Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to CNN’s medical advisor Dr. Leana Wen, kids need weekly testing and continuous wearing of medical grade N95 biological masks to prevent the spread of Covid in schools.
CNN Medical Analyst Wen: Kids Need Weekly Testing, N95 Masks ‘Cloth Masks Are Not Enough’
PAM KEY 10 Aug 2021
CNN medical contributor Dr. Leana Wen said Tuesday on “The Situation Room” that when children return to school, they should wear N95 or at least a three-ply surgical masks and be tested weekly for coronavirus.
Anchor Wolf Blitzer said, “Dr. Wen nearly 94,000 cases of coronavirus in children were reported in the past week alone here in the United States. What is it going to take to get kids back to school safely?”
…
Read more (includes video): https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/08/10/cnn-medical-analyst-wen-kids-need-weekly-testing-n95-masks-cloth-masks-are-not-enough/
I used a P95 mask, an industrial version of the N95 mask, during the outbreak last year in my local area. The idea of wearing such a mask for more than a few hours is utterly absurd, the longest I’ve worn one during a lockdown is half an hour, long enough for a quick dash into the supermarket.
There have been cases of people fainting at the wheel and causing a traffic accident, because they were wearing a N95 mask, presumably due to oxygen deprivation – its a real struggle to breath through a high spec mask, especially if you are doing anything physical. My concern is exactly the same thing could happen to kids, if they are forced to wear high spec masks all day at school.
And there is a real chance wearing a mask does not make any difference to your risk of contracting Covid, the virus is a lot smaller than the 0.3 micron particles the mask is designed to stop. I wore a mask because I hoped it might make a difference, not because I was convinced it would.
Having had to wear a dust mask at work, a major problem is that mask wearing raises the perceived temperature, so the reports of mask wearers passing out might very well be heat exhaustion, not oxygen deprivation.
It was possible to acclimate to working in a hot environment masked, but it definitely did take time to do so.
Measured CO2 levels in the dead space which the mask increases is up to 14,000 ppm.
I would have thought a CO2 molecule was much smaller than the gaps in the threads of a mask
All molecules in air are small enough to pass through a mask, but the exhaled molecules don’t instantaneously switch places with air molecules outside the mask . . so there’s going to be more CO2 inside the mask than outside it every time you breath in.
Plus the velocity of exhaled air is much reduced when masked (more diffused), which would cause exhaled air with higher CO2 to linger around the outside of the mask to be breathed in again. Maskless exhalation velocities would expel CO2 farther away and create eddy currents that would suck fresh air in near the nostrils to be inhaled.
and wearing masks tends to make you breathe through mouth not nose
ups the risk
I have no idea what the exact numbers are on this but I would expect that a lot of body heat is removed as evaporated moisture along with the breath. The filtering must create a volume at the mouth and nose that stays moist and significantly reduces that aspect of heat removal. For air at 100% RH it could easily be more than half the total heat content of the air.
Redge, we understand that for you Political Scientists, real science, as opposed to the Goddess SCIENCE you believe in faithfully (repeating so constantly on comment boards and into megaphones at public rallies as if reciting mantras) can be a bit confusing so you should probably keep you thoughts to yourself.
And, of course this is not just an increase in CO2 molecules in and around the mask we’re talking about, but also a reduction in Oxygen molecules in particular in this circumstance. So subjecting children in a sedentary classroom setting to this for hours on end is just asking for it, so to speak, in terms of increased restlessness and reduced learning “performance” . .
From what one reads “math is racist etc…”, maybe “reduced learning performance” is one of the primary objectives …
minimum of 30,000 easily up to 50,000. Human breath out is 3-5% CO2.
Are you saying that’s why it gets hot? Lol!!
It is not just a question of “perception” (percieved temperature; that is to say, the nervous system interpretation of the stimulus it gets from the sensors), but of the actual effect of raised temperature (when outside the body is colder, as it should for a good health). Mammals, as everyone has seen with dogs, pant because a lot of the thermal regulation is performed by transpiration, exchange of water vapour and exchange of heath, and the tongue and mouth/nose cavity are important organs where this process takes place. Masks reduce this thermoregulation.
But they also reduce airflow: they act as a mechanical barrier. And as consequence, either you use more energy to breathe (and become tired sooner) or you breath less (and you faint).
If you are scared of the flu then you need to be wearing, continuously, a biological grade respirator, otherwise just get over it, it is the f*cking flu. We, Americans, need to end this asinine horsesh*t.
You, Americans, we Europeans, all people all over the world need to end this asinine horsesh*t.
It is going to get much, much uglier.
I agree.
If the measured exhaled CO2 in the mask and actually around the mask is 13,000 ppm CO2, as has been reported in studies with real children, and your exhaled breath is 20–25,000 ppm, that means your in breath is 50% diluted with exhaled CO2-rich and O2-poor air. That means your inhale is going to be half of what it should be compared to your exhale. Yes, hypoxia is real with masks.
The bottom line is that normally exhaled gases are jetted away from your face and your inhale pulls in air from all around your face. This is why astronauts on the space station do not suffocate in their own breath—it could happen, however, if we made them wear masks.
Masks block the flow of exhaling away from your face, forcing it to go through or around the mask. Now, the air around your face is exhalalant and becomes almost half of the air in your next breath.
Hypoxia weakens your immune system and also encourages incipient cancers as well as diseases because your immune system is weak. Also, cancers are anaerobic and do not need oxygen—masks give them the upper hand.
N95 respirators made by different companies were found to have different filtration efficiencies for the most penetrating particle size (0.1 to 0.3 micron), but all were at least 95% efficient at that size for NaCl particles.
Above the most penetrating particle size, the filtration efficiency increases with size; it reaches approximately 99.5% or higher at about 0.75 micron.
Tests with bacteria of size and shape similar to Mycobacterium tuberculosis also showed filtration efficiencies of 99.5% or higher.
Experimental data were used to calculate the aerosol mass concentrations inside the respirator when worn in representative work environments.
The penetrated mass fractions, in the absence of face mask leakage, ranged from 0.02% for large particle distributions to 1.8% for sub-micrometer-size welding fumes.
Thus, the expensive N95 respirators provide excellent protection against airborne particles, IF THERE IS A GOOD FACE SEAL
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9487666/
All of that is NOT the case with those blue contractions people are forced to wear everywhere. They are next to useless.
