WHAT EXACTLY IS A VIRUS?
The following article was sent to me explaining
what a virus really is.
Johns Hopkins University has
sent this detailed note on avoiding the contagion:
* The virus is not a living organism, but a protein molecule (RNA) covered by a
protective layer of lipid (fat), which, when absorbed by the cells of the
ocular, nasal or buccal mucosa, changes their genetic code. (mutation)
and convert them into aggressor and multiplier cells.
* Since the virus is not a living organism but a protein molecule, it is not
killed, but decays on its own. The disintegration time depends on the
temperature, humidity and type of material where it lies.
* The virus is very fragile; the only thing that protects it is a thin
outer layer of fat. That is why any soap or detergent is the best remedy,
because the foam CUTS the FAT (that is why you have to rub so much: for 20
seconds or more, to make a lot of foam). By dissolving the fat layer, the
protein molecule disperses and breaks down on its own.
* HEAT melts fat; this is why it is so good to use water above 25 degrees
Celsius for washing hands, clothes and everything. In addition, hot water
makes more foam and that makes it even more useful.
* Alcohol or any mixture with alcohol over 65% DISSOLVES ANY FAT, especially
the external lipid layer of the virus.
* Any mix with 1 part bleach and 5 parts water directly dissolves the protein,
breaks it down from the inside.
* Oxygenated water helps long after soap, alcohol and chlorine, because
peroxide dissolves the virus protein, but you have to use it pure and it hurts
your skin.
* NO BACTERICIDE SERVES. The virus is not a living organism like
bacteria; they cannot kill what is not alive with antibiotics, but
quickly disintegrate its structure with everything said.
* NEVER shake used or unused clothing, sheets or cloth. While it is glued
to a porous surface, it is very inert and disintegrates only between 3 hours
(fabric and porous), 4 hours (copper, because it is naturally antiseptic; and
wood, because it removes all the moisture and does not let it peel off and
disintegrates). ), 24 hours (cardboard), 42 hours (metal) and 72 hours
(plastic). But if you shake it or use a feather duster, the virus
molecules float in the air for up to 3 hours, and can lodge in your nose.
* The virus molecules remain very stable in external cold, or artificial as air
conditioners in houses and cars. They also need moisture to stay stable,
and especially darkness. Therefore, dehumidified, dry, warm and bright
environments will degrade it faster.
* UV LIGHT on any object that may contain it breaks down the virus
protein. For example, to disinfect and reuse a mask is perfect. Be
careful, it also breaks down collagen (which is protein) in the skin,
eventually causing wrinkles and skin cancer.
* The virus CANNOT go through healthy skin.
* Vinegar is NOT useful because it does not break down the protective layer of
fat.
* NO SPIRITS, NOR VODKA, serve. The strongest vodka is 40% alcohol, and
you need 65%.
* LISTERINE IF IT SERVES! It is 65% alcohol.
* The more confined the space, the more concentration of the virus there can
be. The more open or naturally ventilated, the less.
* This is super said, but you have to wash your hands before and after touching
mucosa, food, locks, knobs, switches, remote control, cell phone, watches,
computers, desks, TV, etc. And when using the bathroom.
* You have to HUMIDIFY HANDS dry from so much washing them, because the
molecules can hide in the micro cracks. The thicker the moisturizer, the
better.
* Also keep your NAILS SHORT so that the virus does not hide there.
Now that
you know what a virus is what follows is an article from Chemistry and Engineering
News about face masks.
Why the best material for a homemade
coronavirus face mask is hard to identify
Variables in fabrics,
fit, and user behavior can influence how well a mask might block the virus’s
spread
by Kerri Jansen
APRIL
7, 2020
How we kn The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention now recommends people wear cloth masks in public
places.
With cases of
COVID-19 growing rapidly in the US and mounting evidence that the virus
responsible, SARS-CoV-2, can be spread by infected people before they develop
symptoms, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on
April 3 that people wear cloth face coverings in public places. This guidance
is a shift from the center’s previous position that healthy people only needed
to wear masks when caring for someone who is sick. The recommendation also
follows recent calls by experts on social media and other platforms for the
general public to don nonmedical, cloth masks to help reduce the transmission
of the novel coronavirus.
