I work at home and use grocery pickup, but there’s some things that aren’t getting done. All we have are those cloth masks that are essentially worthless to keep from getting the virus (don’t they only block like 25% of the particles instead of 95%?). KN95 seem to have been tested from “almost as good” to “as worthless as cloth” depending on the brand, and with Chinese junk I wouldn’t trust my life to a different mask from the same brand being as good as the one they happened to test.
So meanwhile stuff isn’t getting done. The toilet is running, but I don’t have an N95 mask to go to Menards, so I had to order a part from Amazon and live with the water waste for several days until I got it. Obviously there’s way to deal with everything that that doesn’t involve going to physical stores- I do grocery pickup and try not to breath when they’re loading groceries in my car, but it would simplify a lot of things to ba able to go into stores.
There’s an Ace Hardware store near me; I drive past it when I go to the grocery store. For the past few days, their sign has said that they have N95s in stock. Where they got them from, how many they have, I have no idea.
You can look around for R95 and P95 masks as well. They’re the industrial oil resistant versions of the N95. They’re more expensive but they might be easier to find, not as many people looking for them.
We have more N95 manufacturing capabilities in the US, but one big source has been declined:
I cannot figure out why the US govt would give a $55 million dollar deal to produce them at a cost of $5.50 per and then give a very small 9.5 million contract to a company that can produce them at .79 per, and they have other productions lines they could pull out of mothball status.
Some of those industrial or construction equivalents to the N95 masks are used by people doing sanding or other activities where a lot of dust is kicked up. Are those available? Because I checked Home Depot’s website and it says they are not. So what are people planning to do sanding doing?
Cloth masks are not worthless, the relationship between the amount of exposure and the severity of any infection is not linear. A 30% block might be the difference between the ICU and asymptomatic infection.
I agree with you in theory, but in practice I wouldn’t be surprised if many cloth masks are almost 0% effective because misuse. Almost all cloth and improvised masks I see in public are being used incorrectly with one or more of these faults:
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Very thin material with very low filtering ability (tightly stretched thin tshirt)
Very loose material (bandanna tied across the nose)
Poorly fitting material (visible gaps along the edges)
Improperly wearing the mask (nose sticking out)
Material held to the mouth by the person’s hand
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From what I can tell, the general public thinks all masks provide 100% protection regardless of what they are made of or how they are used. I don’t think most people realize that air will take the path of least resistance. If there is even a tiny gap along the edge, it can mean a lot of the air (or even 100%) will go through the gap and won’t be filtered at all. I think improvised masks have given people a very false sense of security and it will lead to a rise in infection. Too many people aren’t understanding the science behind masks and they are putting themselves in risky situations without understanding that their mask won’t protect them.
Are the ones available at the hardware store the N95’s with valves? If so, as designed, they are useful in protecting the user from smoke and particles (and will provide protection against Covid-19) when breathing in, but they do not provide protection for others when breathing out. I think the main reason that we are being asked to wear the cloth masks is to protect others if we happen to be asymptomatic. But the respirator N95’s with valves will only protect the wearer and not others. In the San Francisco Area, wearing an N95 mask with a valve is banned and the wearer can be fined up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail.
See the link in my post #5 where I question why the US government did not bring four medical N95 assembly lines back online where they could manufacture over 7 million additional masks per month for far less than they are paying the tactical gear manufacturer to produce gold lined maks.
7 million more per month is a lot better than 0 more per month and might get them available to the public at some point.
Seems like that could be rectified by putting a surgical mask over the N95 mask. I doubt that would be particularly comfortable, but should offer protection to both wearer and others.
That would work, but it may also be possible to just tape over the exhaust port. If it’s a typical disposable mask, blocking the exhaust port will mean the exhaled air will go through the mask itself. That won’t work for the regular respirators which use disposable filters. Those masks typically have dedicated intake and exhaust ports with one-way valves. Blocking the exhaust port on one of those masks means the air won’t be able to get out of the mask since the intake ports don’t allow air to escape.
With regards to improving fit, one way is to use first aid tape to create a seal between the mask and your face. Even small gaps along the edge will allow a lot of unfiltered air to pass through. By taping the mask to your face, you can eliminate those gaps so all the air goes through the mask. Of course that means the mask is harder to take on and off, but it can allow a poorly fitting mask to work at full efficiency.
Effective at stopping transmission? dubious
Effective at reducing transmission? absolutely (per this article’s links)
Security theater, well, I thought so over the years when seeing photos of people in Asia wearing masks routinely - but in the current situation, I’m rethinking it.
It’s been said many times before, but to reiterate:
N95 masks aside, MASKS DO NOT PROTECT THE WEARER - MASKS PROTECT EVERYONE ELSE.
And N95 masks may protect the wearer - if properly fitted, properly handled, etc. but for what most of us need to do, a regular cloth or disposable mask will do the job.
