All over the planet, the previously held assumptions of humans are being upended and subjected to a vigorous shake. Few American citizens under the age of 100 ever imagined that we would all be asked to start wearing medical masks on our forays out of the house. To most people’s faces, the mask feels like a foreign and perhaps unwelcome object. It certainly makes communication in a busy checkout line more of a nuisance.

The powers that be are having a really hard time explaining whether masks will really help to prevent the spread of disease. In one way, it’s not that complicated. A barrier of any kind will prevent some particles of some unspecified size from entering or exiting your respiratory tract. We don’t want “particles” in our respiratory tract, especially if they are carrying a treacherous payload. You might as well get a mask on, because wearing one is definitely not going to endanger your life or the people around you. It can only help.

Unless… unless it gives you an inflated sense of safety and influences your behavior in negative ways. Surgeons have been wearing masks every day, five days a week, because it helps to prevent the spread of germs. It’s not just a costume, though. Surgeons are regular people, but they have an OR persona, a heavy responsibility to cleanliness and safety, that comes with the surgical garb. You will be using your mask to best effect if you start to behave like a surgeon does. Imagine you are about to perform a very important medical procedure— brain surgery, perhaps, if you think that seems more pressing than neutering a Chow Chow. When your brain surgeon is geared up, she knows that each movement is critical. Everything in the world can now be categorized as “clean” and “dirty”, and these two can never come into contact until the patient is out the door. Her hands will never, ever touch her face while that mask is on. Cell phone? Absolutely not. When she needs to move around the room, she does it purposefully and smoothly, keeping a safe distance (let’s call it 6 feet) between her and the other folks there. She won’t talk more than necessary, make any sweeping gestures, or lay a finger on anything without considering it first. She’ll get in and out as efficiently as possible, with a laser-like focus on the task at hand.

When running your errands around town, you may consider everything in the public domain to be “dirty”. You need to touch some of those things, yes—but you cannot then use those hands on “clean” items such as your face and the inside of your home. Let every action be deliberate and measured. Finish the job efficiently and take precautions to keep “dirty” separate from “clean.”

When you hear from your aunt on Facebook that a mask won’t protect you from the germs out there, she’s right. Dressing like a surgeon isn’t enough. You’ve got to actually think like a surgeon to make it work.

Dr. M.S. Regan