“Members of the
general public should wear nonmedical fabric face masks when going out in
public in one additional societal effort to slow the spread of the virus down,”
Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tweeted on
March 29.
.
These experts
hope the measure will reduce the rate of disease transmission by adding an
additional layer of protection in places where social distancing is difficult,
such as grocery stores, while reserving limited supplies of medical-grade
protective equipment for health-care workers.
The internet is
exploding with mask-sewing patterns and advice on which materials are best to
use, but many unanswered questions remain about how exactly SARS-CoV-2 spreads
and what benefit widespread wearing of nonmedical masks may offer individuals
and the public. Because of the inherent variability in household materials,
mask design, and mask-wearing behavior, experts caution that the practice is no
replacement for social distancing.
“It is critical
to emphasize that maintaining 6-feet social distancing remains important to
slowing the spread of the virus,” according to the CDC’s web page on the use of
cloth face coverings.
Understanding
what a mask needs to do to protect the wearer and those around them begins with
understanding how SARS-CoV-2 spreads. Experts think people pass the virus to
others primarily through respiratory droplets.
These infectious globs of saliva and mucus, expelled by talking and coughing,
are relatively large and travel limited distances—they tend to settle on the
ground and other surfaces within 1–2 m, although at least one study has
suggested sneezing and coughing can propel them farther (Indoor Air 2007,
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0668.2007.00469.x).
Scientists have not yet reached a consensus on whether SARS-CoV-2 virus can
also spread through smaller aerosols, which have the potential to spread
farther and linger in the air. In one experiment, researchers found that the
virus can remain infectious in aerosols for 3 h in controlled lab conditions (N.
Engl. J. Med. 2020, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2004973).
But this study has limitations. As the World Health Organization noted,
the researchers used specialized equipment to generate the aerosols, which
“does not reflect normal human cough conditions.”
Homemade and
other nonmedical cloth masks would function like surgical masks, which are
designed to minimize the spread of the wearer’s germs to surrounding people and
surfaces by blocking respiratory emissions from the wearer. Respiratory
emissions include saliva and mucus droplets, as well as aerosols. These masks,
often made of paper or other nonwoven materials, fit loosely around the face
and allow air to leak in around the edges when the user inhales. As a result,
they’re not considered reliable protection against inhalation of the virus.
In contrast,
tightly fitting N95 masks are designed to protect the wearer by trapping
infectious particles in complex layers of extremely fine polypropylene fibers.
These fibers are also electrostatically charged to provide extra “stickiness”
while retaining breathability. N95 masks, which if used correctly can filter at
least 95% of small airborne particles, are critical for the safety of
health-care workers who are regularly encountering infected people.
The ability to
block respiratory emissions—as cloth masks and surgical masks can—is important
because of growing evidence that people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 but
who have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic can unwittingly spread the virus.
“One of the
challenges with the virus that causes COVID-19 is that sometimes people can
have very mild symptoms that they may not even notice, but they’re actually
highly infectious,” says Laura Zimmermann, the director of clinical preventive
medicine for the Rush University Medical Group in Chicago. “And so they’re
actively shedding the virus and can potentially infect others.”
Zimmermann says
members of the Chicago health-care community have discussed the potential to
distribute fabric masks to sick patients rather than surgical masks, to
conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies. “The cloth mask can
really help out if somebody has some kind of infection, and you’re trying to
basically contain the droplets,” she says.
In a recent
communication, an international team of researchers reports that surgical masks
can significantly reduce the amount of virus released into the air by people
with respiratory illnesses, including infections by other coronaviruses (Nat.
Med. 2020, DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0843-2).
Some experts
encouraging widespread wearing of nonmedical masks point out that some
countries that have successfully controlled their outbreaks also deployed this
practice. “Face masks are used widely by members of the public in some
countries that have successfully managed their outbreaks, including South Korea
and Hong Kong,” according to a March 29 report on
the US coronavirus response from the American Enterprise Institute.
