Those hideous masks with the stupid valve

Not only are they completely hideous looking, but read on below...

I was listening to the radio and they were talking about a study that found those hideous masks with the air-flow valve might protect the wearer but offer little protection to everyone else around them.
The one-way valve closes to not allow air in, but easily opens to allow air out.
Which kind of defeats the whole point of masks, because all the health experts were saying masks confer little safety benefit to the wearer but are mostly designed to protect other people, in the event that the wearer of the mask happens to have the virus and not know it.

It's complete stupidity.

 

When in stampede, the herd displays stupid behavior predictably.

At least somebody is making money on the masks.

 

Simple: When I'm wearing an N95 respirator with a valve, I place an ASTM level 3 facemask on top of it. Problem solved. No stupidity needed. I always do that.

It is true that those who are not so considerate defeat the protection for the community although they are still protecting themselves, which yes, is selfish.

 

TWO masks? Why not a NATO field mask with CBRN filters and Hazmat suit to boot?

 

All the people not wearing full hazmat are inconsiderately endangering those around them. They're criminals.

 

THERE IS one for sure benefit to wearing a mask, no one can tell when I'm sticking my tongue out at them or cursing them under my breath. I'm REALLY enjoying that aspect of it!

 

I'm a healthcare worker, dear. I do need efficient PPE.

 

Despite your ridiculous hyperbole, it seems like you are not considering that a healthcare worker like me being prudent and avoid infecting others is actually a good thing.

 

So what are the people who won't even wear a mask?

 

They're in the same group of inconsiderate criminals as those that won't bother to wear tyvek coveralls. Our safety is everyone elses's responsibility now.

 

A full Hazmat suit is not just a tiny inconvenience, and there isn't any real additional protection

Look, the mask does NOT protect YOU, the mask protects ME FROM you, and if you insist on trying to kill me and my family because you don't want to wear a mask I might just let my opinion of people who want to murder me and mine to save themselves a really tiny inconvenience be known.

Understand, I don't give a Flying Fandango about you, and if you're the kind of ignorant Trumper that most anti-maskers tend to be your self-imposed removal from the gene pool is no great loss, IMO, but since you are trying to take me along with you then yes, I am rather concerned

 

You're as responsible as Typhoid Mary was. What makes you think you have the right to just indiscriminately kill people, Typhoid Paladin?

 

Thats the same question I have for folks who won't wear tyveks, shedding their Covid everywhere they go. Its sick!

 

Tyvek won't help anyway.

I recall hearing from the beginning that a full N95 mask, like actual healthcare workers have, could have reduced the number of cases to manageable levels, but we couldn't get them because they require wool and the My Pillow man didn't have machines that could easily be adapted to make wool masks instead of cotton pillowcases and thus wouldn't make a fortune

 

They are a awsome mask for the intended purpose of the mask. To filter out dust and allow for easy exhale.

 

My mask has a cloth under the valve so that its good as any mask others are wearing for the exhale but offers PM.2.5 filters on the inhale for the smoke.

 

Agreed but I'd add that masks also do protect YOU, the wearer. I've posted here not one, not two, but 29 studies saying so, and these are real-life studies, not lab studies, and all 29 were done with coronaviruses (the current SARS-CoV-2, the old SARS-1, and MERS), so no excuses regarding coronaviruses being smaller than influenza viruses.

But of course, to protect the wearer they have to be the right kind (non-counterfeit N95 respirators NIOSH-Certified or medical grade surgical facemasks rated ASTM level 2 at least, FDA-certified, or FFP2 European respirators; I don't trust the KN95 standard from China; most are counterfeit) and with perfect seal (achieved with the mask's own straps for an N95 that is the right size and shape for your face, with no facial hair, with the fit professionally tested, or achieved with a tight neoprene rubber brace for the surgical masks).

While I understand that most people don't wear the above or if they do, they haven't been through a professional fit for a respirator or don't have the neoprene seal enhancer, but instead they wear low efficacy cloth masks, I don't like to hear the misguided information that masks don't protect the wear. They can and do protect, if the right kind is worn correctly.

You might say, but people don't have access to those and don't know how to wear them, or have no access to the neoprene brace. Well, that's not exactly true. I've been showing the road to people here forever, and whoever wants to listen, CAN have access to all of the above, since legitimate N95s including 3M made in America are back in the market, ASTM level 3 masks can even be found on Amazon, and it is possible to order online a neoprene rubber sheet (for 20 bucks, shipping included) and to download for free a template for a rubber brace, and it is easy to cut the sheet into the appropriate shape with a simple pair of scissors. By now, I've made ten of these for my family and I have material to make 5 more. The total cost for each is about $1.35 per brace. The ASTM level 3 masks cost $60 for a box of 50, and legitimate 3M N95s are back in the market for $77 a box of ten.

So people CAN get protected if they want it.

Surprisingly, I've been saying this over and over, not only here but in other forums as well, and at work as well; I even proposed it to the Infection Control department. Do you know how many people got interested and actually asked for specific instructions to get the above done? Three. 1 colleague at work, 1 person in another forum, and 1 person here.

Which is fine. Mission accomplished. I helped 3 people in staying safe. I'd be happy with my advocacy even if only one person got a benefit. Three is better. But I'd like to see hundreds, thousands of people embracing this, and it is not going to happen.

It is incredible how a cheap and accessible solution is completely ignored by people, and either they don't want to wear a mask at all (now we have the anti-maskers like the anti-vaxxers, God help us...), or if they do, they wear pitiful and low efficacy cloth masks and don't care for learning a much better solution.

 

It's not wool, it's harder than that. It's called melt blown, and it's a special non-woven nanofiber that is actually expensive and can catch particulates of 0.1 micron through brownian motion, and the tragedy is that over the years we've outsourced almost all domestic production of melt blown to China, in search of cheap labor. Now we're paying the price for our stupidity, because this is a national security item that we should never have outsourced. We ceded our means of production to an unfriendly country, which was extremely stupid, and we caught with our pants down.

Melt blown fabric is sandwiched between two layers, external and internal, in N95 respirators, and ASTM level 2 and level 3 facemasks. That is, if they are legitimate, because counterfeit ones that have no melt blown inside also exist everywhere.

 

1. The masks are easier to breathe in.

2. The N95 filter protects me. Protect yourself.

3. I've had the disease and am immune for 3 months at least.

4. I may remove my N95 filter just to tick you off.

 

~ If we were all wearing N95 or P100 respirators this actually would make a difference as they will indeed keep the wearer from inhaling a virus. If you are infected and contageous a virus will pass through a surgical mask, bandana and cloth covers when you exhale.
Unfortunately we are duped and deceived by our "experts". There are no studies on surgical masks - only on respirators that are FDA approved.
Apparently the Wuhan virus is much more contageous than ordinary flu/cold virus and we really do not know exactly how it is spreading other than airborne and touch.
´ Thank you China !

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cbp-counterfeit-coronavirus-masks-nj

 

Indonesia has the right idea - make the Branch Covidians who refuse to wear masks dig the graves for those who died of Covid.

 

Could you cite this study? I hadn't realized the filters in these masks only worked one way as well

 

Link to source please because it seems they are only available in America

 

What this pandemic has proven is that we need a total and complete rethink of a lot PPE. Until now we have relied on PPE that was substandard but - you know - who cared because it was only the occasional health care worker impacted - even the SARS 1 epidemic where healthcare workers were infected and died did not really change the way we did things

 

Yes, paradoxically, at least some good will come out of this horrible situation: I believe that by now, there is realization that outsourcing the means of production of raw materials for PPE (melt blown) and the production of PPE, was a stupid decision with national security implications.