The CDC, last I looked, was not requiring masks for the general public to be certified to any standards at all. Probably a lot of the masks on the market do less than an ideal job; but the certifiable N95’s are still in short supply and most people can’t get them.
Yes, my lab has been on the CV allotment list for months now.
As others have stated, the main goal is source control.
However, even layered cloth masks with a fairly good fit provide some protection. Some masks provide a great deal of protection. Surgical masks provide nearly the same protection as an N95 if you take care of the gaps.
That’s the way mine is, that my husband bought. Honestly, it seems like the valve is decorative. There is no hole in the carbon filter, and there’s an cloth “envelope” that the filter goes into. So the only layer that’s missing between my breath and the world is the black outer layer.
I have seen ones that have a hole in the filter, but mine doesn’t. I get that CDC says not use them, but I don’t understand why.
And my glasses DEFINITELY fog when I’m wearing it.
I just had my daughter double-check hers, too. Same.
If a mask has a functioning exhale valve, then the wearer’s exhalations aren’t filtered, and the mask isn’t protecting people other than the wearer.
It does sound rather like the valve is decorative on the one you’ve got, though; even if it’s not being advertised that way.
Sorry, I phrased that badly. I do understand why CDC says don’t use ones with exhale valves- I don’t know why they would object to ones like mine. But perhaps it’s just that a person can’t tell by looking at me if it’s a functioning valve or not.
Yeah, I’d wonder about that too.
I’ve got a few actual exit-valve N95’s, bought pre-covid. I tried plugging up the valve in one with coffee filter material, but ran into two problems: one was that I then couldn’t breathe through it very well, I suppose it was designed to work with a functioning exhale valve; and the other was that the added filter couldn’t be seen from outside the mask, so it looked like I was wearing the wrong type. I tried wrapping the outside with duct tape, but not only did that look entirely weird, but in order to get a good seal with the tape I wound up getting some of the tape covering other portions of the mask and then breathing through it got even more difficult.
So… you realize there are real, heavy-duty respirators that have real exhale valves that let your exhalations flow out of the respirator with no filtration, right?
Most of the reusable N95 respirators were of that type prior to all this. Most of the respirators without valves were disposable and designed for medical use, whereas the reusable ones were designed mostly to protect workers from sawdust and similar, and had valves to make it a little easier to breathe. There are still tons of those floating around – reusable, after all.
Then there are the crappy home-made cloth masks we are wearing these days.
Then there’s this bizarre hybrid thing that I accidentally bought for my husband, which has a “valve” that really doesn’t do anything. It’s not a real exhale valve. It’s a hole in one of the three layers of material between his face and the outside world. He still has a filter (Which isn’t rated by anyone, and probably isn’t any better than a coffee filter) and a solid, uncut, piece of fabric between his face and the filter.
Now… I don’t think he should be wearing that mask because it looks bad. Someone looking at him would quite reasonably assume it’s a real valve and that he isn’t protecting them. And even if the mask works fine, you not only want to protect others but to reassure them that you are protecting them. And this mask completely fails at the latter. But I can’t imagine this mask is any less effective than the cotton numbers that are considered “good enough”. And I’m sure it’s better than bandanas and similar thin fabric that does next-to-nothing.
Wow. Thanks. I had no idea. Ignorance fought!
Fortunately I have a bunch of N95s that don’t have valves.
How do you know? Many people are infecting other people. Some of those people being infected are dying, so some of those people who infected other people literally killed them.
Wearing a mask can drastically reduce the chance of transmission. So, if you have it asymptomatically, wearing a mask may stop you from infecting someone else, and that other person may have died from this disease, so people who wear masks (and are asymptomatic) are literally saving the lives of others.
Which part do you disagree with? Do you think people aren’t giving other people the disease? Do you think a mask does nothing to prevent transmission? Do you think you can’t have this disease asymptomatically?
Please explain your reasoning why that doesn’t apply to you, or just wear a mask when you’re inside public places or outside in places where you can’t stay socially distant.
The person who gave my mother the flu wasn’t dad or I* because we tested negative and she was retired meaning it wasn’t a coworker either, so the stranger who gave it to her almost certainly never knew she died.
- and we’d gotten our flu shots that year, but she hadn’t
That glasses fogging thing when wearing a mask is so frustrating. Maybe a thread collecting tips and ‘how tos’ about avoiding that would be a good new thread or sub thread. I don’t know how to do that (yet😌), but if some one does what a boon to us all!
