Before you exit your car with your mask and gloves on, put a baggie in your pocket for later.
When you exit the store, hum a tune. If you can’t think of a tune, do the old ommmmm, ommmmm, ommmmm, thingy. The sinuses produce nitric oxide, a viricide. humming stimulates production of NO and channels it to the nose. Which is why you’re going to be nose-breathing to deglove and demask.
https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.200202-138BC
When you return to your car, stand next to your front tire or in front of your trunk but not right next to your door (so if any virus falls while demasking or degloving, it won’t be right in front of your door and get tracked in). Remove gloves as shown below. Secure the gloves in your baggie. Unlock door with fob. Remove mask as shown below. Add to baggie. You can put baggie in trunk or you can put in a paper bag on the back floorboard. Sanitize hands before touching steering wheel. And off you go, humming now optional.
how to take off gloves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4gyNAsPCbU
Removing Surgical mask/earloop mask:
Do not touch the front of the mask. Breathe through your nose with mouth closed. Using both ungloved hands at the same time, slip your index finger under the elastic band at the Bottom of the earlobe. Move your index finger behind, up and slightly back to the top of the ear stretching the elastic band slightly as you go so the band clears the ear on each side. Lift off the face in a smooth forward direction by moving your hands forward. Hold earloops to put in baggie.
Don’t take off one ear, and ‘peel’ off the face - do both ears at the same time so the only skin touched is the bottom of your ear where you slipped your index finger.
Don’t take the mask off starting at the upper elastic - it’s too close to your eye. Always take off starting below your earlobe then up. Fold the mask outside in by bringing earloops together.
Don’t touch the front of the mask. Use the loops to put mask in baggie.
how to remove an earloop mask (scroll down about half way for a very short video)
https://goodyfeed.com/surgical-mask-which-side/
(Note: when putting on a surgical mask, the dark or blue side of the mask goes outside, the white or light side of the mask goes towards your face - it’s a myth you should reverse them)
Removing N95 mask:
Do not touch the front of the mask. Breathe through your nose with your mouth closed. Grab the bottom elastic and pull back over the top of your head and down below your chin keeping a slight tension on the mask. Keep holding. Using other hand, lift and pull top elastic over head. Move mask forward and off the face by moving your hands away from your face and down. Breathe lightly through your nose until the mask is in the bag. Use elastics to put mask in baggie. Don’t touch the front of the mask. Sanitize hands. Breathe normally through your nose.
how to put on a 95; how to check fit (do the best you can):
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-133/pdfs/2010-133.pdf
why you don’t want to reuse a non-washable mask:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/researchers-found-the-coronavirus-lasted-on-a-surgical-mask-for-7-days-showing-how-crucial-it-is-to-properly-remove-face-coverings-after-wearing-them/ar-BB12eT27
Yikes....seven days!
Thanks for this info.
What’s the big deal with touching the front of a N95 mask so long as you don’t touch anything else* B4 sanitizing your hands? (I have a bottle of sanitizer stationed in my car’s cupholder so I can “pump” the sanitizer w/ my right wrist into my left hand.)
*I consider the bag the mask(s) goes in “hot” so I handle & treat it as such.
N95’s work by electrostatic force. Virus particles are not going to fall off. My prefilter (bandana) I do take off outside the car & bag. Door handle, keys / FOB, and hands get sanitized once in the car. The steering wheel too, if I think I touched it (but I’ve realized I’m pretty good about avoiding it.) Remove mask, cap, mask goes in bag, cap on dash in sun (hopefully), sanitize hands again.
I’d also note that with my (largish, wire rimmed) glasses, those N95 cloth / elastic bands tend to hang up @ the screws where the glasses fold. No way to avoid having to touch the frame. So, after the mask comes off and is stashed in a bag (goes to a 150 deg. heat sterilization cycle once back home), the glasses’ frame get sanitizer too - just don’t get it on the lenses unless you have a way to clean them, or you may face the bigger risk of impaired vision on the way home.
The gloves I skip. My hands are a more hostile environment for a virus than are gloves.
Interestingly, with the mask on I have no problems not touching my face. With allergy season coming on, though, not rubbing eyes will get tougher. Need a smaller sanitizer bottle for a pocket, I guess.
As for the humming? Ah, yes, the Star Wars Imperial Death March works nicely. ;-)
https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/researchers-found-the-coronavirus-lasted-on-a-surgical-mask-for-7-days-showing-how-crucial-it-is-to-properly-remove-face-coverings-after-wearing-them/ar-BB12eT27 "
This peer-reviewed article has an error in it.
The MSN article notes the following:
"They were surprised to find the novel coronavirus on the outside of a face mask a week later.
"Strikingly, a detectable level of infectious virus could still be present (emphasis added) on the outer layer of a surgical mask on day 7," the researchers wrote."
The actual article:
"Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions"
- see https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(20)30003-3/fulltext
notes as follows:
"Strikingly, a detectable level of infectious virus could still be present (emphasis added) on the outer layer of a surgical mask on day 7 (∼0·1% of the original inoculum)."
However, the peer-reviewed article is incorrect. The research showed that a detectable level of infectious virus was present on the outer layer of a surgical mask on day 7. Please see the Supplementary Appendix, Table B (Mask Outer Layer) column.
-see https://www.thelancet.com/cms/10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30003-3/attachment/34ed069e-7268-42ae-8627-df3aa869d81b/mmc1.pdf
I'm surprised at the error in their article, as it is one of their principal findings.