David777
Well-known Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley
Just received the N95 mask order from Amazon:
N95 Face Mask, 30 Pack NIOSH Certified N95 Disposable Respirator 5-Ply Safety Breathable Face Masks, Filter Efficiency 95%, Adjustable Comfortable Protection, Against PM2.5 Dust for Adult, Men, Women $19.99 ($0.67 each)
On November 2022 ordered a 10 pack of the same product for $9.99 ($1.00 each), so knew from experience they fit very well on my own face/head a key element of effectiveness. Now 3.7 years after the pandemic began, there are still debates by experts on what to do going forward and much emotional discussion by ordinary people without the ability to make adequate science based analysis, that tend to latch onto limited information that supports their own preferences.
When the pandemic began, I manually made masks before any pandemic guidelines had been published or mandated, because as a science oriented reader including technical medical science, wearing a mask to inhibited respiratory airborne viruses was common sense I didn't need to have some authority or expert make a case to do. Our county, Santa Clara was the first in the nation to submit recommendations that were later mostly copied across the nation. They did so because the SFBA is a leading urban area for medical science and teaching.
I was not an advocate for some of the guidelines because they tended to be dumbed down so as to be understandable by lowest common denominator of general population audiences. For instance, the 6 foot passing others distance policy nonsense even in outdoors in breezy conditions standing up wind. As soon as KN95 masks became available in 2020 I bought some.
That noted, I haven't been wearing any masks for almost 2 years until occasionally recently. Infection rates, hospitalization rates, and death rates are quite low now.
In most places no one has been wearing masks over the last couple years without negative effects. But now in the winter head cold and flu season that is changing so my Kaiser Permanente has moved back to wearing surgical masks that are provided at all facility entrances. So may do so within buildings depending on circumstance especially if others are coughing sneezing. I who absolutely hate even catching a rhinovirus head cold, have rarely been sick over decades even when working in huge labs and offices where there were often lots of people working while ill, and that is not because I am particularly immune but because I better understand infection mechanisms for my own body.
The following cdc dot gov page from February 2024 involved a discussion whether those flimsy blue/white cheap surgical masks ought to be continued to be recommended where masks are either mandatory or recommended or instead N95 masks, especially within hospital settings. It includes a long list of comments from all parts of the argument some extreme from both sides with most comments nearer the center, that is a valuable read for those trying to understand how different groups look at the issue. Note the TC expert responses to the comments.
A CDC Update on the Part One Draft update to the Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings | Blogs | CDC
N95 Face Mask, 30 Pack NIOSH Certified N95 Disposable Respirator 5-Ply Safety Breathable Face Masks, Filter Efficiency 95%, Adjustable Comfortable Protection, Against PM2.5 Dust for Adult, Men, Women $19.99 ($0.67 each)
On November 2022 ordered a 10 pack of the same product for $9.99 ($1.00 each), so knew from experience they fit very well on my own face/head a key element of effectiveness. Now 3.7 years after the pandemic began, there are still debates by experts on what to do going forward and much emotional discussion by ordinary people without the ability to make adequate science based analysis, that tend to latch onto limited information that supports their own preferences.
When the pandemic began, I manually made masks before any pandemic guidelines had been published or mandated, because as a science oriented reader including technical medical science, wearing a mask to inhibited respiratory airborne viruses was common sense I didn't need to have some authority or expert make a case to do. Our county, Santa Clara was the first in the nation to submit recommendations that were later mostly copied across the nation. They did so because the SFBA is a leading urban area for medical science and teaching.
I was not an advocate for some of the guidelines because they tended to be dumbed down so as to be understandable by lowest common denominator of general population audiences. For instance, the 6 foot passing others distance policy nonsense even in outdoors in breezy conditions standing up wind. As soon as KN95 masks became available in 2020 I bought some.
That noted, I haven't been wearing any masks for almost 2 years until occasionally recently. Infection rates, hospitalization rates, and death rates are quite low now.
In most places no one has been wearing masks over the last couple years without negative effects. But now in the winter head cold and flu season that is changing so my Kaiser Permanente has moved back to wearing surgical masks that are provided at all facility entrances. So may do so within buildings depending on circumstance especially if others are coughing sneezing. I who absolutely hate even catching a rhinovirus head cold, have rarely been sick over decades even when working in huge labs and offices where there were often lots of people working while ill, and that is not because I am particularly immune but because I better understand infection mechanisms for my own body.
The following cdc dot gov page from February 2024 involved a discussion whether those flimsy blue/white cheap surgical masks ought to be continued to be recommended where masks are either mandatory or recommended or instead N95 masks, especially within hospital settings. It includes a long list of comments from all parts of the argument some extreme from both sides with most comments nearer the center, that is a valuable read for those trying to understand how different groups look at the issue. Note the TC expert responses to the comments.
A CDC Update on the Part One Draft update to the Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings | Blogs | CDC
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