Masks are worse than useless. Reminder guys, I work in health care. The masks we are all being told to wear are procedure masks. They are intended only to stop spittle and droplets from talking infecting patients and medical equipment. They say right on the box they do not filter viruses or other contaminants. The vast majority of the air you breathe in or out goes right around the sides. They do not filter anything AT ALL!
The next step up from a procedure mask is N95. These are intended to filter but in order to do this they must be carefully fitted. They come around with a test hood and if you can smell the odor its not filtering and you cannot wear N95. This happened to a couple of us here. Its pretty common.
Even if you do get a tight seal every breath exhales moisture that clogs it and so the N95 is good for only a few hours.
N95 by the way does not filter virus either. The situation really is like I said, trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence. That a mask works at all is based on the idea the virus is never just out there by itself, but is hitching a ride on a droplet. The problem with that being droplets go down to vapor, goes down to molecules.
Anyone who has worked in a shop as I have, worn respirators as I have, will know perfectly well how your nose and throat gets plenty of dust. This is with filters many orders of magnitude better than the masks we are being forced to wear.
It would be one thing if they worked. It would be another if we were told the truth and allowed to choose for ourselves. Instead we are all being forced to do something proven to have no medical efficacy whatsoever.
This is not a health crisis. This is a political crisis.
The next step up from a procedure mask is N95. These are intended to filter but in order to do this they must be carefully fitted. They come around with a test hood and if you can smell the odor its not filtering and you cannot wear N95. This happened to a couple of us here. Its pretty common.
Even if you do get a tight seal every breath exhales moisture that clogs it and so the N95 is good for only a few hours.
N95 by the way does not filter virus either. The situation really is like I said, trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence. That a mask works at all is based on the idea the virus is never just out there by itself, but is hitching a ride on a droplet. The problem with that being droplets go down to vapor, goes down to molecules.
Anyone who has worked in a shop as I have, worn respirators as I have, will know perfectly well how your nose and throat gets plenty of dust. This is with filters many orders of magnitude better than the masks we are being forced to wear.
It would be one thing if they worked. It would be another if we were told the truth and allowed to choose for ourselves. Instead we are all being forced to do something proven to have no medical efficacy whatsoever.
This is not a health crisis. This is a political crisis.