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Should I be wearing two masks?

macleans.ca

41–46 of 46 posts

Re: Should I be wearing two masks?

#41
post #9
post #4

No, but double masking will help until the real solution is acknowledged and implemented. Everyone should be wearing properly fit and sealed N95 masks from well known brands like 3M. Pieces of cloth that vaguely cover the mouth and nose but leave giant gaps do not protect the user very well. A proper 3M N95 that intentionally worn un-fit, with large gaps along the nose and sides becomes an ~N40. Unfit masks of any ty…

I was told I’m anti science for saying poorly fitting cloth masks don’t work :-(

Anti-science means that you don't follow the given narrative in this day and age. There is very little solid science behind most of the covid measures. Basically we just trusted what China told us and followed suit.

Re: Should I be wearing two masks?

#42
post #37

For what its worth, I've seen KN95 masks and N95 masks being in stock from trustworthy retailers at reasonable prices (~$1 per mask) so I picked some up. My layman's assessment was that they did a significantly better job of sealing around the sides of the mask than the cloth masks I'd purchased early on or the surgical-type masks I'd more recently switched to. They also had the side benefit of not allowing air to es…

Similar experience, except that I ordered from Amazon, not knowing where the trustworthy retailers might be.

Re: Should I be wearing two masks?

#43
post #4

No, but double masking will help until the real solution is acknowledged and implemented. Everyone should be wearing properly fit and sealed N95 masks from well known brands like 3M. Pieces of cloth that vaguely cover the mouth and nose but leave giant gaps do not protect the user very well. A proper 3M N95 that intentionally worn un-fit, with large gaps along the nose and sides becomes an ~N40. Unfit masks of any ty…

The United States was able to ramp up aircraft production drastically when it entered ww2 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_produ....

We already have more deaths from COVID than ww2 yet...crickets on the mask production front. I’m guessing it is because in a year when COVID is not a thing anymore it will not be profitable to have that much capacity and corporations do not want to ramp up that much.

Also making masks is probably not the best strategy. If we used reusable p100 filters that would be much more effective even for the general public. I used to work with fiberglass wearing a similar respirator with an organic vapor cartridge and it was usable for hours at a time, so no idea why we haven’t started using these in high risk [grocery/prisions/schools] instead of KN-95/N-95 of which there is a counterfeit mask problem.

Re: Should I be wearing two masks?

#45

The hospitals have been doing this from the beginning. There must be some truth to it. I think it's simple probability. A n95 mask lets in 5% of particles getting though. Layering two masks should effectually make a n99 mask ((1/20) * (1/20)) = 0.9975 The added mask only adds n4.9. It's probably a more effective use for second mask to go to someone who has a surgical mask. Let's do the math for surgical masks which a…

> the poor messaging around masks.

Your advice is going to kill people.

> I for one have been double masking n95's for a while.

1) You don't have the equipment to check that those are actually N95s that meet the spec

2) You don't have the equipment to do a correct fit-test

3) Modifying safety critical equipment is dangerous. You haven't doubled the safety, you've made these masks less safe.

I'm pretty sure you're not wearing the masks tight enough. Here are example photos from people who spend a day in PPE:

https://twitter.com/LondonNurse2015/status/12472750559874252...

https://twitter.com/jbon93/status/1247626644208189444

https://twitter.com/RochesterKaren/status/124644595651562700...

https://twitter.com/gabbyjackson95x/status/12479391789623255...

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