Does wearing a mask pose any health risks?

Does wearing a mask pose any health risks?

Austin (US): No, not for most people. Babies and toddlers should not wear masks because they could suffocate. The same goes for anyone who has trouble removing a mask without help.

Others can wear masks without risking their health, according to experts, despite false rumours to the contrary.

In areas where COVID-19 is spreading, health experts agree that wearing masks or other face coverings in public helps reduce the risk of spreading the virus when people can”t socially distance by staying 6 feet apart.

The coronavirus mainly spreads through droplets that are emitted when people talk, laugh, sing, cough and sneeze.

Masks lower the likelihood of those droplets reaching other people. Even if you don”t have symptoms, you could be carrying the virus and could spread it.

When it’s humid outside, it could feel like it’s harder to breathe if you”re not used to wearing a mask, said Benjamin Neuman, a professor of biology at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

But he said masks don’t meaningfully decrease oxygen in the body. “The body is quite good at adjusting to keep oxygen levels where they need to be,” he said.

There’s also no evidence that the use of masks causes fungal or bacterial infections, according to Davidson Hamer, an infectious disease expert at Boston University.

Disposable face masks are meant to be used once, then thrown in the garbage. With cloth masks, it’s a good idea to wash them regularly.

Wearing a mask may be uncomfortable, but health officials say you should resist any urge to touch your face. That could bring germs from your hands into your nose, mouth or eyes.

Researchers invent mask that can kill coronavirus with heat from phone charger

Researchers invent mask that can kill coronavirus with heat from phone charger

Israeli researchers have invented a reusable face mask that can kill the coronavirus with heat by drawing power from a phone charger.

The team at Technion University in Haifa have come up with a mask with a USB port that connects to a mobile phone charger.

Heating the mask for about 30 minutes disinfects it by killing viruses on its surface. The charger heats a layer of carbon fibres up to 70 degrees celsius.

Professor Allon Moses, an infectious diseases expert at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, said that just a half hour’s exposure to 70-degree heat would kill the coronavirus.

But he also cautioned that repeated heating could damage the mask’s paper or fabric and spoil its ability to protect from diseases in the future

However, During testing, the prototype was exposed to 20 heating cycles, each for half an hour, with no impact on durability.

The researchers submitted a patent for the mask in the USA in late March, and are looking at ways to commercialise it with the private sector.

Ex eBay executives sent live cockroaches, bloody pig mask to harass couple for writing bad reviews

Ex eBay executives sent live cockroaches, bloody pig mask to harass couple for writing bad reviews

Six former senior eBay employees have been charged with waging an extensive campaign to terrorize and intimidate the editor and publisher of an online newsletter with threats and disturbing deliveries to their home, including live spiders and cockroaches, federal authorities said on Monday.

Executives were upset about the newsletter’s coverage, so their employees set out to ruin the lives of the couple who ran the website, sending a funeral wreath, bloody pig face Halloween mask and other alarming items to their home, authorities said. The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband’s name on it to their neighbor’s house and planned to break into the couple’s garage to install a GPS device on their car, officials said.

“This was a determined, systematic effort by senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick all because they published content that company executives didn’t like. For a while they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks as they desperately tried to figure out what was going on and stop it,” the Massachusetts US attorney, Andrew Lelling, told reporters.

James Baugh, of San Jose, California, who was eBay’s senior director of safety & security, and David Harville, of New York City, was eBay’s director of global resiliency, are charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. The other former eBay employees charged are Stephanie Popp, former senior manager of global intelligence; Brian Gilbert, former senior manager of special operations for eBay’s Global Security Team; Stephanie Stockwell, former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center; and Veronica Zea, a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in the Global Intelligence Center.

There were no lawyers listed for them in court documents.

Court documents detail how two members of the company’s executive leadership team orchestrated a plot to go after the couple after the newsletter published an article about litigation involving eBay.

One executive who is not named in court documents directed Baugh to “take her down”, referring to the newsletter’s editor, according to court documents. The executive texted another unnamed executive: “We are going to crush this lady,” court documents say.

In addition to the disturbing deliveries, the employees set up fake social media accounts to send threatening messages to the couple, authorities said. After the bloody pig mask was delivered, the editor received a message saying: “DO I HAVE UR ATTENTION NOW????,” according to court documents. They also posted the couple’s names and address online, advertising things like yard sales and encouraging strangers to knock on the door if they weren’t outside.

Authorities said the staff lied to police about eBay’s involvement in the cyberstalking campaign, and lied to company lawyers about their roles. Gilbert, a former police captain in Santa Clara, California, even contacted the couple to offer help in stopping the harassment, authorities said.

“They hoped this ‘white knight strategy’ would create some goodwill toward the company, result in more favorable articles and please eBay’s management,” said Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Boston.

An internal investigation was launched after eBay was notified by law enforcement in August of “suspicious actions by its security personnel”, company officials wrote in a prepared statement. The employees were fired in September, the company said. The company’s then CEO, Devin Wenig, also stepped down in September.

Wenig said at the time that he was stepping down over differences with the board of directors and the company didn’t clarify on Monday whether this investigation played a role in his departure.

The committee formed by the company’s board of directors to oversee the investigation said eBay “took these allegations very seriously from the outset”.

“Upon learning of them, eBay moved quickly to investigate thoroughly and take appropriate action,” it said.