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Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

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Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#151

Post by GeekyBear »

Misdicorl wrote: post #133
GeekyBear wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regular cloth masks do not filter virus floating in the air you breathe and they never did. Here's one of the scientists from President Biden's Covid advisory council being interviewed on PBS last year: > I have had concerns that date back to april of 2020 about the concept of masking. Needless to say it's a political hot button beyond anything I've ever seen in public health, and yet at the same time i think we've a…

A 33% efficacy improvement seems great to me for such a simple, easy, cheap, and accessible countermeasure.

So when you send a child to school for the day, they are only going to be there five minutes?

>Fitted particle-filtering masks like N95s are up to 75 times more effective at preventing infection with COVID-19 than surgical masks, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://www.axios.com/n95-mask-protection-covid-958039c9-07f...

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#152

Post by josephcsible »

HWR_14 wrote: post #79
josephcsible wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been afraid all along that people would try to make masks a forever thing, and saying that not wearing a mask is gross is a big step in that direction.

Afraid if it? I am and have been hoping wearing masks is a forever thing.

I was using the exclusive "we".

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#153

Post by dredmorbius »

colechristensen wrote: post #137
dredmorbius wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that at a population level , the multiple of reduced severity * vastly greater infectiousness appears to be a net higher overall impact in terms of hospitalisations and deaths. This is especially the case for countries which have to date managed to contain earlier Covid variants. Australia comes to mind. Or China. Masking to slow spread seems highly apposite.

The point is it’s too late, the peak already happened. You can’t slow the spread because the peak infection rate is already here and population dynamics are going to limit it now. Good times for advice like this for masking were a month ago and a year ago. It is time to admit defeat and act like it’s too late for those kinds of growth mitigations.

There are places which have not yet peaked, or have not yet started.

In the US, a few (mostly east-coast) states have peaked. West, central, and mountain, and south, not so much.

Given limited services and long distances in rural states, masking would be highly advisible.

(Numerous highly-advisable actions have, of course, been soundly rejected.)

Both the practice and empirical data on its efficacy would be useful in parts of the world Omicron has not yet hit.

I do agree the advice would have been far more useful 4--6 weeks ago. Call your local Timelord.

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#154

Post by yosito »

pugworthy wrote: post #149
yosito wrote: post #139

N95s are effective, but I really don't understand the endgame of healthy, vaccinated people wearing N95s at this point. I know there are benefits in certain high risk situations, but covid is going nowhere, are we really gonna spend the rest of our lives wearing masks everywhere? At a certain point, we just need to accept that life comes with risks and we can't avoid them all, and trying to just ruins our ability to…

It goes two ways - you spreading it, and you catching it. From the spreading perspective, even if you are healthy and vaccinated, you might have it and you might be spreading it. Especially with omicron variant. And from the catching perspective, even if you're careful, vaccinated, boosted, etc. you still can catch it and get sick. Maybe it's not going to kill you, but it turns you into a potential spreader.

I never panicked in the past about spreading the flu. I'd wear a mask and avoid visiting grandma if I were sick. But I won't live in a bubble just because there are things in the world that could hurt people. You can't reduce risk to zero. Why are we willing to fuck everything up to try?

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#155

Post by cge »

quanto wrote: post #58

Fit is critically important. There is no point in having an advanced filter material if the mask fit itself is leaking air everywhere. >"An N95 is more protective because it has a better face seal in general than a KN95 or a KF94," N95 does not require manufacturers to test for fit. However, the headband normally ensures a better face seal. KF94 has a fit-test requirement, but it's bar is low -- 11% leakage to pass t…

I've been using FFP2 and N95s with the straps cut off, under a rather stiff cloth mask that is largely the same shape in the front as most respirators (so it doesn't crush the front), and is attached by a large velcro strap around the back the head (with holes on the side so as to go around the top and bottom of the ears). I've found this easier to put on and take off quickly, while maintaining at least as good a seal.

KN95s are a bit confusing to me in that, in my experience, they definitely don't have the common sense "this air is clearly being pushed through a filter" feel of breathing through a well-fitted FFP2/N95, but at the same time, don't give an obvious sense that there is a leak somewhere.

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#156

Post by MrMan »

thepasswordis wrote: post #90
TylerE wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FP2 or N95 do not work either. You can't stop an airborne virus with a mask. Bullshit. Not even worth refuting someone so far removed from reality.

Take a look at the people who work in the types of labs this virus leaked from: they're not wearing N95 masks, they're wearing full body positive pressure suits. Not PAPRs, because even the P100 filters on those don't filter viruses, but positive positive pressure suits with air plumbed in from somewhere else.

yes this is true - prolonged exposure - like students at school - masked with anything but full body protection will probably expose everyone. I am 180 degrees from my stance 12 months ago, now that vaccines have been released and proven.

Vaccine is the only defense.

But I dont mind masks, they have a lot of ancillary benefits. I wear them when I go in stores, it costs me nothing.

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#157

Post by alfor »

ebrewste wrote: post #38
colechristensen wrote: post #28

I really don’t see the point unless you’re immune compromised or at some other high risk. Omicron is the evolutionary result you wait for, better at spreading and less health impact so it significantly outcompetes other variants (it has, something like 95% of infections). Peak omicron is coming withina master of days or already passed across the US. It’s virulence is such that you can only delay not expect to forever…

There are no vaccines for those under five years old. It appears it’s too much effort for everyone wear a mask until we get a vaccine for all. I used to think that this was how most people thought and behaved, but now it is confirmed clearly for me.

What are the risks for kids under 5 ?

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#158

Post by GeekyBear »

scoot wrote: post #120
GeekyBear wrote: post #21

Scientists spent several years trying to convince the powers that be that Covid spread was airborne. >In an open letter published today (July 6 2020), 239 scientists from 32 countries urge the World Health Organization and other bodies to address the potential for airborne transmission of the coronavirus. The authors write that a growing body of evidence suggests “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the virus spreads i…

> Scientists spent several years trying to convince the powers that be that Covid spread was airborne. Several months, perhaps? The article you link to and the letter it references are both dated July 6 2020. Even now COVID-19 has only existed for a couple of years (not several). It is impossible for anyone to have spent several years (by July 2020) doing anything relating to a specific virus or the consequential dis…

The evidence for finding that Covid was airborne was discussed before the letter was written.

The Pacific Princess, where the virus continued to spread between passengers who were locked down in their cabins, was in January 2020, for instance.

Re: Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well

#159

Post by tasha0663 »

nescioquid wrote: post #100
fallingknife wrote: post #2

I used to work in the oilfield. We had to be clean shaven on site because in an emergency we may be required to use masks, and your face needs to be clean shaven to form a seal. That's how things are done when there is a real safety risk. The lack of CDC guidance on this point speaks volumes as to how serious this is.

> The lack of CDC guidance on this point speaks volumes as to how serious this is. It speaks volumes, at least. Heckuva job, Brownie. I'm still flummoxed by Fauci's -- let's call it -- equivocation about masks being pointless, for which he later apologized and explained he was trying to conserve the supply of N95s for medical personnel. There is certainly an admixture of manipulating the public to achieve a desired o…

> There is certainly an admixture of manipulating the public to achieve a desired outcome (rather than leveling with the populace) and gross incompetence and callous indifference at play.

When they decided they had to skip Xi variant, it was made pretty clear that the patricians have no intention of leveling with the plebs again.

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