Or worse yet, the cloth masks, bandanas, etc. But even worse are the pettyfogging rules about masks/no masks in restaurants, gyms, etc. Absurdity rules!
Propaganda needs no rules — just blind belief — at least that’s what John Kerry wants us to believe … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6J4l3g4ygc
Agreed. However, the premier of the state of Victoria, Chairman Dan, here in Australia is on record stating cloth masks are OK and will “protect” against the spread of the virus. This is the sort of idiocy we endure in Australia.
And thus such face masks are either useless for children or harmful (hypoxia and hypercapnia).
The CNN medical nutcase is advocating for child abuse.
Meanwhile, the virus is mostly harmless to kids. The longer we prolong the spread of it through younger people the longer it is around as a danger to older people. We should let it run in kids now, and actually we should have let in run in kids once we had a vaccination level sufficient to prevent spread to teachers and parents.
And NIOSH workplace rules require them to be replaced after 8 hours in a “toxic” environment. If you have the proper sterilization equipment they allow for two sterilizations before replacement. How many people can afford to replace a medical grade N95 everyday for themselves and children in schools.
If your workplace requires it they should pay for it.
If the School District requires it they should pay for it
Both should follow NIOSH workplace standards for use.
I believe they are actually supposed to be individually fitted as well. To kids apparently, who can’t keep track of their mitts and homework.
Masks are not for controlling a virus, they are for controlling people, same as a hijab.
Masks are most commonly used, medically, to maintain a partially sterile field against contaminants and bacteria … not viruses.
And they don’t even work against bacteria. Several Cochrane reviews have found that surgical masks don’t affect the number of post-op wound infections.
This is the latest review:
https://www.cochrane.org/CD002929/WOUNDS_disposable-surgical-face-masks-preventing-surgical-wound-infection-clean-surgery
You’re right, of course. Perhaps I should have highlighted “a partially sterile field”. They are quite good at concentrating low volumes of bacterial pathogens in their warm, damp interior, especially when used over long periods … not to mention over and over again.
Thanks for the link 🙂
Masks, even N95, are more used to protect others from you. The TB bacterium is much larger than the Covid virus. N95 Mask fit is very hard to achieve. In viral terms,the N95 is equivalent to a cyclone chain link fence in a snowstorm.
I wore N95 masks every day when examining patients and doing office surgical procedures for over 30+ years. I went through a number of them every day. I used them to avoid blood splatter and with some hope that I wouldn’t catch whatever viral/bacterial disease a patient might be carrying. I was practicing during the start of the HIV epidemic and I saw many who had proven infections (of course always wore examining gloves and surgical gloves plus protective eyewear). Most of the HIV+ patients worked in the entertainment business in Hollywood.
I never expected rationally that the masks would prevent men from getting the Flu for example. My brother practiced as a pediatrician and his petri dish practice still caused him to contract several illnesses a year despite wearing masks.
I didn’t find the masks to be uncomfortable or perhaps I just adjusted.
When we did PPE training, it was made very clear that the purpose of the paper surgical masks was to prevent splatter from getting on your nose and mouth, not to prevent airborne infection, in either direction. That entire concept seems to have been forgotten.
Does anyone expect a school-aged child to keep a good seal on an N95 mask throughout the school day? Also, if these kids start having trouble breathing are they not going to pull the mask off? What if they have an itchy nose?
Or a runny nose!
G-man/woman — You sick stay home 3 fortnight.
The ubiquitous ‘blue mask’ has become the likely choice universally. It was not designed for protracted use. It is also very useful in concentrating a variety of bacteria, almost guaranteeing an exponential spike in bacterial infections.
Or the dreadful black face fungal infection in India. In North America masks are responsible for an epidemic of acne (maskne).
What could possibly go wrong with this scenario … appointing Dr. Death, a long time manufacturer of weaponized infections, father to the manufactured AIDS “pandemic” and UN money harvesting machine (now defunct) as top doctor to control a non-existing “pandemic” specifically intended to overthrow a president … or words to that effect? Then, contrary to the Nurenburg Code, they force people to take an ineffective, experimental treatment designed to mess with their genes, remove a long list of their inalienable rights while forcing everyone to hide their faces behind useless diapers. In the span of approx. 18 months, 300 years of enlightenment and human sacrifice were overturned with hardly a passing thought.
How is it so few people are noticing?
“they force people to take an ineffective, experimental treatment”
They’re already recommending “boosters”. Supposed to start in December.
I see no end in sight for the craziness, unless people begin to push back. They’re talking about “a 4th wave”. Australia is using their military to keep the public in line for a disease that is killing fewer people than deaths from farm animals.
Madness!
Totally correct. I keep telling people that these, cheap, unrated masks are completely useless and are more a virtual signal and a symbol of submission and compliance than anything to stall the spread of viruses.
NIH “donated” US$600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2014.
Fuzzi tap dance
“The size of SARS-CoV-2 ranges from 0.07 μm to 0.09 μm.”—source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7579175/
Therefore, the effectiveness of a mask in preventing the transmission of this virus is highly dependent on BOTH (a) the original aerosol size distribution (mix of mucous—mostly water—and virus) generated by the contagious person breathing/coughing outward and (b) the rate of evaporation of moisture from those drops in the time interval needed to reach the mask. Keep in mind that the smaller the aerosol droplet size, the faster moisture evaporates from it on a percentage basis (the old surface area to volume scaling relationship, where A/V is proportional to 1/radius).
Also, once any sizable aerosol droplet lands on the outside surface of a mask, it is only a matter of time until most of the droplet’s moisture evaporates and then mostly virus particles remain on its surface, as noted above at <0.1 micron size.
N95 respirators and well-fitted N95 face masks would NOT be very effective in preventing no-longer-aerosolized SARS-SoV-2 virus particles passing through the filtering medium.
Therefore, the Qian, et. al. [1998] paper published in the Journal of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, which you linked in your post, has no practical relevance to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus or its variants.
What we have learned is that our medical experts are simply more people not wearing clothing, just like the fabled emperor.
I have grade school aged children. I know what goes on with masks at school. Nothing could be less effective at preventing spread of disease. My kids came home with multiple colds last year just like always and they were subjected to mask wearing all day long — enforced by zealots hired temporarily and not trained at all for the express purpose of enforcing rules. We had a local flu epidemic in February, many times worse than COVID, but no one seemed to care.
Martin Kulldorf was not kidding when he said “Three hundred years of The Enlightenment is over.”
Cargo cult science. Masks have an em-pathetic appeal.
