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. ;-)
I like the Star Wars thing!!
Why not touch? Because that hand sanitizer rarely gets under the fingernails, but you touch the mask with your fingertips. And when ppl use HS, ppl almost never pay attention to their fingertips - they’ll spend all kinds of time rubbing it into their palms, back of hands and fingers but very few circle their fingertips into the palm like you do when you’re washing your hands the right way. So, in general as always :) better not to touch the front of the mask, which is the most contaminated part.
“With allergy season coming on.” I am allergic to house dust, cool weather mold, cigarette smoke, and ragweed, so am in allergy season at least 6 of the months of the year. I have been taking from 3 to 6 grams of Vitamin C a day for almost 50 years. It really helps. Some in the morning and evening and once or twice during the day since your body excretes excess in 5 or 6 hours. When my nose gets clogged I take 500 mg or 1 gram. If my nose has not opened by 1/2 hour, I take some more.
When I was a child, age 10 and on, one of my jobs was to iron 36 cloth handkerchiefs a week for my hayfever suffering father. When I finally discovered the value of Vitamin C for allergy, I got him interested. I also had him take 250 or 500 mg. of Pantothenic Acid to strengthen his adrenals. He never had another bad hayfever season again finally dying at age 90.