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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

#131

Post by nradov »

tasha0663 wrote: post #111
dv_dt wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There likely is no herd immunity to be had. Omicron infects those with previous delta infections, and there are cases being studied further from South Africa of omicron cases getting reinfections of omicron. I think our best chance is faster vaccine cycles and better targeting of the sequences to impede transmission.

A week or two ago they were saying Omicron might confer Delta immunity. Don't overlook that part.

Immunity isn't a binary condition. Infection by any known SARS-CoV-2 variant will leave most recovered patients with a significant level of cellular immunity against all other variants. This won't necessarily prevent reinfection, but just like with every other coronavirus the symptoms of reinfection cases will typically be mild.

The mRNA vaccines also seem to confer a significant level of durable cellular immunity against all variants, although they also don't reliably prevent infections.

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

#132

Post by tasha0663 »

robbrown451 wrote: post #50
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…

I don't think we lost, we developed a vaccine which reduces your chance of death by a factor of 20. (probably more than that if you are reasonably healthy) That's a win in my book. I am rapidly becoming in the "vaxxed and done" camp.... happy to get vaccinated and boosted as many times as necessary. But after two years, this is no longer an emergency situation for the vaccinated. It is simply not a big risk anymore.…

> the "vaxxed and done" camp.... happy to get vaccinated and boosted as many times as necessary

My new year's resolution is that our institutions have until the end of the Greek alphabet to figure this out. I'll get boosters, but don't expect me to mask up for the Aleph-Tango-Susan-93 variant in 2024. Come hell or high water. I'm burying loved ones due to non-covid afflictions. If we blew it, we blew it. We can at least live while we die.

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

#133

Post by Misdicorl »

GeekyBear wrote: post #114
robbrown451 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of it is the pre-Omicron, it took more virus to typically infect people. So the more typical masks helped a lot. Now even a tiny bit can easily infect, so aerosol (as opposed to droplets) was not nearly as big an issue.

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.

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

#134

Post by mdns33 »

frogpelt wrote: post #57
daveevad wrote: post #31

> N95s aren't regulated for children, so if a mask says it's an N95 for kids, don't trust it. This makes me think we're still floundering at the basic protections. Our kids' school in the Bay Area recommends N95s for kids which, if this statement is true, don't exist.

From the beginning it has been obvious that the decision makers did not know what to do about this pandemic. I am not convinced that lockdowns and masks have decreased the positive cases based on comparisons between places that were heavy on lockdown and mask mandates and those that weren’t. Almost no one is wearing N95 masks. And many of those who wear masks only wear them some of the time or incorrectly. On a fligh…

No post body was provided.

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

#135

Post by drsnow »

josephcsible wrote: post #54
linsomniac wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, honestly, going out shopping during the cold and flu season without a mask, seems a little gross. And, at least around here, it's super cold and flu and covid season right now...

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.

Are you really afraid of it? Care explaining how it invokes fear?

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

#136

Post by TaylorAlexander »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #115
frogpelt wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the beginning it has been obvious that the decision makers did not know what to do about this pandemic. I am not convinced that lockdowns and masks have decreased the positive cases based on comparisons between places that were heavy on lockdown and mask mandates and those that weren’t. Almost no one is wearing N95 masks. And many of those who wear masks only wear them some of the time or incorrectly. On a fligh…

Masks are our "doing our part" symbols, the Covid ribbon if you will. The science on anything other than N95 masks is flimsy, but it's low-effort and low-cost, so why not. It feels like better than nothing, it probably is, so we go along with it.

Is the science flimsy? I genuinely thought that the science was very clear that good masking reduces the rate of community transmission?

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

#137

Post by colechristensen »

dredmorbius wrote: post #86
robbrown451 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Though Omicron's severity is lower, it is not zero. " There isn't a zero risk of any number of more dangerous things. This is no longer high risk, at all, for reasonably healthy people who are vaccinated and boosted. (those who aren't are foolish) I'm willing to wait out the surge, but after that, I am hoping those in my community (bay area.... which doesn't have overcrowding of hospitals because of high vaccination…

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.

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

#138

Post by JohnTHaller »

spqr0a1 wrote: post #109

It boggles my mind that the general public, media, and even healthcare workers treat N95 mask as if they are as good as it gets. Industry routinely uses elastomeric half- and full-face respirators with P100 filters, and they have been easy to find in stock again since August 2020. P100 is a comparable grade to HEPA, both 99.97%. Respirators are more comfortable and seal well easier than purely fabric masks, they don'…

Does that model have an unfiltered exhalation valve? That would make it useless to protect others, which is a big point of masks.

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

#139

Post by yosito »

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 enjoy life.

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

#140

Post by dehrmann »

cjonas wrote: post #47
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…

This is spot on. I'm really hoping omicron will be the wave that finally helps achieve some level of "herd immunity". It's sad that we had the opportunity to do so via vaccination but failed to capitalize. However a variant with high transmission and low chance of severe symptoms is the next best thing

> It's sad that we had the opportunity to do so via vaccination but failed to capitalize

We likely never had this opportunity; omicron spreads too well and evades existing vaccines too well. The good vaccines are down to ~50% effective, and omicron is 2x as contagious as delta. There was a short window between vaccines getting approved and delta that heroic vaccination campaign could have worked. And I mean heroic. It would have literally had to be 90% of the world population in a few months. Factories never could have scaled to the point, there'd never be enough public trust to hit 90%, and too many countries are incapable of running a campaign like this.

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