Dear everyone
Masks are not useless.
Whatever the CDC says, whatever the WHO says.
Masks inherently were created
to be not useless.
The disinformation campaign begins behind closed doors.
This particular disinformation campaign began when officials figured out there were not enough masks to who they deemed important.
A simple surgeons mask
keeps others from getting something you may have.
This comes in handy with a
disease(
@Splinty <3 ) that has an unknown INCUBATION PERIOD.
N95 masks keep out.....guess the amount of molecular particle types.
Those little contraptions you see, are for ease of ourbound breathing.
N99 masks keep out...guess the amount of particular types.
Same as above.
ALL masks, isolation methods, cleaning & sanitizing methods, require prudence.
In other words, to get the percentages advertised, assumptions are there are no other mistakes being made:, eg; TOUCHING your mask.
@SC MMA MD & Splinty & others.
Please add to what I missed, I'm generator shopping.
I'm not sure where the arguments are.
Surgical mask:
If everyone wore masks, less disease.
If sick people wear mask, less disease.
If well people wear masks and there is only a few sick people around, there's a good chance it doesn't help and MIGHT hurt as the mask cause people to mess with them and are wet inside an hour from breath humidity. A mask is only useful for a well person who is trapped in an area with a sick person. Otherwise the return on it is little to none and in studies of mask wearers, people touch the mask and their face and increase transmission that way. So it doesn't really matter if the mask filters. You have to do a patient centered focus like, do they actually get sick less which includes things like the INCREASED mask and face touching.
If you walk out of the house, wearing a mask, and you pass a sick person on the street, there's not great evidence that you are lowering your transmission and some studies suggest you will actually increase your transmission. If you are on the subway or caring for your sick family member and someone is sick without a mask, your mask if probably helping you IF YOU CAN STOP FROM TOUCHING IT AND ADJUSTING IT AND WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE YOU PUT IT ON AND TAKE IF OFF. But, your mask would be much more effective if simply handed from the box to that sick person. For you in that moment! and everyone else. Airplanes are likely the same answer as they are hot beds for cross infection, but they also might have some aersolized threat I don't understand because it's not a sneeze or a cough, but air pressured from the vents. I dunno.
N95
Mostly the same answers.
The exceptions here start with fitting of the N95 which requires an actual test and people don't do these. You can get pretty close a lot but also MANY people are kind of between sizes and need a fit test with an airborne fitting. Otherwise you can't be sure its doing its airborne rated job. But if we are talking just resp droplets, they filter more, they fit tighter, etc. Most importantly they take longer to get water logged and you typically see guidelines in hours of wear before you need to trade them out even for airborne. Reasonably you could dry these or clean them and still have resp droplet protection for some time...but again, they suck, they are hot, and people adjust them and touch them as they walk around. Touch your mask or your face and you are increasing your transmission.
You might be a perfect mask wearer. Most aren't. At a population level, well people wearing masks is just a misunderstanding of other country mask culture. It's not justified unless you have unlimited resources. And even then, it is harmful in some situations to individuals wearing them, who then become sick threats.
If your well person threat is low, which it is for this virus as well, then you are comparing the odds of some resp droplets hitting your face vs the odds you will adjust our mask and touch your face. In most cases, the latter is more likely and that increases transmission.
The best thing a mask owner could do is tell sick people in public, "take this!" and make them put it on. That's BETTER transmission prevention for the well person than the well person wearing the mask. If you are on a subway, and that person is sick and coughing and won't put it on, then yes, in a room, subway car, etc...wearing a mask would help you.
appears to be a wrong way mask
dont adjust!
a common thing I see when people wear a hot mask
common thing...