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Bigox Face Mask Disposable Earloop Blue 50Pcs?
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You can add a filter to a homemade mask by cutting up an AC filter, or by adding more layers of fabric. Or you can buy surgical masks on Amazon and at Walmart.
Is it as effective as an N95? No, but it certainly gives you more protection than going out barefaced.
Its more about protecting from potential splashes from other people and said splashes that can contain germs and viruses. I have been using these as they are the closest to an FDA surgical mask. The point being, by taking it off around possible carriers, I could have been shouted at closely with a lot of splatter and my mask was not protecting from said splatter because it was in my hand.
The brand our hospital uses is Halyard. They come in blue, yellow, green, and purple as far as I've seen. I did a quick Amazon search and there are a couple of sellers of Halyard on there but I can't speak to the quality/actual product unless it's for sure Halyard. My guess is Halyard is mostly selling directly to hospitals and clinics.
Based upon reviews and customer photos, if I needed to purchase some masks I would probably get these. I am not familiar with the brand or seller at all, but they look solid/appropriately shaped. I have reused the same surgical mask for weeks when out in public and store it in a paper bag when not in use. If exposed to a known positive case, I throw the mask away.
Surgical masks are around 50 cents each and they are much more comfortable than cloth masks for running.
For example, these are available from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Bigox-Face-Disposable-Earloop-50Pcs/dp/B087RRWGJB/
Effortcomment on the necessity of upgrading from cloth face coverings
Recently as I was preparing a short overview of the scientific evidence pointing towards the necessity of moving away from cloth masks towards disposable nonwoven masks Germany and France announced officially recommendations/requirements for their citizens to use medical grade masks instead of cloth face coverings. To many this may come as a surprise and a sign maybe that the science has changed. However today I would like to point out that the scientific theory behind masks has always pointed towards cloth being a stopgap measure that was only meant to be a 'better than nothing' step until disposable mask supply caught up to demand.
Chapter 1: Droplet vs Aerosol
How does the SARS Coronavirus spread? Three main vectors:
1) Direct surface contact to hands then face (less common)
2) Microscopic droplets that linger in air for about 6ft (extremely common)
3) Aerosol transmission (possibly very common)
In the beginning of the pandemic Vector 1 was considered the main one followed by Vector 2. Now we know that is flipped. Vector 3 sometimes referred to as 'airborne' was often said to be unlikely with no evidence pointing to it be the case. However strong evidence for the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV(1) was debated since 2004. This is not a conspiracy, the NEJM is the most respected clinical journal in the world, and any infectious disease scientist who was paying attention since then will tell you the same. It is technically true that SARS-CoV2 showed no evidence for aerosol spread at the beginning, but this was due to the newness of everything providing no data at all. Now scientists publicly agree that aerosol transmission for SARS-CoV2 is very likely much like what we expected with SARS-CoV1.
Mask guidance depends on whether droplets alone or droplets and aerosols need to be controlled. When reading through scientific advice from sources keep that in mind to judge whether the advice is based on the old paradigm where only droplets matter or the new paradigm where aerosols serve a massive part.
Chapter 2: Controlling mask supply
In reality the main motivation behind downplaying medical grade masks was to tamp down panic and prevent a run on them as this NYT article says. WHO's official guidelines, which I believe go way too kind on cloth masks, still hitches the entire argument for cloth masks on the premise that medical masks are better but that they should be reserved for medical professionals. The CDC's big push for cloth released in summer 2020 also is based on the premise that medical masks are unavailable.
There seems to be a misunderstanding going around through the public that experts said that cloth masks work just as well as medical masks. But that is not the case and has never been the case. Every strategy where cloth masks are debated it is in the context of medical mask shortages and as such the implied message is that medical masks should be adapted once shortages end. There was one prominent paper that went further though to claim cloth masks did work just as well or better but crucially this article has been retracted due to flaws in experimental design.
Chapter 3: why plastic masks work better than cloth
Masks function can be boiled down into one big point: Filtration. Going into the direction and intention of filtration can make things complicated (source control v self protection) but we can set that aside for today. Essentially we want to pick the material that filters aerosols and droplets the best.
The first mechanism for filtration is very intuitive: create a grid that is smaller than particles to trap them. This is the objective of cotton masks that you probably own or see sold primarily. With a close enough density cotton fibers can trap droplets. A lot of preliminary research is emerging on how well close fabric weaves work compared to disposable plastic but due to the retraction of one of the more famous ones I am unsure whether to cite any here.
However there is a completely different method of filtration that disposable masks use which is to pull particles in the air through electrostatic charge. This is what provides medical masks with incredible aerosol filtration performance even if the 'holes' in the mask are larger than aerosol size. The material that gives both N95 and normal disposable medical masks this property is polypropylene, a 'nonwoven' fabric created by stacking fibers in a random order created by blowing molten fibers together. The material for most masks on sale can be easily looked up and the vast majority of cheap disposable masks are also made of polypropylene.
Are there cloth masks with electrostatic properties? Well silk works, but generally silk is not machine washable. Polyester might work, but polyester isn't dense. Creating a cloth mask that performs as well as polypropylene is very difficult and usually requires multiple layers of different material, something that most masks on the market do not deliver. And for those that do, breathing tends to be harder than disposable masks which leads us to the next chapter.
Chapter 4: Air leaks
The unfortunate truth of basically every mask that doesn't have a rubber gasket is that leaks are inevitable from the sides. Air that passes through the sides effectively is not filtered at all, so it should be restricted as much as possible. This is where the final flaw of cloth masks emerges as multilayered and multi-material masks tend to be harder to breathe through than surgical masks. The harder it is for air to pass through filter material, the more air will take the path of lesser resistance thus increasing the volume of leaks. I can't find a source that quantifies this in a standardized way but from experience N95s and surgicals are surprisingly easy to breathe through as they require much thinner filter material due to the double mechanisms stated in chapter 3.
The problem with the average surgical mask is that they are made in a completely square shape leading to a huge gap in the sides. Asian disposable masks have solved this issue even in non-certified form. The standardized forms with government backed performance are the N95, KN95, KF94 etc masks. These all are made basically of the same polypropylene as normal surgical masks but are shaped in a way to greatly minimize leakage.
Chapter 5: The shortage is no more
I hope to have provided a short overview on why disposable plastic as a material is inherently superior to cloth and that the scientific consensus has always been on that side. The main argument against purchasing disposable masks has been supply chain issues meaning that they should be prioritized for frontline and healthcare workers. As of January 2021 though, this shortage is no longer existent. Here are some purchase links online, and I have seen many similar products in stock at my local grocery store.
Quick searches reveal tons of results similar to these. Clearly supply is readily available which is mainly why European nations have started recommending these to replace cloth for use in public spaces.
This ends my general overview on why I believe it is important for informed Americans to move on from cloth masks to more robust options including more expansive reasoning and scientific citations.
Huh! That sounds completely miserable. Why is it anywhere near your nostrils, in the first place? Can you link me to an example product on Amazon? Is it something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Bigox-Face-Disposable-Earloop-50Pcs/dp/B087RRWGJB/ ?
As a kludge, you can put a small piece of tape where it wears. If it's rough on your nose, you might use "moleskin", a special kind of tape which is soft and cushions – conventionally used right on the skin to protect from blisters. You could put a little patch on the inside of the mask.
Can you not get 50 for $10 on amazon?
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