3 ms·

This is false. If used right along with other common sense measures like washing your hands regularly and not touching your eyes / nose / mouth they reduce you

This is false. If used right along with other common sense measures like washing your hands regularly and not touching your eyes / nose / mouth they reduce your risk of catching and spreading infection. [0] [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4868605/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4868605/

mariushn 7y ago
https://www.livescience.com/face-mask-new-coronavirus.html https://www.livescience.com/face-mask-new-coronavirus.html A regular surgical face mask doesn't protect. A more specialized mask, known as an N95 respirator, can protect against the new coronavirus, also called 2019-nCoV. The respirator is thicker than a surgical mask
- pmorici 7y ago
  The NIH study I linked says that they found "no significance difference" between N95 Respirators and surgical masks. LiveScience.com looks like some kind of popsci website. Not sure I would take their word over a study published in a medical journal. Edit: For the unfamiliar N95 is a NIOSH standard that dictates the percentage of particulates that are filtered and if the filter is rated for environments with presence of oil. The letter which can be N, R, or P tells you if the filter is good in the presence of oil. N=Not Oil Rated, R=Oil Resistant, P=Oil Proof. The number following the letter tells you the percentage of particulates filtered and typically come in 95, 99, or 100. Both surgical style masks and respirators can be N95 rated.
  - mariushn 7y ago
    Thanks for clarification!
  - neurocline 7y ago
    According to my wife, the medical professional, surgical masks do protect you - if you change them every few hours. Wearing the same one all day, much less for days in a row, is worse than no mask at all, when it comes to protecting you. Of course, wearing a mask protects other people from you.
- semi-extrinsic 7y ago
  Actually, there is a whole class of face masks that "work". N95, N99 and N100 are statistically effective against 95%, 99% and 100% of dust particles, respectively. Assuming proper fit. Then you have P95, P99 and P100 that look exactly the same but also work against oil-based aerosols (e.g. if you're spraying paint). These are frequently what you get from a hardware store. Now all these are actually filtration efficiency classes. So you can get a P100 mask that looks like this [1] or one that looks like this [2]. Obviously [2] gives better protection, even though they are the same class. [1] https://www.amazon.com/3M-P100-Disposable-Particulate-Respirator/dp/B001BXRRH4 https://www.amazon.com/3M-P100-Disposable-Particulate-Respir... [2] https://www.amazon.com/3M-Respirator-Reusable-Particulate-Remediation/dp/B009KULKXW https://www.amazon.com/3M-Respirator-Reusable-Particulate-Re... For the big full face or half face respirators, you can also get rectangular multi-gas filters (e.g. for organic vapors, acid gases etc) that you can also get pink rectangular aerosol filters for. Edit: forgot to mention that all these are US NIOSH class numbers. In Europe you'll find mostly-equivalent ratings to P95/P99/P100 specified as P1/P2/P3 (or FFP1 etc.).
marshray 7y ago
Thank you for linking that interesting article. > We performed a systematic review of both clinical and surrogate exposure data comparing N95 respirators and surgical masks for the prevention of transmissible acute respiratory infections. That it didn't find a difference between N95 and plain surgical masks isn't surprising: > Participants in clinical studies were health care workers in a health care setting. We defined health care worker as any worker in a health care setting who might be exposed to a patient with an acute respiratory infection. [...] Acute respiratory infections may have been acquired during the study from community exposures rather than nosocomial exposure. It's not obvious (and wasn't discussed) that such a broad definition of 'health care workers' identifies people who are exposed to categorically more respiratory infections than, say, elementary school teachers. Indeed, one of the studies was actually halted due to the H1N1 outbreak in 2009. So... of the people in the study who did get sick, we don't know how many of them caught it from their kids at home or on the bus to work when they weren't wearing . Interestingly, one of the two randomized studies they looked at, having by far with the largest number of participants (1669), concludes: > Continuous use of N95 respirators was more efficacious against CRI than intermittent use of N95 or medical masks. (The other study with 1441 participants concludes that N95 respirators are more effective in preventing multiple simultaneous infections.) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23413265/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23413265/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24472436 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24472436

