Conversely, do not stigmatize people who are wearing a mask but are not sick. a) I have an N95 wrap around mask (earhooks and velcro etc) that I use when riding in the city. b) I bought this mask and spare filters about a year ago and still have filters. c) I am not "wasting masks" by wearing it. d) I am also successfully not touching my nose and mouth when wearing it. While 'surgical masks' which are basically mouth covers are not of any use to a healthy person, a properly worn N95 mask is still worthwhile and not something I plan to give away my only one of. Also, if you *are* sick, don't wear an N95 mask with open return valves, because it completely defeats the purpose of wearing a mask.

i think such infographics or comics are very misleading too. Designers are creating these really cute graphics base on your own judgement and designers are not medical expert, nor is the designer being engaged by a medical institution to disseminate such information. While I understand why healthy people shouldn't wear mask, we should also consider that different countries have different approach and rationale. Or even, others may wear mask for other medication reasons and reasons for such. So please do not stigmatise people who do. If someone wishes to wear mask, it's their choice and freedom to do so. So please stop sharing such infographics.

If you're "healthy" wear a damn mask if you want to wear a mask. That is all.

well meaning but misinformed. people who think themselves healthy are often the reason covid19 is spreading. it becomes infectious before you show symptoms. how people can't seem to register it inside their brains is beyond me.

The author's photograph shows her wearing a mask.

My husband is very high-risk so I've had to be extra careful and I've learned that a mask makes people avoid you at all costs. You want people to stay away from you? Wear a mask.

I wear face mask not to avoid catching the virus but to at least lessen the inhalation of air pollution in the city.

This is a very good visual as to why most people don't need a mask. If you're healthy, stop buying them and hoarding! We need to be conscious of health care workers that need them in order to do their jobs! I find myself getting really annoyed with all these ads for face masks...

The thing is, Coronavirus has an incubation period of 14 days. For 14 days people might not realize they are sick but spread their viruses around. So to be safe, everyone should wear a mask.

Blood is on your hands

Absolute IGNORANCE!!! Not everyone that has COVID-19 knows they have it. You can still be infected without showing any symptoms. EVERYONE needs to wear a damn face mask in public - no exceptions. Just because you are young, show no symptoms, don't have underlying medical conditions, does NOT make you invinsible. This type of IGNORANCE is what spreads the virus in the first place.

While I do not disagree with the conclusions that those displaying symptoms should wear a mask and that improper removal of PPE can also increase risks of the wearer, there are scientific evidence showing that wearing a surgical mask does provide some level of protection. Case in point, Uchida et al (2016) suggested that "wearing of masks were effective in infection control." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335516301553?via%3Dihub Systematic review conducted by Barasheed et al (2016) suggests that "Facemask use seems to be beneficial against certain respiratory infections at MGs (mass gatherings)". https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(16)31010-4/fulltext

Wear a mask to keep yourself from *making others* sick. Wear a P100 respirator to keep yourself *from getting sick*.

"WHO recommends against wearing masks in community settings because of lack of evidence.2 However, absence of evidence of effectiveness should not be equated to evidence of ineffectiveness, especially when facing a novel situation with limited alternative options." https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30520-1/fulltext?utm_campaign=tlcoronavirus20&utm_content=119644710&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-27013292&fbclid=IwAR2a2JLdtKpgEdllPG87psSRUpwFSGzqc7TIcf0caHTqR2Qi6KoDFzQnPik#%20

very simple, but very wise

not a running nose...your nose is not running anywhere BUT a RUNNY NOSE - take notice!

THIS IS TOTAL B******T! Because you don’t know if you're sick at all. COVID-19 is not SARS. COVID-19 Infected patient will be infectious as early as **2-DAYS BEFORE** starting to have any symptom, and not all patients have flu-like symptom. There **ARE** records that someone just feel headache or have a diarrhea, and in some rare case the only symptom is conjunctivitis. Yes you read it right: this virus will infect human through eyes. This is madness that you people always think only people who feel acute illness need to wear mask. Wearing mask is not protecting yourself but protecting other people. It also prevents your hand touching your nose and mouth. So for the love of god, just wear your mask if you’re going to crowded places, namely public transit. And wash hands. Yes you will consume a lot of masks this way in your daily life and this is why we had already started mask rationing as early as January here in Taiwan. And that’s why we can keep control of the infection, despite that we’re just 250 miles away from the source of epidemic center. You people are just too careless about the disease.

Even when the outbreak of the virus came as far as I know the only ones that should be wearing face masks are those who had pulmonary problems, sick people to avoid spreading the virus. Healthy people are just wasting tons of mask per day to protect their selves from the virus instead of obliging sick people to wear those. I know people just panics and misinformed. The problem now is people wouldn't know they're infected so they unintentionally spreads the virus until it's too late for them to know they're infected. :-( Hope this ends soon.

Ok, and? No one cares this was probably untrue anyway

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America... home of the paranoid.