Notices have appeared at our local hospital "Pronto Soccorso" (Emergency) to remove gloves before entering. They have realised that most people wearing gloves have touched everything in sight and that the gloves are more contaminated than the bare hands which can be easily sanitised.

It drives me nuts that bar, restaurant, shop staff have to wear gloves and then often take payment wearing the same gloves. If at all possible we pay contactless using the phone. Samsung now probably knows where we shop and what we buy in detail but I would rather that than handle the money that has passed who knows how many hands in the last 24 hours.

Regarding masks: the main idea of everyone wearing masks is that healthy carriers of the virus do not pass the virus on to others. The idea is not personal protection. Surgical type masks do this reasonably well if worn correctly. (we have them with the wire and no matter how I try to form it I still get my glasses fog up if I put them on to read something.)

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The 3M mask referred to is probably of the type worn by medical staff when working in an area where they need personal protection from contagious patients. Many of them have a valve to allow the easy exhalation. Obviously a correctly fitted mask of this type should not fog up glasses but the valve allows the exhalation of an infected person to enter the environment. Obviously this does not protect the next person.
I have seen film of medical staff working in Covid wards and equiped with such a mask wearing an ordinary disposable mask under it.

Peter

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