YOU can step into the pharmacy and buy almost any medication, but these days you may not get face masks. While it may cause some worry that everyday citizens aren’t getting facemasks, it’s more a cause for concern that there are fewer facemasks for front liners.
This, however, has given room for ingenuity as illustrated by a Malaysian who is teaching people how to make their fabric masks at home.
South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Ching Ng got the idea when his colleague showed him a Facebook post by a Taiwanese doctor about fabric masks with filter pockets.
The solution is simple, the fabric mask would have a non-woven fabric inserted into the filter pocket.
Ng then posted a tutorial on YouTube showing how you can sew the mask by yourself and it garnered over 1.3 million views, with 60% of viewers from the US!
Of course, Ng is very much aware of the limitations of fabric face masks.
“If you’re heading to a high-risk and/or crowded place, a surgical mask will give you better protection, especially if you are elderly,” he remarked.
“Based on a peer-reviewed study, a fabric mask can capture at least 50% of virus particles that are five times smaller than the coronavirus. A surgical mask captures 89%. Dr Chen recommends that healthy people use fabric masks, and to replace the non-woven filter daily,” Ng said.
And if we think about it, some of us are lucky to have tons of extra time in our hands, so there’s no harm making some of these masks at home.
“Sew a fabric mask for a neighbour, or your neighbourhood delivery person as your way of saving the surgical masks for our health care front liners,” Ng advises.
