3 ms·

Half the articles on your list are tangential (masks make it marginally harder to exercise, ok duh). The article posted helps us understand why the viral concen

Half the articles on your list are tangential (masks make it marginally harder to exercise, ok duh). The article posted helps us understand why the viral concentration in the environment also impacts efficacy, it helps explain why some of the articles you posted see inconclusive results.

toss1 5y ago
And even the "masks make it marginally harder to exercise" is likely wrong. The winner of the 10,000m race at the 2019 USA Track & Field Championships wore a mask against his pollen allergies. [1] Worn properly, they just disappear. I wear N95s a work for many tasks, and they are mildly distracting for a few minutes, then I forget about them. Even more so now with wearing them for the pandemic. Yes, education about masks could be a LOT better, but using that is more anti-mask FUD is borderline sociopathic. [1] https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2011/06/galen_rupp_overcomes_the_polle.html https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2011/06/galen_rupp_...
- makomk 5y ago
  According to that article, the winner of the 10,000m race wore a mask to protect against his allergies for the first 4,000m, by which point it was just too uncomfortable to continue wearing: "Rupp said Salazar told him to “wear it as long as you can. As soon as it starts to get real hot or uncomfortable, or starts to stick and get sweaty, throw it off.” The mask came flying off after 4,000 meters. But Rupp was content to bide his time until the 9,200-mark."
  - toss1 5y ago
    Right, and during that time, he was respirating at around 20X the rate of you or I sitting here. 1 MET, or Metabolic Equivalent Task, is about 3.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram per minute, which is roughly equivalent to the energy expended when sitting quietly. [1] The Vo2max of high-level athletes runs up to 97.5mL/kg [2] Sure, he used it for 'only' 40% of the race. In a national championship where fractions of a percent of O2 uptake make the difference in winning. The point is that he still wore it, running in the pack of a national championship, for nearly two and a half miles (400m=2.585mi), over 11 minutes, respirating at a level that you literally cannot imagine if you can post that comment. The mask neither slowed him enough to take him out of contention, nor did it create sufficient oxygen debt that he could not win. IOW, the mask had a completely marginal effect at levels of respiration more than an order of magnitude beyond any ordinary activity. Moreover, since air resistance increases roughly with the square of velocity, a first approximation of any mask drag or throttling he experienced vs normal respiration is not 20X, but more like 400x what a normal person would experience. And even your own citation points to it being "uncomfortable, sticky or sweaty", in the context of a national championship race, not being any kind of oxygen hinderence. And yet you want to claim that this can be ignored because he didn't wear it the whole time. So, yes, everyone knows that masks can be mildly uncomfortable, even during exercise. But they are a helluva lot less uncomfortable than enduring that respiratory/vascular disease, and a lot more ethical than spreading it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent_of_task https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent_of_task [2] https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm

toss1 5y ago

And even the "masks make it marginally harder to exercise" is likely wrong. The winner of the 10,000m race at the 2019 USA Track & Field Championships wore a mask against his pollen allergies. [1] Worn properly, they just disappear. I wear N95s a work for many tasks, and they are mildly distracting for a few minutes, then I forget about them. Even more so now with wearing them for the pandemic. Yes, education about masks could be a LOT better, but using that is more anti-mask FUD is borderline sociopathic. [1] https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2011/06/galen_rupp_overcomes_the_polle.html https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2011/06/galen_rupp_...

makomk 5y ago
According to that article, the winner of the 10,000m race wore a mask to protect against his allergies for the first 4,000m, by which point it was just too uncomfortable to continue wearing: "Rupp said Salazar told him to “wear it as long as you can. As soon as it starts to get real hot or uncomfortable, or starts to stick and get sweaty, throw it off.” The mask came flying off after 4,000 meters. But Rupp was content to bide his time until the 9,200-mark."
- toss1 5y ago
  Right, and during that time, he was respirating at around 20X the rate of you or I sitting here. 1 MET, or Metabolic Equivalent Task, is about 3.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram per minute, which is roughly equivalent to the energy expended when sitting quietly. [1] The Vo2max of high-level athletes runs up to 97.5mL/kg [2] Sure, he used it for 'only' 40% of the race. In a national championship where fractions of a percent of O2 uptake make the difference in winning. The point is that he still wore it, running in the pack of a national championship, for nearly two and a half miles (400m=2.585mi), over 11 minutes, respirating at a level that you literally cannot imagine if you can post that comment. The mask neither slowed him enough to take him out of contention, nor did it create sufficient oxygen debt that he could not win. IOW, the mask had a completely marginal effect at levels of respiration more than an order of magnitude beyond any ordinary activity. Moreover, since air resistance increases roughly with the square of velocity, a first approximation of any mask drag or throttling he experienced vs normal respiration is not 20X, but more like 400x what a normal person would experience. And even your own citation points to it being "uncomfortable, sticky or sweaty", in the context of a national championship race, not being any kind of oxygen hinderence. And yet you want to claim that this can be ignored because he didn't wear it the whole time. So, yes, everyone knows that masks can be mildly uncomfortable, even during exercise. But they are a helluva lot less uncomfortable than enduring that respiratory/vascular disease, and a lot more ethical than spreading it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent_of_task https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent_of_task [2] https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm