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> Goodbye Masks? Absolutely not. Even if these catch on, masks being cheap and accessible has been a huge boon for getting them rolled out quickly. They can be
by Xavdidtheshadow 6y ago
> Goodbye Masks?
Absolutely not. Even if these catch on, masks being cheap and accessible has been a huge boon for getting them rolled out quickly. They can be made from household materials, can be disposable, and never need to be charged.
Because so much of the pandemic is affecting lower-income parts of society disproportionately, this would only replace masks for people with money to burn.
- wl 6y agoThe problem is most masks don't actually protect the wearer. If we had them in sufficient quantity, the public health advice would be to wear fit-tested N95 or better particulate respirators.
- maxerickson 6y agoThere's plenty enough KN95 masks that the message can be to use them.
- ThrowawayR2 6y agoThere's plenty of imported KN95 masks of various brands for sale but the real questions is which ones meet the KN95 standard and which don't?
- maxerickson 6y agoIt's a fair question. I think resistance to air flow is probably enough to evaluate whether a given package is better than cloth masks though (if the KN95 resists flow, probably better).
- Xavdidtheshadow 6y agoRight, which is why it's so vital that cloth masks be trivially easy and cheap/free, so that I can be confident that everyone around me has access to them
- chongman99 6y agoThat was that thinking in April, but more careful studies are showing that wearer protection is quite high. And that bandanas and neck gaiters do actually offer reasonable protection. Here's the preprint from Linsey Marr who is considered by many a leader in aerosol risk. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233353v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233353v...