Legal liability. Masks are symbolic exhibits of legal indemnity.
Social science. Masks are visible gestures of virtue signalling. If you’re one of us…
Political science. Masks are useful tools of democratic leverage.
That said, don’t forget the goggles. The eyes are a window to social and viral contagion.
CNN forgot to mention these healthy safety tips … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAvVq-xrFbI
CNN have as much credibility as a 3-day old chicken sandwich.
My daughter is currently at med school and has some experiance of N95 masks – she says they are horribly uncomfortable making your face sore, and have to be replaced if they are touched as they are then deemed ineffective. They really are not suitable for use in schools
“…and have to be replaced if they are touched as they are then deemed ineffective ” …
How do you put one on without touching it ?
😉
Subsequently touched, manipulated, forced, thus contaminating or breaking the seal.
Rather amusing are you?…so to help you to better understand…… just educate yourself to avoid asking what everyone else knows….😉
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control/n95-respirators-surgical-masks-and-face-masks#s5
I would guess in much the same way as you change a halogen headlight bulb without touching it 🙂
There is a prophylactic protocol for wearing masks, in medical settings, just as there is for hand washing, going to the toilet and wearing medical gloves. Breach the protocols and all medical benefits are null and void.
They are useful only for those of the public who wish to show they really, really, really care.
Actually the proponent of this absurdity has put their name to it making it easy to know where to direct the lawsuits for those suffering from the effects of long term mask wearing: Long term psychological issues; mask mouth; long term developmental issues; long term health issues.
Dr Leana Wen has history as she insisted that states should not open until everyone has been vaccinated otherwise people will be enjoying freedoms and have no incentive to be vaccinated. She has asserted “we Can’t Trust the Unvaccinated”. She thinks vaccine mandates “cannot come soon enough.” “We have hit a wall when it comes to vaccinations in this country. We’re just not going to get anywhere close to the vaccine level that we need in order to prevent another surge of coronavirus…Really, what we need to do is make a decision as a society…you can remain unvaccinated if you so choose, but if you want to be in public…there’s an obligation to society.”
How many of the “unvaccinated” are immune to covid?
No official interst to find it out.
Perfect trial-research – Sturgis 2020. All expense paid. How to set-up —no idea. If a doctor in a black Smock appeared with “trust me” sign, I would run away very fast. Set up – impossible by Federales
My list of tasks for Dr. Leana Wen . . . by your logic, you must immediately work to get all US citizens vaccinated against:
— the seasonal flu
— pneumonia
— hepatitis A and B
— herpes simplex
— shingles (herpes zoster)
— human papillomavirus (HPV)
— chickenpox
— measels
— mumps
— diphtheria
— rubella
— pertussis
— malaria
— tetanus
— smallpox
— polio
— ebola
oh, yes, least we forget,
— SARS-CoV-2 (all its variants, as required)
To repeat the meme: We Can’t Trust the Unvaccinated
She sounds like the kind of person who will think this list is good. She is from China and her parents were Chinese political dissidents that managed to escape to the US. With that family history and knowledge of what tyranny is like I don’t understand why she is championing the Chinese ‘method’ for controlling a virus, which is actually controlling people, and in a very bad way.
Oh, my bad!
In my above listing, I neglected to include vaccinations against:
— cholera
— dengue fever
— yellow fever
— meningitis (meningococcal disease)
How careless of me.
We Still Can’t Trust the Unvaccinated.
As far as I know N95s don’t get much below 0.3 microns.
The virus ranges between 50 nm to 140 nm That’s 0.05 microns to 0.14 microns
Does a chainlink fence keep mosquitoes out?
As I usually say: if condoms were built on the same physical principles, we would be now in a baby boom…
Or, if children are around: if coffee filters were build on the same physical principles, we would be drinking Turkish coffee.
Or we would normalize a planned parent/hold protocol to remove excess “burdens”, young, and old. Oh, wait, we do, and call it social progress… one step forward, two steps backward. Meanwhile, the Democrat party of New York, in an exquisite act of legerdemaine, has shifted focus to sexual… gendered harassment. Of Michigan, to a plot constructed and executed mostly by the FBI. And so on and so forth.
They are still hoping that droplets will materialize as a significant carrier. And, of course, that people… persons will follow strict protocol to realize the utility of N95 masks and similar ppe.
The NIOSH-approved N95 masks all use an electrostatic layer to attract and hold particulate. The size is almost irrelevant, as the static charge of the filter does the job. The efficiency of the mask is almost entirely determined by the fit to the face. Getting a good fit is quite an exercise and requires training for all hospital/medical personnel. And, they are not typically sized to fit children!
The static charge lasts for years, unless exposed to oil, by the way. My 17 years in the respirator business lets you know I know whereof I speak…
Like all salesmen, saying what is needed to sell the product in hand.
I was a qualified radiation worker through out my career, requiring certification in all manner of PPE, from filtered respirators to self-contained and air supplied breathing apparatus; and the proper donning, doffing and replacement criteria. My mechanics worked in isolation suits.
HuffAndPuffMan,
Salesman? Who was a salesman? QC and Engineering Manager, designed many components and processes, and was/am well-versed in the technology. What are you good at?
Except, NIOSH-approved N95 masks, their proper fit and protocols of use, have never been the issue. The general standard for mask wearing is anything covering face and nose is deemed satisfactory to satisfy the necessary virtue signal rule. People wearing a bandana are considered “safe”.
It’s all about the APPEARANCE of compliance to authority that counts. None of this has anything to do with an unremarkable virus.
ForbesNoRelation,
There are many varieties of masks, from a bandana to a full HAZMAT suit with SCBA. When we were first told to wear masks the story was to catch droplets resulting from coughs, sneezes, shouting and singing. From what I read there is not much evidence that the masks have helped prevent the spread of this disease, which is frequently fatal to the old and otherwise unwell.
What does “ForbesNoRelation” mean? Why HuffAndPuffMan?
You appear to be something of a dipsh*t
I’m fully aware of the gradual progression into the madness of wearing any old mask to satisfy the idiots in charge. The most common (blue, earloop variety) have a warning right on the box stating: NOT FOR PROTECTION AGAINST VIRUSES, like Covid – 19. Then there was Dr. Fouci’s infamous lie on mask wearing.
In medical use, most of the masks we see, including the N95 are intended solely to maintain a local sterile field for short periods and then sterile disposal. The rest are over priced commercial knock-offs or useless home made clown costume.
