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3 simple rules can save hundreds of thousands of lives and get America back to work
- Wear a filtered mask over your mouth and nose
- Wash hands before touching loops or edges
- Clean or replace your mask every day
The Mask UP Routine
1
Wear a filtered mask over your mouth and nose
Pick the right mask and wear it properly
Your mask needs a filter. Disposable surgical masks and cloth masks that have filter inserts have a static electricity charge. That charge is what prevents small particles, such as the coronavirus, from penetrating them.
To wear the mask properly, fit it under your chin and pinch the edge of the mask around your nose. It should lay flat along your cheeks leaving no gaps.
2
Wash hands before touching loops or edges
Handling your mask properly will keep you and others, safe and healthy
If viral droplets have landed on yours hands, or you’ve picked them up from surfaces you’ve touched, you can potentially contaminate your mask when you handle it.
To avoid this, sanitize your hands before you touch your mask by washing thoroughly with soap and water, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Be careful to only touch the loops or edges of the mask as you put it on.
3
Clean or replace your mask every day
Change your mask as often as you change your underwear
Once a mask is used, it will begin to pick up dirt, moisture, bacteria and potentially viral particles from you and the environment. The static charge that traps incoming and outgoing droplets will weaken with use, making your mask less effective.
To be as safe as possible, replace your disposable masks every day. If you’re using a cloth mask, wash it in hot water with a mild detergent daily, either in a washing machine or by hand. Dry the mask afterwards and insert a fresh filter filter.
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Why Wear a Mask?
Masks prevent the spread of Covid-19
Protect yourself
Masks, especially when combined with hand washing and social distancing, can help you substantially reduce your risk of getting Covid-19 and reduce the severity of the illness if you do get it. A vaccine is on the way, but there are still many months before it’s widely available. Masks may not be perfect, but they’re the best we have until most people have been fully vaccinated.
Save lives
Even if you’re not worried about yourself, you don’t know whom you might come into contact with that has a heightened risk—perhaps because of their age, a pre-existing condition, or something like cancer treatment, which suppresses the immune system. The thing is, masks only protect others if they are worn (properly) before you have symptoms. So the time to mask up is now, when you feel fine.
Get back to normal
Unemployment is higher than it’s been since the Great Depression. Small businesses are going out of business across the country. Countries and cities that have consistent mask use don’t have that problem. If everyone wore masks, practiced physical distancing, and washed their hands, we could go about our daily lives without fear. And save thousands of jobs and businesses in the process.