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Earlier in the pandemic, around 5% of Northwest Londoners were considered clinically extremely vulnerable and advised to \u2018shield\u2019. Although the shielding programme has ended, with the vaccination programme helping to lower people\u2019s risk of becoming seriously ill, many are still avoiding social contact to continue to protect themselves, particularly as new variants continue to circulate.<\/p>\n
Although all legal restrictions have ended in the UK, protective measures such as face mask wearing are still considered important to help curb the spread of COVID-19 and protect vulnerable groups. Charities have urged the population to continue to perform these behaviours to keep those at risk safe, while also allowing them to reconnect with society.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Sandra Jayacodi, a member of the charity Open Age<\/a> and a member of Imperial Global Health Innovation (IGHI) Research Partners Group<\/a>, wanted to help by creating a way to alert those around her to practise social distancing. She approached Imperial to co-develop a protective face mask for clinically vulnerable people that would signal to others to keep their distance.<\/p>\n Sandra, and a steering group of four members from Open Age, partnered with researchers and designers from Imperial IGHI to co-design a face mask for those most at risk of serious illness from COVID-19. The mask they created has a slogan, \u2018Kindly Give Me Space\u2019 and an image to alert others around them to keep their distance. 196 masks were then sent out to people in Northwest London in the hope that it would make them feel safer leaving their homes and people around them would continue to keep their distance. IGHI is now analysing survey data collected about the mask\u2019s effectiveness in encouraging people to keep their distance, and what wearers thought about them.<\/p>\n We spoke to Sandra to hear about how she came up with the idea and her experiences of working on this project.<\/p>\n In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic everyone was talking about social distancing and about those who were more vulnerable. Even though advice said to social distance, whenever I went to the supermarket, I\u2019d find people still standing close to me. I fall under the vulnerable category, so I didn’t feel safe.<\/p>\n Other organisations had the idea of lanyards that said, \u2018give me space\u2019 however a lanyard is not something easily seen. I thought about creating something with a dual purpose, something that tells people \u2018Give Me Space\u2019 but also protects people as well. That\u2019s when I had the idea of creating a mask specially designed for vulnerable people, because they need better protection than many high street masks offer. If they have to go out, they should feel safe.<\/p>\n![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/files\/2022\/05\/profile-photo-Copy-e1652876184441-277x300.jpg\")
Creating the co-designed face mask<\/h2>\n
Tell us a bit about this face mask project and how it came about.<\/h3>\n
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