There was never any confusion among professionals about masks from the start. There was simple miscommunication by authorities for various political reasons. They started by spreading lies and are continuing to do so as we write.
I know you are but what am I? Such maturity and wisdom rarely found in one so young…
So you have no other reason to respond by calling us a silly name than your own immaturity. Gotcha, Pee-wee.
You appear to resort to a personal attack to defend your unclear position. So I am an immature dips..t. You are innocent of a sense of humor, a “Rebel without a Clue.” This Pandemic is the first of the Information Age, with daily of not hourly press conferences giving ignorant politicians the chance to virtue-signal. I merely discuss the technology of the masks, in which I am expert, and I run into someone hiding behind anonymity with comments that would earn you a fat lip in person. Go jump in the lake
Isums wittle feewings hurt? You opened by calling people silly names. You didn’t earn any respect. When questioned about it you went into a childish sulk. Neither I nor anyone else have any reason to assume you’re an expert. You’re a common or garden variety prick. That’s for certain. Now you want to hand out fat lips, LOL … what a maroon.
Where did that take place? You’re a liar as well as a fool. Go back to Tick-Tock, sonny we have all the trolls we need.
I work in the semiconductor clean room with air filtered by N99 HEPA filter with a 0.3 micro spec. We monitor particles all the time Thefilters are very good at filtering out virus particles. What most people don’t’ realize is that very small particles are sticky due to static charge. Virus are also sticky due to the need for them to stick to cells. As a result very small particles are more efficiently removed by N95 masks than the o.3 micron particles. Lab tests have confirmed that N95 masks do stop viruses.
https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2009/10/14/n95/
As to people passing out due to lack of oxygen is simply not true The average human lung can hold 6 liters of air. Even with shallow breathing a person is going to exhale about 2 liters of air. There simply is not enough space between the mask and your lungs to hold 2 liters of air. Also sturdies have show that in confined spaces most people will do fine in air the more 8000ppm of CO2. in fact in some move theaters CO2 levels have been measured well above 10,000 ppm CO2 So fasting these two facts a mask will not cause you to pass out due to lack of oxygen.
If you don’t believe me go by a pulse oximeter. These are using in hosptals and slip onto your finger they measure pulse and blood oxygen levels I have don that while wearing a N95 mask and my blood oxygen levels was 98% with is normal. Hospitals generally don’t provide oxygen unless it falls to about 70%. i have exercisd while wearing a N95 mask and have not had any problems.
My sister is a family practice doctor When she is at work seeing patients she has to wear a N95 mask. Has she or any of her coworkers passed out, No. Doctors treating Covid 19 patients also are not passing out due to lack of oxygen. And most of them didn’t catch covid even before we had a Vaccine. My employer has required masks even in clean rooms. With hundreds of employees working in the same building No one has contracted Covid 19 and only one passed out. Me. The doctor discovered I had internal bleeding. So I didn’t pass out due to the mask. I passed out due to lack of blood.
Put one of those blood-oxygen monitors on your finger and note the percent oxygen. Then put on a N95 mask, wait 5 minutes and try the blood-oxygen monitor again. N95 masks on our children? Forget about it.
Hmm, interesting, and a practical experiment as I acquired a Peripheral Pulse Satuated O2 oximeter for my CoViD nursing kit.
I have had a chronic breathing issue for the last 15 years which crops up on occasion. Many specialists with little evidence of a simple diagnosis resulted in a generic asthma opinion. Troublesome dry cough that can happen at any time and reduced respiratory function. Lots of meds, most ineffective. I changed my diet to keto and there was improvement but not cured. Willis wrote an article here at WUWT about breathing and I tried his suggestions which also helped.
Best help was the book “The Oxygen Advantage” by P. McKeown which stressed the need to breath through your nose which I had difficulty with. Sadly a proverbial mouth breather. Much better now and my SpO readings have improved by 3% which is big and resting heartrate down almost 10 bpm.
Oh ya, if you have a respiratory issue wearing a mask sucks.
Er…. viruses can enter the body through the eye surface. Masks are NOT going to sort that.
The general justification for masks is that they limit the amount of large particle exudation from people – spit and sneeze particles, essentially. I don’t know how effective this is at lowering spread of respiratory disease – the big DaneMask study found little variation between masked and unmasked individuals. I understand that some studies pinpoint the concentration of much lighter particles (aerosols) in closed environments as the primary path for airborne infection.
A mask is an easily seen sign of ‘compliance’. Nothing more.
Exactly so! Anything covering the face is deemed OK … even completely pointless bandanas.
Even crochet or mesh.
On a side note, I keep wanting to go shopping with my cowboy hat and a bandanna.
I do wear my cowboy hat (great sun protection)… but stop short of the bandana. I don’t wear a mask for anyone under any circumstance. I have COPD and no interest in passing out while shopping.
Note: if they mandate injections I will be wearing an arm band with a yellow star to remind people of the past (and a pocket copy from the relevant parts of the The Nuremberg Code (1947).)
The best I’ve seen was a grid of rhinestones. Covered the face but hardly hid any features.
If your mask stops some droplets, then you will be sucking viral aerosol on each inhale and blowing out a viral aerosol each time you exhale. better to let the droplets land elsewhere on your face where they can be washed off safely.
Sounds like child abuse.
interesting, I just received a bulletin from the FDA rescinding the EUA for healthcare offices use ofKN95 masks. It’s not that you can still use them if you have them. The notice clearly states that “KN95 masks are no longer authorized for use in healthcare settings.” Interesting people are demanding we put them on our kids forever.
KN95, not N95. Different things. KN95 is the cheap Chinese knock-off of a real 3M N95 mask.
The KN95 mask *may* use the same materials as an N95, but uses ear loops rather than head-bands to hold it in place. Ear loops will not allow a proper face seal. The angle at which they pull the mask to the face are wrong, and getting enough force would probably rip your ears off.
The specs for KN95 mask is basically the same as N95 and lab test show that both are equally effective. there is one difference in the KN95 spec. KN95 masks have a fit requirement. N95 does not.
N95masks need the head bands to get a tight seal on the face. KN 95 as a result of the fit spec doesn’t need the tight head bands to get an equally good seal. for myself I get a better seal with KN95 masks than N95.
