Face masks

No, but I'd wash my hands as often as possible.

I actually saw a guy coming out of the subway toady wearing a hospitl style mask. He was oriental - but local or tourist I don;t know.

And our corporation has mandated that we put Purell outside all of the restrooms - as well as signs reminding people hand-washing it mandatory. (And I am going to start saying something to non-washers - face to face - if they like it or not.)

Oriental? I thought that word was reserved for inatimate object not people.

There are only certain types of masks that will protect you form swine flu so if you're going to do it make sure you wear the correct one.

Look for a mask that has N95 designator on it.

No, I would not. It's kind of overkill in my opinion. If you yourself are sick, absolutely wear a mask. But unless you keep the mask on all the time (literally all the time), then it doesn't protect you.

More important is frequent hand-washing and using hand sanitizer. Most people are infected through touch, not through breathing in particles. Though H1N1 does seem to be transferred more through breathing.

Just wash your hands frequently and keep your hands out of your mouth.

Yes, people are Asian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. Rugs and lanterns are 'Oriental'.

And, more importantly, out of your eyes and nose.

If you are flying today, would you wear a face mask?

Only if I'm flying in from Venice, one of those gorgeous masks just for the show!

Thank you all. Suzie- I have those particular masks in my disaster kit. Since I live alone, and am unemployed, I am really out of the general public, mostly. Due to surgery- groceries are delivered in. I have had flu maybe once in my life- many years ago. I will be traveling this weekend with 2 connections, and I was concerned.

A mask really doesn't help the wearer avoid catching a bug -- it helps others not catch a bug from the mask wearer.

The media and various Gov't officials have really amped up this concern. Regular seasonal flu is more dangerous than H1N1. But it doesn't have the "sexy" name 'swine flu' that sounds so ominous.

Lots of people will get "swine flue", but far fewer will die of its complications than die from just 'normal' flu every year.

We had a huge headline in a local paper about a young child who died from H1N1 a week or so ago and they had a bis meeting at her school. Angry, almost hysterical, parents. Well, last year in this general area there were several flu caused deaths - and not one was swine flu. And not one rated a news story.

That should read "a big meeting . . . "

janisj, you don't understand, no one young is supposed to die from the flu or anything else!!! Oh, old people can die and that's not news that anyone pays attention to. Just like no one pays much attention when a child of color goes missing, but the news media just goes batty when it's a blue-eyed, blonde.

I own a sanitation company(I am a garbage man) and work a lot of it myself everyday. I provide gloves for my employees, but seldom wear them myself. Washing your hands and keeping them out of your mouth goes a long way. This may sound gross, but I always wash my hands before and after going to the bathroom. You can transmit germs just as easily to your body before you go as after you have gone. My wife is a school teacher and everyone there uses hand sanitizer often, but I wonder it is really very effective. I think this is a lot of hype, similar to aids 20 years ago. They have to have something to scare us with. Swine Flu, Bird Flu, heck they even have you dead if you get a mosquito bite. Then they make more drastic words. epidemic-now is pandemic(super duper epidemic. I guess I don't really think about it that much until I have had multiple people that I know which have been affected by it.

We just flew back from hawaii and alot of people were wearing masks and yes, most were asian. not sure if there's a correlation there- they were also selling very fancy fabric ones in honolulu airport, first time i've seen that

In Japan, it has always been considered polite to wear a mask when you have a cold or other contagious illness.