Dear LPG,

All through this crisis there have been disagreements between experts and rulers in many countries on many facets of how best to deal with some of the details, and one that seems to remain at the top of this list is about the waring of masks. 

The scientists tell that they only help to protect the people around a person that is wearing one rather than protect the wearer although, particularly in England, we have heard that there are insufficient to make them available to key workers which leaves me questioning that theory.  We have also heard the news that the makeshift scarves and gags that some people are wearing as they walk down the streets are not effective because of the material that they are made of or the frequency with which they are washed. 

I have spent the lockdown in the same house as my elderly aunt and I am the one who has left the house from time to time to get shopping and every time I return I wonder if I have touched something or got close enough to someone to bring it into our home.

So I have become a mask-wearer even though I haven’t been able to buy one.  I watched a television programme which demonstrated how to make one that will be likely to protect, and then went to you tube where there are quite a few instructions on the subject.  I found many videos which will challenge those who attempt to make their own, which require varying degrees of expertise and offer varying degrees of success, and although they nearly all appear to have been posted by Americans, I have found some more successful than the scarf that I started out with. 

I am no scientist but, while the international jury is still out, it occurs to me that it is better to use any protection you can because it may not be effective, but it just might make all the difference.  so I have spent a few minutes of all that time self-isolation has afforded me, to joined the expressionless face of Britain with a little more confidence in the protection I am affording myself and those around me. 

FI, Catford.

FI offers some of the DIY Videos

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