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My son worked in a hospital, HR health and safety, pre covid. He was updating the mask guidelines. Medical staff were forbidden from wearing masks except while providing treatments to infected patients. They could only use a professionally fitted N95 mask, and that mask had to be discarded immediately upon leaving the infected patient. It was specifically noted that infection control procedures were aimed at preventing cross transmission from patient to patient. Wearing a mask from one location to another is what spreads disease, exactly what people are doing when they pull a used mask out of their pocket when they go into another store.
Everything being mandated by governments, worldwide, make disease transmission worse because they have totally ignored actual medical advise.
“Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
We’re getting very close, if not already there, to the atrocity-level by listening to idiots demanding healthy children at near zero risk to COVID being forced to wear N95 masks for 6-8 hours a day in classrooms. These dangerous idiots are the unionized teachers, woke adminitrators and idiot Democrat politicians.
This is what happens when a free people get so anesthetized by the Left that they allow Marxists to control political governance.
Here’s a pretty good article on the mask subject:
https://www.city-journal.org/do-masks-work-a-review-of-the-evidence?wallit_nosession=1
Does Dr. Leana Wen not believe in natural immunity?
While my children were inoculated against certain childhood diseases, I was not and like most of my class mates and friends had these diseases, did not have reinfections and survived. I cannot remember a single child in all my school years or in the town and later city where I lived dying from any of these. Without natural immunity there would have been repeated infections and deaths. This is not misinformation despite certain doctors continually telling us the contrary.
I remember having mumps in the early 60s
Not pleasant, but now there is a vaccine.
Please, allow me to reformulate:
If you ask the dr. if she “believes” in natural immunity, you are asking her what church does she attend, i.e., you are asking a question of faith.
So, I would reformulate:
Does Dr. L. Wen know that there is (a number of physiological processes that are called) natural immunity?
Joao
A common feature among different languages is that the meaning of a word is determined by its context and not by its most frequent meaning – the first meaning listed in a dictionary.
The word believe can be used as a synonym for to accept or to have confidence in the natural human mechanism in our bodies that protects us from a huge number of virus during our lifetime.
I agree, but selecting polysemic words is a source of fuzziness and confusion. In this case, when we see everyday in papers and tv loads of guesswork and wishful thinking presented as hard science, it seems to me that clearly distinguishing a scientific stance from superstition or guesswork is a must. Yes, context matters, in this case, it is advisable to be careful in the choice of terms.
Perhaps in my professional life I have developed an addiction to precision in the choice of words when writing in scientific contexts. My fault, then…
In any case, I thank you very much. It is evident that I am not writing in my native language but be certain that I would make the same comment to a countryman of mine (as a curiosity, in Portuguese the verb “acreditar” can be directly translated from/to to believe because it changes meaning as you descibed almost exactly in the same contexts).
Cross-reactive and acquired immunity. Both of which can be, and the evidence is that they are, robust and durable.
Exactly! I survived pertusis in 1950, mumps later with my brother, and chicken pox also with my brother. I got measles, he missed that one somehow. Now kids get shots so don’t catch these kiddo diseases anymore. I was vaccinated for polio with the Salk vaccine as soon as it became available, 1953? I remember houses on our block in quarantine for scarlet fever and polio. But I am still alive and doing great, didn’t catch covid either!
The fact that you did not hear of any child dying is the kind of evidence the IPCC uses (see Willis on sea rise above). 1/1000 children are seriously damaged or killed by measles and I do know one. Whooping cough in very young infants has a much higher death rate. At the age of six, I had measles and pertussis in tandem followed by pneumonia. Boy am I glad it was in the penicillin age.
The UK is ahead of the US with the Indian variant.
Very recent data analysis is showing that the jabbed are MORE likely to be infected with SARS-COV-2 than the unjabbed free thinkers.
If the trend continues it blows this dystopian notion completely out of the water.
Of the c.25 research papers available, most of which I have read, two included the N95 respirator and concluded that they were useless in this setting.
Proper care and use of facemasks:
Step 1) Throw facemask away.
Bruce,
I plan on saving my N95 masks; I’ve got most of a box left over from a home remodel and paint job I did a couple of years ago.
I wouldn’t waste them on the ridiculous mask mandate we suffered through, but I have high hopes of deploying them on the faces of some of the murderous morons who led this descent into medical madness when/if society ever returns to sanity! With a staple gun!
Part of the sentencing for Evil Queen Gretchen, and those like her that killed so many with their CCP inspired policies, should be a lifelong mask mandate! Then we never have to see her smirking face again!
Do not watch CNN…do not buy masks from China. In the USA, just cross the Mexican border as an illegal and you can do as you please….go to San Fransicko and you can walk out of stores with $900 worth of free stuff – what a country!….remember to vote demrat…and vote often!
The novel deal includes diversity (i.e. class) waivers and bag limits. One step forward, two steps backward to an ethical (i.e. relativistic) society.
MIT deploys three layers of protection against delta COVID-19 variant
https://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-covid-19-protections/37287065
Not available in my region.
Any hint about the content? Thx.
One more time…
And yet this is the type of mask most people are wearing! It used to be given out at our hospital back when they used to take your temperature on entering. This practice has been discontinued, however, if you are feverish you are supposed to stay home….
When more Covid-19 data doesn’t equal more understanding
Social media users share charts and graphs — often with the same underlying data — to advocate opposing approaches to the pandemic.
Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online
Controversial understandings of the coronavirus pandemic have turned data visualizations into a battleground. Defying public health officials, coronavirus skeptics on US social media spent much of 2020 creating data visualizations showing that the government’s pandemic response was excessive and that the crisis was over
Make the young forever fearful of disease to the point of the pain of the mask and isolation.
Fortunately kids arent covered under the OSHA respiratory program.
Teachers on the other hand….
While I enjoy despoiling the illusions of the self-important, those cheap blue masks do have a useful purpose. They will block dust particles nicely when I’m cleaning the catbhoxes (despite the so-called 95% dust-free claims), and since I do NOT want silicosis from catbox dust (or any other dust-ridden exercise) I see no harm in wearing one. Think how many people might have not died of “dust lung” (silicosis) during the Dust Bowl, if those cheap blue masks had been available.
They are also handy when cleaning the kitchen floor, and in this humid weather, I am having a real problem with mold, so I do NOT mind wearing one when I clean the floor. I kind of like those cat masks that someone sells on Amazon, too, and the steam punk crowd will, of course, adopt the birdbeak Plague mask, because it fits their meme.
So they do serve a useful purpose, including not getting flour up your nose when making cookies, so what’s the problem? If it’s the impermeability of air to get through the fabric, then get something simpler.
