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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 prot

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.).

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.).