Linsey Marr, an
expert in airborne disease transmission at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University, says her thinking has evolved in recent weeks, and she no
longer thinks only sick people should wear masks. Although some face masks may
help reduce the wearer’s exposure to viruses, she says, the primary goal would
be to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from infected individuals.
“If everyone wears masks, then less virus will
be spread through the air and on surfaces, and the risk of transmission should
be lower,” she wrote in an email to C&EN prior to the CDC’s new
recommendation.
But people
considering making their own mask are faced with many options in design and
fabric choice, and it may not be easy to determine which options would be most
effective. Neal Langerman, a chemical safety expert who is currently advising
companies on coronavirus protective measures, notes that the permeability of
household materials can vary widely and in unpredictable ways, making it hard
to determine definitively which material is best for a homemade face mask. How
tightly a material is woven can be a factor, as well as the type of fibers
used. For example, natural fibers can swell when exposed to moisture from a
person’s breath, changing the fabric’s performance in unpredictable ways.
There’s also an inherent trade-off between the size of pores in the fabric and
breathability—the least porous materials will also be harder to breathe
through. The manufacturer of Gore-Tex, a lightweight, microporous material
commonly used for outdoor clothing, received a flurry of inquiries about
whether the material would effectively filter SARS-CoV-2. The company released
a statement warning
against using the material for homemade face masks because of insufficient
airflow.
“The difficulty
is that different fabrics have different specifications, and there seem to be
so many options on the market,” Yang Wang, an aerosols researcher at the
Missouri University of Science and Technology, tweeted. Wang
is among the researchers collecting preliminary data on the filtration of
nonmedical materials in light of the current outbreak.
Scientists have
previously raised the idea of using improvised masks to counter a quickly
spreading viral disease, and several existing studies have
evaluated the filtration efficiencies of various household materials. One study
of commonly available fabrics, including multiple types of T-shirts,
sweatshirts, towels, and even a pocket square, found the materials blocked
between 10% and 60% of aerosol particles similar in size to respiratory
emissions, which is in line with the filtration efficiency of some surgical
masks and dust masks (Ann. Occup. Hyg. 2010, DOI: 10.1093/annhyg/meq044).
Which improvised material filtered particles the best varied depending on the
size and velocity of test particles. Studies also note that a mask’s fit and
how it’s worn can drastically impact its effectiveness, something that is
difficult to replicate in lab conditions.
The CDC
recommends using multiple layers of
fabric to make a face covering. In a video,
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams demonstrates how to make such a mask from items
found around the home, such as an old T-shirt.
In spite of the
variability in homemade mask effectiveness, there is some evidence that even a
partial reduction in particle spread can help reduce the rate of disease
transmission across a population. In a 2008 study, researchers in the
Netherlands found that although improvised masks were not as effective as
personal respirators, “any type of general mask use is likely to decrease viral
exposure and infection risk on a population level, in spite of imperfect fit
and imperfect adherence” (PLOS One 2008, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002618).
Langerman says
his primary concern related to the general public wearing masks is that, as
with any PPE, using a face mask can give the wearer a false sense of security,
and they may be less rigorous with other precautions. Experts have reiterated
the importance of maintaining a physical distance of 6 ft (1.83 m) or farther from
other people, whether they are exhibiting symptoms or not. Langerman cautions
against placing too much trust in homemade fabric masks to protect oneself or
others.
“That’s what
this comes down to,” he says. “If a person’s going to make their own
respirator, do they fully understand the risks in their selection, so that at
least they know what the compromises are that they have opted for? I’m not sure
that the answer to that will be yes.”
Chemical &
Engineering News
I believe the materials that I am using will not allow anything to pass through them specifically the white material which is very dense. Another difference between the Wiggy's face mask is the launder ability of the face masks. I do know all of the polypropylene face masks can not be washed. i like to think the Wiggy's masks will be around long after the virus is gone.
I also think it is wonderful that the gore company admit that their film has insufficient air flow for use as a face mask, now they have to say the same thing about their material when it is used in outerwear, INSUFFICIENT AIR FLOW.
I am not the author of these articles, just the presenter.