How to Significantly Slow Coronavirus? #Masks4All (Creative Commons license, feel free to share)
Channel: Petr Ludwig / Konec prokrastinace [CZE]
Date: 2020-03-27

EDIT: Big news! WHO is changing its position about face masks. Now, our video and recommendation are both in alignment with the official WHO opinion: https://bit.ly/WHO_masks

EDIT: This video is under Creative Commons license, feel free to share it (please always mention the link to the original YouTube version). Here is the source data of the video for download: https://bit.ly/Masks4All-download

EDIT: We have added a new and urgent message from the Minister of Health of the Czech Republic for other health ministers and governments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtEX2-n2Hc Please, share and help us to save lives around the world.

A KEY ARGUMENT FOR USING HOMEMADE MASKS:
Homemade masks are partly effective in individual protection, but they are essential for slowing the spread of the virus in the population. The main outcome of our studies was that they stop around 95-100% of viruses that people emitting by your breath, sneezing, and coughing. People are the most contagious first days without symptoms, that's why we need masks for all.

We have successfully tested the hypothesis at two main technical universities and it is highly recommended by a team of experts COVID CZECH under the coordination of the president of Czech Technical University in Prague. The team consists of a virologist, epidemiologist, doctors with specialization in population protection, chemists, and physicist with specialization if filtration. This group is an advisory expert group for the Czech government in Prague. Now it is obligatory to wear masks in the whole country. 

Please share and help to spread the key message that can save lives and slow the pandemic.
#Masks4All: "I protect you, you protect me."

1) Our team of experts: https://masks4all.org/founders
2) The first video "Masks and Critical Thinking ": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_8hojsF-nY
3) A list of 33 studies confirming the effect of masks (many thanks to @howardjeremyp ): http://tiny.cc/maskswork  + Jeremy's amazing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoDwXwZXsDI
4) The whole story of how we changed one country, Czechia, in 3 just days: https://tiny.cc/masks4all 
5) Full set of protective recommendations from our expert team to the public: https://bit.ly/COVID-public

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Useful links:
- Tutorial how to do a homemade mask: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNjpH5lBZ8w
- Another tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QpcnRv6r-o

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Scientific Studies
- "We conclude that population-wide use of face masks could make an important contribution in delaying an influenza pandemic. Mask use also reduces the reproduction number, possibly even to levels sufficient for containing an influenza outbreak." Brienen, Nicole CJ, et al. "The effect of mask use on the spread of influenza during a pandemic." Risk Analysis: An International Journal 30.8 (2010): 1210-1218."
- "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, personal respirators providing most protection." - van der Sande, M., Teunis, P., & Sabel, R. (2008). Professional and home-made face masks reduce exposure to respiratory infections among the general population. PLoS One, 3(7).
- Effectiveness of masks compared to respirators: Davies, A., Thompson, K. A., Giri, K., Kafatos, G., Walker, J., & Bennett, A. (2013). Testing the efficacy of homemade masks: would they protect in an influenza pandemic?. Disaster medicine and public health preparedness, 7(4), 413-418. PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katy-Anne_Thompson2/publication/258525804_Testing_the_Efficacy_of_Homemade_Masks_Would_They_Protect_in_an_Influenza_Pandemic/links/53fefd8f0cf21edafd154e85/Testing-the-Efficacy-of-Homemade-Masks-Would-They-Protect-in-an-Influenza-Pandemic.pdf
- "However, during a severe pandemic when use of face masks might be greater, pandemic transmission in households could be reduced." MacIntyre, C. R., Cauchemez, S., Dwyer, D. E., Seale, H., Cheung, P., Browne, G., ... & Ferguson, N. (2009). Face mask use and control of respiratory virus transmission in households. Emerging infectious diseases, 15(2), 233.
- https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Filtration-Efficiency-and-Pressure-Drop-Across-Materials-Tested-with-Aerosols-of-Bacillus_tbl1_258525804
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Credits (everyone was working for free on this project):
- Authors: Petr Ludwig, Aneta Kernova
- The main actress: Aneta Kernova
- Animations: www.motionhouse.cz
- Camera: Lubomír Krupka
- Sound and postproduction: BeLoud Studios (Bojan Bojic)
- The venue: WeWork Prague