They definitely have their place in the world but I resent being forced to wear one to go into a store, the bank, pay for petrol, etc. They make my face hot and I always have my nose out so I can breath!
No argument from me about that, and the state I live in has relaxed its mask-wearing rules so that you don’t have to wear one to go grocery shopping or shopping for other stuff.
But the paranoia that is rampantly fostered by politicians is meant to scare us, not help us, and I know it.
‘The world’s most viewed site on global warming and climate change’
How is this a climate issue? Stick to the main aim!
Look for the climate under the mask and you know it – 14,000 ppm CO2 – heat without end 😀 😀
Nothing other to mention ? Typical griff 😀
Just to complete the image for you griff::
only traces of O2, a lot of bacteria, the one ore the or the virus, a climate as in times the first algae evolves.
Time to change the climate ?? 😉
griffter…please trey to keep up….CCT (Critical Climate Theory) means Global Warming became Climate Change now morphed into Climate Heating.
Griff, you ignorant slut….
Mods. How is this comment even close to meeting WUWT’s rules on offensive postings? Whether you agree with Griff or not he made his point in a respectful way, then you get this…”Griff, you ignorant slut….”
griff is always asking for, seems to be a form of maso 😀
So, he is pleasant to grff 😀
It should be
griff, you ignorant misguided slut
It’s just a little comedy from when SNL was actually funny
A simple, concise word for “someone who will do or say anything to receive gratification from those he or she deems to be important.”
Of course, with the trolls here, as anywhere, it can be difficult to tell whether they are in it for love – or money, which would be the equally concise word that starts with “w.”
OFFENSIVE
a woman who has many casual sexual partners.
From the about page:
Please take this opportunity to read the “About” page, you mindless dolt. You’ll find this site is NOT only about “climate change” (moronic term that it is).
About Watts Up With That? News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts
A – Lets deny the young the opportunity to develop natural immunity
B) Seriously – does any one belief we can eradicate the virus at this point with masking ?
B. We certainly were not able to with the vaccine
The common flu virus requires a new flu vaccine every fall because the flu bug exchange RNA with each other and produce a new virus…every cotton pickin’ fall. Been going on for decades.
I am not surprised that the delta variant occurred. It’s just doing what viruses do: shift antigens, get RNA from another CV strain and start over.
viruses have sex?
And it you study the graphs, there is a definite 6 monthly pattern to the COV.
Each succeeding wave has had larger amplitude, and roughly the same width separated by 6-7months, for the virus to get a nice new strain and restart, vaccine, masks and all the other vastly inflated propaganda & “solutions” notwithstanding.
N95 mask appears to be effective for COVID compared to cloth and surgical masks, ( I have previously posted the S. Korean Mask studies). The real question is about actual risk. I don’t know what the risk is. Which is more important the risk or the mask in response or the mask as a political alignment? N95 masks make me sleepy in about 4 minutes. The teachers would freak out wearing N95 masks. If there is real overwhelming risk, then N95 masks would make sense and would be a better option than the virtual classroom (a horrid option). BUT before we go all freaky on N95 masks we need to take a good look at the data related to the children who are being hospitalized for COVID/DELTA. Are these the kids being admitted medically 2-3 times a year for chronic severe pediatric diseases and then testing positive for COVID, (we all know about the false positive rate for the COVID test and the COVID admissions payola game)? Are they kids who are chronically ill and actually contracting COVID? Are they mostly healthy kids contracting COVID? Until, we answer these questions, and I am sure CNN hasn’t, then we have to assume this is a political push to keep the hysteria bus rolling. Children who are ill should be protected from COVID, (i.e. masks, isolation, vaccines, Virtual school etc) but do we really have to worry about the healthy kids. Can’t parents make decisions about how to protect themselves and their kids? My family has all had COVID and we have all had the vaccine….why should my 16 year old son wear a mask in school…it’s nuts. I am glad he is homeschooled, but I will be paying big bucks to send my kid to college so she can wear a N95 mask through her Freshman year….it’s heart breaking.
The switcheroo…
Tell this to the Canadian nurses, who sued Canada claiming masks don’t work. They sued Canada, and won.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/union-says-ontario-nurses-can-t-be-forced-to-wear-masks-in-flu-season-1.3222702
Tell this to Anthony Fauci, who wrote a study that facemaks caused more deaths because of bacteria than the flu.
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/198/7/962/2192118
The only study I have found that shows masks work is based on a computer model. I have asked and asked for a study using RCT — the so-called gold standard of testing — showing masks worked. I have many that showed they didn’t, but none using RCT that showed they did. In fact, as of now, I have 20 studies showing masks don’t work over several decades, plural.
One problem is that people are forced to wear masks where viruses do not spread and not where viruses do spread. You don’t have to wear a mask at home, but common sense tells you that most people get sick because the disease runs through the home.
“but common sense tells you that most people get sick because the disease runs through the home.”
Not only common sense but there was a report about the middle of last year, in New York, showing that the majority of infections came from in-house spread.
It was pretty quickly memory-holed.
Obama has shown us that masks and vaccines are not needed, That sea levels are not rising, and John jerry has proven to us that the climate scam is nothing but a tax scam, to control us.. CNN msnbc are pure Anti-American cancer..
Agreed, climate change is a tax scam. We pay the the tax to Big Energy like a state and federal sales tax and Big Energy pays the government and our representation becomes proxied by Big Energy. This is why Big Energy is lobbying for carbon taxes at State and Federal levels and pushing states to pass laws to prohibit the average citizen from going off grid. It is a big power grab by global energy to undermine our electoral representation. More centralized political power means greater control over the markets at a time when there is a massive glut of hydrocarbon fuel. It’s time to update our anti-trust laws to deal with the globalist corporate attack on American democracy.
Actually, it’s sorta seeming like progressive Democrats are a pure anti-American cancer. Certainly anti-freedom. Unless, of course, you feel being forced to agree with someone is freedom.
THIS is what you can expect from wearing a worthless mask for extended periods.
I guess the vaccine is not working 🤔
Eric,
Thanks for raising the issue! At this point it is obvious that the DemoKKKrat party and their media sycophants MUST have the ChiCom virus panic ratcheted up to enable the voter fraud necessary for most of their recent election wins!
Putting masks on children, and preventing them from in-person schooling is nothing less than child abuse! The Dims, and their major backers like the teacher’s unions and the technocrats, do not care one whit for American school kids; hence their demands for concessions and controls from the public!
