Why the health officials don't want you to wear N95 masks?

Why the Government doesn't want you to wear N95 masks?

The Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) in the Health Ministry, Dr Rajiv Garg, said that N95 masks with valved respirators do not prevent the virus from spreading out and are “detrimental” to the measures adopted for its containment. “It is to bring to your knowledge that the use of valved respirator N-95 masks is detrimental to the measures adopted for preventing the spread of coronavirus as it does not prevent the virus from escaping out of the mask,” Garg wrote in the letter.

Now, what does that mean? let's start this blog to understand why DGHS gave this statement in a question-answer form:

• What are N95 masks?
• What's the difference between an ordinary surgical mask and an N95 mask? 
• Is the N95 mask more effective than ordinary surgical masks?
• Are the masks recyclable?
• Why did DGHS suggest common citizens to avoid wearing N95 masks? 

So let's start,

1. What are N95 masks?

I am not a medic guy or a technical expert I'll only explain it in the layman language that all of you guys would be able to understand and after all, there's a lot of information about it on the internet.

So N95 masks are basically masks that have valves or you can say filters on the mask which helps the person to breathe more freely, unlike the normal mask in which a person is not that comfortable breathing when it comes to wearing the mask all day.

The filter placed in the mask also cleans out 95% of the air that you inhale. so hence the name N95 meaning purifying around 95% of the air.

2. What's the difference between an ordinary surgical mask and N95 masks?

There's not a much big difference in the operation of both but the only difference is that N95 has a respirator filter that cleans out 95% of the air which lessens the risk of catching any harmful air or contagious diseases like Covid-19 or Tuberculosis or any other contagious diseases.

Also, one huge difference is the pricing as it is obvious that the N95 masks come with the respirators so the cost of manufacturing masks is pretty high so when it comes to the market the cost is high. 

Whereas the normal surgical mask is a three-layer mask but without protection. both the mask offer protection but N95 masks are more efficient.

3. Is the N95 mask more effective than a normal surgical mask?

The answer to this question is obviously yes as explained in the earlier point that as the N95 has a filter in the mask which basically purifies the air we intake and as per its name it purifies 95% of the air we intake which the normal surgical mask cannot do.

4. Are the masks recyclable?

The answer to this question is NO but one can clean N95 masks by changing its respirators or cleaning it although it is strictly not advised by the WHO and ICMR. 

5. Why did DGHS advise everyone to avoid wearing masks?

Now one would think that despite having so many advantages why did DGHS recommended us to avoid wearing N95 masks? 

The answer to this question is very simple and its like common sense to be honest with you.

So basically when I said to you that it cleans or purifies the air intake when someone inhales so the next logical question that arises in the mind is that what about when someone exhales the air? then all the bad air that you exhale is thrown out. Now think about a scenario where a person is a coronavirus patient and he's wearing N95 masks just think what would happen? Scary isn't it? the N95 mask would just throw out all the bad air which would significantly spread the disease more as compared to someone who is wearing a normal surgical mask. So this is the reason why the Health officials have recommended normal people to stop wearing N95 masks and have advised all to wear the normal surgical mask that would stop the spread of this coronavirus.

Hope you learned something and if yes then please do share and follow. Also if there's something wrong in this article please let me know about it I'll correct it as I said I'm not the medical expert.

Also, feel free to read out my other blogs related to this topic😊

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