FACE MASKS: What to know.

Face masks: Everything you need to know about buying, washing, replacing and wearing one.

Staff Reports, Philadelphia Inquirer

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Face masks are now a part of our daily lives.
Ever since guidance from Gov. Tom Wolf and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to cover our face to help keep ourselves (and others) safe, we’ve jury-rigged all kinds of face coverings, from using a scarf, to tying a bandanna, to sewing ourselves something fancy (and, if we can’t sew, using safety pins or any other MacGyvered attachments to keep the fabric from falling apart). That was fine at first. But now as the pandemic stretches into months, it’s a good time to pause and find some ways to make masks work better and be more comfortable.

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to do it better. Here’s everything you need to know about wearing a mask right now.

Coronavirus FAQ: How Do I Clean My Mask

Washing Machine? Oven? Broccoli Steamer?
Sheila Mulrooney Eldred, NPR

Does putting a reusable mask in the oven for 30 minutes at 165 degrees Fahrenheit kill the virus that causes COVID-19 and other pathogens? If not, how do I clean it?
The good news: Yes, baking your cloth or synthetic mask would probably kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Several studies have shown that the virus dies when exposed to 158 degrees Fahrenheit for a length of time somewhere between 2 1/2 minutes and an hour.
The bad news: It may also singe your mask.
Remember, says professor Raina MacIntyre, head of the Biosecurity Research Program at the University of New South Wales' Kirby Institute, "An oven is designed to burn things!"
The jury is still out on exactly how important it is to wash your mask to prevent COVID-19 infection, but MacIntyre dug into some data from her 2015 study on cloth masks and found evidence that washing masks in a machine, instead of by hand, helps prevent infections of other seasonal viruses in health care workers. Her theory is that the longer wash cycle and hotter water temperatures in a machine kill viruses more efficiently than washing by hand.

Click here on how experts advise you care for your masks (to the best of current knowledge, of course).