As any intelligent evolutionary biologist could tell you, these “leaky” vexxines are a recipe for the rapid development of variants. It now appears that the variants are arising in areas where the vexxines were tested; leading one to ask again why we are still suppressing the safe and effective use of therapeutics, and pumping gene altering, experimental compounds into our bodies!
P.S.- Irish study from March of this year shows that masks on kids are harmful, both physically AND psychologically! NO NET benefit + high chance of harm = CHILD ABUSE!!!
“Thanks for raising the issue! At this point it is obvious that the DemoKKKrat party and their media sycophants MUST have the ChiCom virus panic ratcheted up to enable the voter fraud necessary for most of their recent election wins!”
How much crackpot conspiracy can one sentence contain?
“P.S.- Irish study from March of this year shows that masks on kids are harmful,”
Really, got a link?
Trump Russia colluuuusion moron
Trump tax fraud….
You really are that dumb
So … you’re a Democrat. Figures!
Nope
It’s a simple intelligence test; once again you fail!
So no link? I guess no study?
“The Dims, and their major backers like the teacher’s unions and the technocrats, do not care one whit for American school kids”
Wrong!
These practices are right in line with the desired conditioning that is the over-riding goal of the school system.
There is a simple way to prevent the spread of covid in public schools.
Don’t send your kids there. A secondary benefit is they won’t be indoctrinated by politicians and union members who run the operations either.
For N95 masks to work properly they have to be properly fitted. One of the criteria is whether the person wearing the mask is psychologically capable of wearing the mask. Not sure that 8 year olds can meet that criteria. I seriously doubt that kids can properly wear an N95.
I do want to correct a misconception. The virus is smaller than the filter capabilities of the mask but the idea that is like a chain link fence is not correct. The better analogy is that of mile wide thickness of chain link fences pushed together. That does have an effect on how easy it is to breath but also how well a virus (or a proverbial mosquito) will get through.
The real issue with an N95 is leakage around the seals. This is why fit testing is so important.
Finally, looking at the real numbers from last week, hitting almost 94,000 children is only accurate if you include young adults. The right way to look at that number though is that now, almost 94,000 children no longer have to worry about getting COVID because they are immune. Given that they have little risk of serious disease, getting COVID actually works to their benefit.
If I were the cynical type, I would say that masks are very effective for their intended purpose, which is to make people fearful of everybody else.
Oh, wait..
N95 masks are not designed to properly fit the faces of children, and without a tight seal, are no more effective than simple cloth or paper ear-loop masks. And they are a lot more expensive. Even if you could find a size that fit properly (xx-small ?), they are uncomfortably tight and force the wearer to breath harder. Most children already dislike school; this policy would make them hate it with a passion, which is not conducive to education, to say the least.
In research I have read a large fraction of mask wearing children are at times sleepy and inattentive. Surely the goal of an educational institution, no?
“sleepy and inattentive” I think IS the goal of our public schools. Helps to create a permanent worker class that won’t be able to challenge the “elites”
They don’t do “education” in public schools any more. They do Schooling … a horse of an entirely different colour. Allowing real education in schools would be tantamount to funding “progressive” government’s own downfall. The purpose of public schooling is to reduce mental freedom while increasing social dependency.
Are Blitzer and Wen wearing N-95’s all day at work? The other CNN talking heads?
“Anchor Wolf Blitzer said, “Dr. Wen nearly 94,000 cases of coronavirus in children were reported in the past week alone here in the United States. What is it going to take to get kids back to school safely?”
Seriously? And Wolfie knows this is a fact why? If kiddos are catching it now, all of a sudden, how do we know this is covid and not flu or some other respiratory bug? And an upper-respiratory bug going around in August in the USA? Highly unlikely anyway.
I hypothesize that this large number is only because so many kids are getting tested , either because they are going on vacation/plane flights or going back to school and need negative tests. Most probably don’t have any symptoms and few have serious cases. The media always uses the biggest number they can to fear monger
While I don’t trust much that the major media says, they are saying there is a large increase in number of chindren needing hospitalization. If there is any truth in that, it is much more significant than any positive irrelevant test numbers.
But that is the big question, is there any truth to kiddos being hospitalized for covid? It seems unlikely this is the case, especially in summer. The kiddos in Portugal are doing fine.
Texas Tribune recently reported 5800 children hospitalized over a 7-day period in August. Many “reporters” ran with this. Nobody seemed to catch the correction: 5800 was the total number for the entire pandemic. They then “corrected” their count to report 783 from July 1 to August 9 (a 40-day period, not 7-day).
Stuff like this makes me very suspicious of the reporting. Especially since these “mistakes” never seem to under count.
Pamela,
Once again CNN is pushing the casedemic! Back when Trump was still in office, the PCR tests were run at a higher number of cycles; this gave many false positives, inflating cases! Once the Dims got the Bai Den usurpation installed, the CDC decided to lower the number of cycles recommended; thus lowering cases to make the new regime look effective!
Now with 2022 fast approaching, and panic needed once again for their voter fraud program to work, the Dims want to emphasize cases again; especially of the vexxine variants! Once a virus is endemic, the number of cases is largely meaningless! What one should be looking at is number of hospitalizations and deaths! For children without comorbidities, these remain essentially zero! And children that get exposed to the ChiCom virus will likely have years of natural immunity; even against the variants!
Like the “mistake” in reporting the numbers in Texas, this may very well be the total since the beginning of the pandemic, not a weekly measure. I would be very skeptical about anything the lamestream media reports, especially CNN.
After a while, wearing masks, excessive use of hand sanitizers, and social distancing prevents all of us from continually exercising our immune systems as happens when we normally interact with the general public. We need strong immune systems to prevent many respiratory illnesses. These illnesses are now starting to show an increase in the U.S.
The Left’s obsession with trying to control public health is having the unintended consequence of decreasing public health. It’s like preventing U.S. Olympic weight lifters from working out and still expecting them to optimally perform during competition.
Yes, thus the pandemics, endemics, disorders, respiratory conditions, and physiological weaknesses that plague humanity past, present, and progressive.
“These illnesses are now starting to show an increase in the U.S.”
Which will obviously require further government intervention by way of more lockdowns and mask mandates to keep people from ever being sick.
Is it really an unintended consequence?
Take a knee, beg, good girl, boy, whatever. There are diverse precedents.
Nailed it.