Seems like having a wire at the top edge is helpful but not a full solution. If I need to go somewhere but my glasses fog up so I can’t see, my choice is to go back home. I’m not being somewhere and not wearing a mask.
This whole mask issue is a thorny one. I agree with all the public health advice recommendations to wear one, I’m grateful when local officials make it a requirement, but I wish these same public servants sent out advice on the right masks for particular situations, how to wear them correctly (cover your nose, silly), how to avoid being ripped off by sellers (for the most if you’re paying top prices for a valved mask…). From the top (CDC ?) give us all the whole picture. Uniformity would be hugely beneficial as well as making it easy for everybody to do it. Amazon stepping up and offering masks at cost, no profit, for many of us cost and access to a supply are barriers. Localities set up free distribution of masks for residents in public libraries.
I’ve been using tube scarves like these.
I can actually exhale through the cloth and not upwards into my glasses.
They’re only a single layer, but there’s enough fabric that it can be easily doubled or even tripled up if necessary.
Thank you for the idea. I might use your suggestion to find an old t-shirt, cut it up and make my own. I’ve recycled, saved some money (sadly, on Social Security so low budget really matters), plus maybe I can figure out the layout so a favorite t-shirt logo can be enjoyed. And obviously I’ll like the color cause I choose it for a T-shirt.
Maybe I can get a Girl Scout badge for the project (giving away my age here)
Researchers at Duke did an experiment and the results show that not only did gaiters like yours preform the least well of all non-N95 masks, if made of fleece they might also spread the virus more effectively than wearing nothing.
Neck fleeces, also called gaiter masks and often used by runners, were the least effective. In fact, wearing a fleece mask resulted in a higher number of respiratory droplets because the material seemed to break down larger droplets into smaller particles that are more easily carried away with air.
Those are worse than useless, because they break big droplets into smaller droplets that can hang around longer. CDC just announce those as the worst type to wear.
Um, yeah, it’s not doing the job of filtering. That’s why you can breathe through it.
I find this claim to be dubious at best. Everything I’ve seen from the CDC and other reputable sources says that any face covering is better than no face covering.
Sure, I get that the thinner the material, the less effective it will be. But not being able to see while working isn’t really an option for me, so I do the best I can.
I almost always wear it doubled up, and all of my interactions with out her people occur outdoors, from more than six feet, and are very brief in duration - a few seconds at most.
Given all these factors together, I’m quite confident that I’m doing my part to keep myself and others safe.
For people with fogging trouble: There are plenty of masks that don’t fog up your eyeglasses. The cheap surgical masks I have don’t fog them, and they’re reasonably comfortable. You really need a mask with a metal nose strip, IME.
You can also buy your own metal stick-on nose strips from amazon and stitch them on, if you’re handy. They’re very cheap.
On Saturday, in the area of Exit 25 of the Adirondack Northway ( Route 87 ) we stopped into the Stewart’s Shop for a bit of lunch.
We witnessed utter foulmouthed rage from a young man who had just filled up his pickup truck. He walked into the store to pay. His right arm was rigidly shoved out in front of him, hand holding his cell phone. Screen on with some document showing. Aimed at the women behind the counter.
He wore no mask. He immediately launched into an obscenity-strewn diatribe during which time he apparently recited the document which stated that he was not required to comply with Mask laws, and that it was a violation of his Constitutional rights. It was ugly and enraged.
The lady behind the counter yelled at him to get a mask on or get out. The guy next to him ( wearing a mask ) said, " Man- don’t be an asshole ". He swore some more and turned and walked out.
The lady followed him and shot a cell image of his license plate. The passenger- another young man- walked in a few minutes later. No mask. Fistful of dollars, no change. He hurled it at her, swore at her and walked out. They drove off.
She called the New York State Police. A trooper arrived less than 5 minutes later. We were eating outside at the picnic table and I did NOT want to get mixed up in it. For all we knew, those two knuckleheads were going to reappear with a gun or two in tow.
We drove away.
It’s something else. It has- perversely and at the cost of human lives- become some insane political battle. It’s a virus, fellows. It doesn’t give a damn who you voted for.
It just wants to replicate mindlessly until you die.
I wear a mask 100% of the time when not in the house where I’m living at the moment. Spares in the car, cotton layered main one, a few black mesh backups.