touch their faces about 23 times an hour.

There's one weak point in this plan: you can also get the flu from touching your eye with your contaminated hand. And even to stop the hand to mouth/nose transmission, you'd have to wear a mask 24/7, regularly disposing of the old ones while trying to avoid touching your face. And wearing masks can feel unpleasant and make communication difficult. So they're not very practical. One study found that only 21% of people are able to keep masks on for the recommended time.

No strong evidence

A study that is often cited as evidence that surgical masks work is a randomised trial from 2009 that compared surgical masks with a specialist mask called an N95 respirator—a mask that fits snugly and filters at least 95% of very small (0.3 micron) particles.

The study, published in JAMA, found that surgical masks were as effective as N95 respirators at preventing the flu, which is to say, not all that effective because, of the 446 nurses who took part in this study, nearly one in four (24%) in the surgical mask group still got the flu as did 23% of those who wore the N95 respirator. And, because both groups wore masks, it's impossible to say how they would have fared compared with not wearing a mask at all.

Basically, there is no strong evidence to support well people wearing surgical masks in public. Or as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put it: "No recommendation can be made at this time for mask use in the community by asymptomatic persons, including those at high risk for complications, to prevent exposure to influenza viruses."

The best thing you can do to stop getting the flu is to regularly wash your hands, and try to avoid touching your face.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-surgical-masks-flu.html



I seem to remember that part of what led to the discovery of viruses was that they could get through ceramic filters.

Low humidity can keep viruses circulating in the air (no heavier water droplets to fall to the floor, just wafting on the air currents)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but I bought a case of Lysol wipes this weekend. DH took 5 to his school. I took 5 to mine. DD took 7 to hers (One per classroom).

I also gave DD a bottle of hand sanitizer.

So you and your husband are teachers?

We are a two-teacher HH, and this never crossed our minds.

Yes, we are. We both have some health issues so we’re pretty vigilant about cleaning our classrooms and encouraging student hygiene. Hard to do when the bathrooms don’t have liquid soap, warm water, or paper towels.

What MCPS schools do not have warm water, soap or paper towels?

Our MCPS MS runs out of toilet paper and paper towels regularly!

I was at two different MCPS HS this week for meetings and there was no warm water from the sinks. Only cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYT article by reporter who was in China duringSARS
Wash your hands
Wash your hands
Avoid crowded places
Wear mask travel (?)
If sick STAY home don’t go to work and spread
Child sick no school
Wash hands

This. And the reporter (who is a medical doctor) said she wore masks during travel only as a social pressure thing not as a preventative thing. She kept her kids in Beijing during the SARS epidemic. Her kids’ international school checked each kids’ temp each morning and had forced hand washing multiple times a day but not a single kid got the SARS virus....in China.