mariushn 7y ago

https://www.livescience.com/face-mask-new-coronavirus.html https://www.livescience.com/face-mask-new-coronavirus.html A regular surgical face mask doesn't protect. A more specialized mask, known as an N95 respirator, can protect against the new coronavirus, also called 2019-nCoV. The respirator is thicker than a surgical mask

pmorici 7y ago
The NIH study I linked says that they found "no significance difference" between N95 Respirators and surgical masks. LiveScience.com looks like some kind of popsci website. Not sure I would take their word over a study published in a medical journal. Edit: For the unfamiliar N95 is a NIOSH standard that dictates the percentage of particulates that are filtered and if the filter is rated for environments with presence of oil. The letter which can be N, R, or P tells you if the filter is good in the presence of oil. N=Not Oil Rated, R=Oil Resistant, P=Oil Proof. The number following the letter tells you the percentage of particulates filtered and typically come in 95, 99, or 100. Both surgical style masks and respirators can be N95 rated.
- mariushn 7y ago
  Thanks for clarification!
- neurocline 7y ago
  According to my wife, the medical professional, surgical masks do protect you - if you change them every few hours. Wearing the same one all day, much less for days in a row, is worse than no mask at all, when it comes to protecting you. Of course, wearing a mask protects other people from you.
semi-extrinsic 7y ago
Actually, there is a whole class of face masks that "work". N95, N99 and N100 are statistically effective against 95%, 99% and 100% of dust particles, respectively. Assuming proper fit. Then you have P95, P99 and P100 that look exactly the same but also work against oil-based aerosols (e.g. if you're spraying paint). These are frequently what you get from a hardware store. Now all these are actually filtration efficiency classes. So you can get a P100 mask that looks like this [1] or one that looks like this [2]. Obviously [2] gives better protection, even though they are the same class. [1] https://www.amazon.com/3M-P100-Disposable-Particulate-Respirator/dp/B001BXRRH4 https://www.amazon.com/3M-P100-Disposable-Particulate-Respir... [2] https://www.amazon.com/3M-Respirator-Reusable-Particulate-Remediation/dp/B009KULKXW https://www.amazon.com/3M-Respirator-Reusable-Particulate-Re... For the big full face or half face respirators, you can also get rectangular multi-gas filters (e.g. for organic vapors, acid gases etc) that you can also get pink rectangular aerosol filters for. Edit: forgot to mention that all these are US NIOSH class numbers. In Europe you'll find mostly-equivalent ratings to P95/P99/P100 specified as P1/P2/P3 (or FFP1 etc.).

marshray 7y ago

Thank you for linking that interesting article. > We performed a systematic review of both clinical and surrogate exposure data comparing N95 respirators and surgical masks for the prevention of transmissible acute respiratory infections. That it didn't find a difference between N95 and plain surgical masks isn't surprising: > Participants in clinical studies were health care workers in a health care setting. We defined health care worker as any worker in a health care setting who might be exposed to a patient with an acute respiratory infection. [...] Acute respiratory infections may have been acquired during the study from community exposures rather than nosocomial exposure. It's not obvious (and wasn't discussed) that such a broad definition of 'health care workers' identifies people who are exposed to categorically more respiratory infections than, say, elementary school teachers. Indeed, one of the studies was actually halted due to the H1N1 outbreak in 2009. So... of the people in the study who did get sick, we don't know how many of them caught it from their kids at home or on the bus to work when they weren't wearing . Interestingly, one of the two randomized studies they looked at, having by far with the largest number of participants (1669), concludes: > Continuous use of N95 respirators was more efficacious against CRI than intermittent use of N95 or medical masks. (The other study with 1441 participants concludes that N95 respirators are more effective in preventing multiple simultaneous infections.) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23413265/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23413265/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24472436 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24472436