This is so dumb! I thought N95 masks we're the only masks that have been proven to block the particles!!

👏🏾 ANY 👏🏾 OTHER 👏🏾 FACEWARE 👏🏾 IS 👏🏾 PURE 👏🏾 THEATER

I'm mad now. This will get people killed. N95 masks are the only masks that work against the , and they're specifically telling people NOT to get them. 😠

@realcaseyrollins Sup Casey, hope your doing well.
The cloth face masks are honestly mostly to prevent people from spitting/coofing on each other.

You get infected by getting a certain amount of the virus inside your body. There's a threshold amount that the virus has to reach before it really starts affecting you. A single virus cell isn't enough to typically infect someone. This is why people are advicating to go outside more, because the ambient wind blows away the COVID virus before it reaches a meaningful threshold.

COVID can get in your body through any mucous membrane. That's stuff like around your eyes, nose and mouth (among other things).
To transfer from one person to another, the virus typically needs to be transferred by something. Typically this is liquid droplets created by coughing or speaking.

The main purpose of a cloth face mask is to catch these liquid droplets in them and prevent them from flying onto surfaces or other peoples faces, etc.

N-95 masks are really cool and actually go a step above being a physical barrier, they actually use electrostatic properties to trap virus molecules in the mask. (The N-95 means it captures 95% of particles)

This is really good for environments were you know you're going to be exposed to sick people, like a hospital. But they have to be worn with other protective gear like face shields or goggles and gloves, since having someone cough in your eyes can infect you as easily as breathing in someones cough. You also can't really reuse or wash the N-95 masks because it makes them lose their electrostatic properties.

So yeah, N-95 masks are quite a bit better than plain face coverings and are meant to protect their wearer, but they have to be worn absolutely correctly.

(I'm not a doctor) Fun N-95 video: https://youtu.be/eAdanPfQdCA
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@blight But my point is we don't have any evidence that cloth masks stop the particles. Do we? Has a study been done proving that to be the case?

@realcaseyrollins I can't recall if there's any for this particular one (SARS-CoV-2) but there are studies as far back as 2008 that indicate that homemade masks are effective at reducing the likelihood of getting a respiratory infection.

As far as materials are concerned, this was posted today. https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-mask-or-diy-face-covering-for-covid-19/

@blight
@realcaseyrollins That's the thing, they don't stop the small airborne particles. They only catch the droplets that come from speaking or coughing. The main reason why they are telling people to not use N-95 maks is because there is currently a massive shortage worldwide. There's actually a lot of research being done into how we can safely clean and reuse them without having them lose their electrostatic properties.

We know masks help reduce the spread of other infections so its probably a safe bet to assume they also help with COVID in some way.

There was a study done in 2013 using Influenza: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_the_Efficacy_of_Homemade_Masks_Would_They_Protect_in_an_Influenza_Pandemic

@blight Some way, perhaps. But I still doubt they're effective in any substantial way except in stopping spread through spittle and sneezes.

@realcaseyrollins I agree with you. I think its a rather small improvement, but considering its super low-tech solution to put a cloth over your face it's worth doing.

@blight True. I mean it's not like they're hurting anyone lol! I'm fine with people wearing masks so long as they actually understand what they can do for you or not.

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