21–30 of 46 posts
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…
Let's do the math for surgical masks which are like n20. Adding two n20's gives you a n40, which is marginally better than the n95 double masks.
Let me vent by saying I was on the pro-mask side when the CDC and WHO were against them, I made a website that went viral and got 7 million view letting people know your government officials were wrong. I had my account banned from Reddit and Facebook over being pro-mask. I even got contacted by the CDC to think about taking down the site. I told them to fuck off. When this pandemic is over and we can do a post-mortem on the pandemic the CDC and WHO will have blood on their hands for the poor messaging around masks.
I for one have been double masking n95's for a while.
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…
When you say a KN95 barely protects the user at all, are you stating that they are worse than a cloth/surgical mask? I recently purchased some kn95's to wear instead of the surgical masks when these variations started to pop up.
What I am saying is that KN95 types in the USA are of such variably quality they are not a good choice. Use local standards and brands.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was told I’m anti science for saying poorly fitting cloth masks don’t work :-(
People were told last year that home made cloth masks were perfectly fine. I applaud skepticism at new claims, made without scientific backing, that now not even one mask is enough. My guess is that in order to increase the number of people wearing masks, they're trying a new scare tactic: maybe you should wear 2 or 3 masks. Maybe they hope that will cause people to wear at least one. Gotta herd the cattle somehow, I…
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…
I agree with you a 100%.
It was such a common sense thing. I was telling my friends back in Feb/March that they should make it mandatory.
Sometimes experts get it wrong and it costs millions of lives. So sad..
Yes, and you should wear a helmet while walking or driving. https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/scandinavian-walking-helm...
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 :-(
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…
~300mm fabric masks per day in landfills? That sounds super eco-friendly.
Throwing them away after 1 use would be silly. I personally have enough masks, and few enough indoors engagements, to let my N95 sit for a full month between re-uses.
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 :-(
To respond to your specific statement, part of the problem is that "don't work" is too blunt and not quite true. "Don't protect the wearer" might be true. "Barely protect the wearer" would be. "Don't provide strong protection for others" also true. But even a poorly fitted cloth mask is almost certainly better than nothing. (Of course, I'd also believe that they likely provide a false sense of security, leading to risk-taking that more than offsets their benefits.)
This ties in with one of my biggest frustrations of the whole pandemic, at least individual behavior: so many people's risk analysis is just sorting things into "safe" and "unsafe", rather than thinking in degrees. "Cloth masks don't work" is unhelpfuly binary and non-specific. (Though including "poorly fitting" makes it better -- "ensure proper fit" is actionable advice.)
And while efficacy of "cloth mask" vs. N95 is good to know, "cloth mask" is a super-broad category. I'll occasionally see people specify "single layer cloth masks", but the only single-layer cloth masks are gaiters, and even those are frequently folded over double.
How good is my 2- or 3-layer cloth mask? What materials should I use? (To be fair, I have seen some people answer this question.) Is it relevant that I can barely feel my breath through it or around the edges even if I blow hard? How much of a difference does fit make?
Ideally we'd all have and use good quality N95s, but we shouldn't make perfect the enemy of the good. We need information that will help us do better, rather than a binary "N95 good; everything else bad."
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…
~300mm fabric masks per day in landfills? That sounds super eco-friendly.
And besides if you're arguing that we need to reduce landfill you shouldn't be advocating for any sort of anti-virus measures as any sort of population reduction will do more to reduce landfill than any sort of reusable mask could ever hope to accomplish.