Categories: Expert Commentary

How Do You Make a Homemade Mask That Is Properly Sanitized?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people wear homemade face masks in public.

“A virus like this is spread through droplets. So, the droplets when you cough, droplets when you sneeze; some people have droplets when they speak,” says Dr. Kari Scantlebury, emergency room physician at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Read more about homemade face masks on WJLA.

InovaNewsroom

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  • CDC's masks are simple spit hoods.

    Get a PURPLE Filtrete filter from Walmart (furnace filter) and take it apart, you will have a HUGE amount of the white filter material from the inside. A single layer, flattened out, inside your mask turns it into a real mask with near N95 capability. You also have enough material to make them for your friends and relatives. It's a LOT of material. If you make the mask out of microfiber hand towels from the dollar store, they are comfortable and the whole thing can be disinfected repeatedly with either soap and water or alcohol. Let it air dry in the sun.

    Fold the hand towel in half and you have a mask that is large enough to cover from the top of your nose to the below your chin. Sew cord to the corners and you have a better way to attach it than loops behind your ears. Sew the double wire strip from the top of your bag of coffee just below the top of the mask in the middle and you have an excellent nose bridge, like the one in a procedure/surgical mask. Be safe.

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Tags: covid19

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