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I have not tried it, but I hear if you donāt breathe while out in public you have a harder time catching Covid.
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I LOVE reaping the benefits of watching your insanity play out!!!
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@Eric , given the recent news about double masking and your own personal trial of 50 masks, do you now have a preference? LOL
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I wonder if this mask would work for smokers as well as @Eric 's.
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One area that surprises me for its lack of activity is the provision of better-quality masks. For instance, my wife has been getting cloth masks that are made out of an antiviral material. You can wash them, etc. At the beginning of this everyone was stressing out about N95 masks, but thereās lots of masks that are not quite N95 quality. The blue mask seems ubiquitous.
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Agreed. Korean made KT94 masks are readily available. My latest obsession is finding a mask as shown belowā¦ The population in 1918 were ahead of their timeā¦
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I find it very interesting to look back at the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic and see the Socio-Political similarities to todayās populations.
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We pretty much only use KN95s these days, unless we are just walking outdoors or something and donāt really need major protection (then cloth masks). I am seeing them more and more on others, and it was interesting today at the large vaccination site, which was all elderly people and health care workersāmany of the other non-seniors also had KN95s or similar. Same when Iām in treatment settings for my chronic health stuff where most of the other clients also have similar issues and are higher risk. So I think itās catching on in certain populations, but more broadly seems like many are still using a single thin surgical or cloth mask only.
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Yeah, I was just in the elevator with a delivery guy wearing one of those paper masks that I donāt really think does anythingā¦ I was wearing a three-layered cotton mask that I typically put a filter in (folded paper towel, not sure it does much, but makes me feel better), though forgot to this time around. Thinking that with the new strains spreading, I may want to upgrade my maskā¦
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They do something, otherwise they wouldnāt use them in surgery. However I think they mostly keep things from going down into the patient and they are designed to leak out of the sides so not the best for these times, but better than nothing.
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Definitely better than nothing! Most people here will ask if itās okay if they get on the elevator before doing so (this delivery guy asked as well; though many people, myself included, just wait for the next elevator if theyāre the one wanting to get on). I say yes or no depending on my anxiety level at the time, but also (before masks were mandatory) depending on if they were wearing a a mask. If I didnāt think they were wearing a mask, no way was I letting them stand next to me in an enclosed elevator. Masks have been mandatory in indoor public spaces here for a while now, so everyone is wearing them inside and most outside as well.
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Surgical masks definitely help protect others from droplets, so better than nothing for sure, but they arenāt meant to confine airborne germs. So they do something, but not as much as tighter fitting and better filtered masks, and they donāt really do anything to protect the wearer. Whereas something like a KN95 or N95 protects the wearer from most airborne particles as well as protecting the people around them from both droplet and most airborne particles.
With the new much more contagious variants of COVID now spreading, I would not consider surgical masks to be adequate protection, unless maybe worn with a cloth mask over it that keeps it closer fit to the face. I honestly wouldnāt feel comfortable going to my PT appts if I didnāt have my own KN95 given that some folks are still using a single surgical mask etc.
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LOLā¦somehow this feels like China spiking the ball on the world.
This is what some experts here are recommending, and what Iāll probably end up doing. Although here itās hard to find anything listed as a āsurgical maskā or a āKN95ā mask. I think all those might be reserved for medical professionasl. Everything is just listed as ānon-medical maskā or ā3-layer maskā or the like, which makes things confusing and therefore I havenāt ordered anything yet. Do you use a specific brand of the KN95 masks you would recommend?
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Some of the paper-looking masks actually have quite fine pore sizes. IT really depends on the mask. I personally am done with cloth masks because I canāt remember to wash them regularly, and my kids chew on them. If you want to upgrade, there are actually N95s that are available to the public; theyāre pricy (I think like $5 or $6 per mask for a pack of 10) but if you are only going out intermittently, you could reuse by labeling each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etcā¦ and just wear the correct day of the week one on each day. That way, they have time to sit and any SARS-CoV-2 on them will die out. Would probably last a few months that way.
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To be fair though, all of the medical providers at our university-affiliated hospitals wear surgical masks during patient care, unless theyāre specifically working on COVID wards or something. And they have had a lower prevalence of COVID-19 than the general public, so clearly even surgical masks without a tight fit are reducing infections somewhat for the wearer. Of course, in the hospital, everyone is wearing a mask, not just the doctors/nurses. But still.
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Iāve ordered my KN95s off of amazon. Not sure if you can order for shipment to Canada?
This is one of the links Iāve used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0881Z618L/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They are substantial and you can tell they are filtering more since itās a little more intense feeling than wearing a cloth mask, but not uncomfortably so.
My understand re: N95s is that for them to work correctly, they need to be fitted to the person, whereas KN95s are softer so easier to conform to the face/no need for fitting. That said, of the several brands weāve tried, some seem to fit my or my partnerās face better than others (different ones for each of us).
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Oh, also, we definitely rotate and reuse ours, since we only use them for medical appts and other brief things.
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