Masks efficacy is limited by physical, mechanical, and behavioral characteristics.
Postoperative wound infections and surgical face masks: a controlled study
Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses
Miles Monroe would become the politically incorrect San Marcos dictator in “Sleeper”. He promulgated the edict not only that everyone under 16 is henceforth 16, but that: ” All citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour … [and] underwear will be worn on the outside, so we can check.”
Miles when pressed on science declared: “I don’t believe in science … science is an intellectual dead end.” And when asked what then he believed in replied: “Sex & death – 2 things that come once in a lifetime … but at least after death you’re not nauseous.”
When Miles asked his lady friend “Why do you believe in God?” She replied: “Well, I believe that there’s somebody out there who watches over us.” To which Miles rejoined – “Unfortunately it’s the government.”
Seems LosAngles city council has joined NewYork City in requiring proof of a mRNA coronavirus jab for entry into indoor establishments. Paris gendarmes are checking papers of proof of mRNA jab for similar circumstances & the military is on the streets of some Australian cities supporting restrictions.
“What is it going to take to get kids back to school safely?”
Is this a trick question? Open the school doors and let them in. That’s how.
Every flu season we don’t worry about schools being “unsafe” for kids and we don’t make them wear masks despite the fact that influenza is more deadly for children than COVID-19. According to, you know, science.
See for yourself:
?resize=600%2C577&ssl=1
Thanks for the graphic.
stinkerp,
From the graphs you provide it is clear that ALL pools and spas must be removed! We can never achieve Zero-Drowning without some sacrifice!
All bathtubs and many larger sinks will have to be childproofed as well! If it saves even one life it is worth the effort, and cleanliness, after all, is much too close to Godliness for most Progressives!
I have two kinds of N95 plain and the ones with the valve I originally purchased them for woodworking and sanding automotive paint work. I just cut a hole in the ones with the valve so I can breathe
I would not be surprised if related article is titled:
CNN Merges with Chinese Company Manufacturing N95 Masks
So what? Of that 94K how many have died … or even became noticeable ill? We’re NOT going to end illness in humans. Do Democrats and other mindless progressives actually believe that is possible?
“prevent the spread of Covid” This right here is f**king insane. You can not stop the “spread” of any corona virus, they are ubiquitous throughout ALL oxygen breathing living things on this planet. This is the same mentally retarded crap as claiming you can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. If these morons refuse to accept reality then it is incumbent upon actual human beings to compel them to accept reality. This mentally retarded sh*t is a cancer in human society and we MUST eradicate it and all who carry it. THEY are the danger to Humanity, not the f*cking flu.
Who listens to anything CNN has to say?
Not me
Why do these bloviating jerks at CCN think it’s their place to make US national COVID19 mitigation policy-on-the-run? Or to force their dippy versions of intelligence, sanity and media script-reading hysteria down everyone’s throat as a ‘reality’? Since when did their dismal scurrilous click-bait-driven opinion-making and ratbag agenda drivel become the gospel-truth to anyone? Anyone at all?
Most absurd video of media’s hurricane hype: Dramatic CNN reporter …
Anderson Cooper says idea of him dramatizing hurricane is ‘frankly idiotic’
So now these profoundly dishonest grandstanding hype-merchants now offer free hysterical advice on the type of mask that school children should wear?
Guardians of the truth.
What about their poor, little eyes and ears? Virii could sneak in there. What about catching it from toilet seats? How often is the air exchanged in their classrooms? Got to do a big study on that.
this is a great opportunity to defund the schools & begin to restore education
https://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/education-history-reading-list-preliminary/
Wen is one of the people who spent 18 months saying it was racist to say the virus came from the Wuhan Virology Institute. She is a lying scoundrel.
With a 20 year background in HazMat and hospital based emergency patient decontamination, I have to question the credentials of this Dr. Leana Wen, to make such a casual statement. I doubt she has worn an N95 in years.
Is there any real, objective evidence that mask wearing reduces disease and death from infectious airborne viruses?
Andy, I’ve been asking the same for the past year, and all I’ve ever seen have been models, estimations, and a couple of (rather limited) lab studies (i.e. exhaling through a mask through a hole into a box and using a camera to count the number of droplets). Oh, and a couple of studies specific to N-95’s.
Conversely, all of the real-world studies I’ve seen have shown limited effectiveness at best.
According to some reports, the main strain at the moment is the delta variant which is supposed to be more infectious but much less dangerous. This means that for healthy people and particularly children, there is no problem. If the infection spreads in schools, then herd immunity is around the corner and could even mean the end of vaccine induced Covid variants, since the acquired immunity is not only based on one single spike epitope.
From the article: “CNN Medical Analyst Wen: Kids Need Weekly Testing, N95 Masks ‘Cloth Masks Are Not Enough”
Well, don’t take this as me advocating mandating mask wearing, but the “cloth masks are not enough” is way overdue. The N95 mask will stop the Wuhan virus in some cases. It won’t stop the naked virus, which is a little bit too small, but the virus is usually contained in a water droplet, and the N95 will stop the water droplet, which is larger than the virus itself.
At the beginning of the pandemic there was a shortage of N95 masks, and health workers were given priority, but now they are readily available at Amazon and other places, and if you are going to wear a mask, wear one that might do you some good, which means the N95.
There are also improvements to the N95 coming down the pike that supposedly can block the virus itself from getting through.
And I see a lot of people complaining that having the face blocked by wearing a mask is detrimental to the social development of children because they need to see facial expressions, and I agree. This can be fixed by using N95 masks that are transparent and allow the face to be seen. The Ford Motor Company, among others, is currently manufacturing transparent N95 masks.
From the article: “There have been cases of people fainting at the wheel and causing a traffic accident, because they were wearing a N95 mask, presumably due to oxygen deprivation – its a real struggle to breath through a high spec mask, especially if you are doing anything physical. My concern is exactly the same thing could happen to kids, if they are forced to wear high spec masks all day at school.”
Certain people may have trouble with an N95 mask, but I have been using N95 masks for years when I mow my lawn to prevent me from breathing in all the pollen and other things floating around in the air from the mowing.
I have never noticed any physical problems from using this mask, and I work pretty hard at the push-mowing and my heart and lungs are going at full capacity. Of course, I only wear the mask for about 2 hours (the time it takes for my lawnmower to run out of gas). The only problem I have with the mask is it gets soaked with sweat after a while (about 15 minutes in this high humidity) and then you can’t breath through it. So I have to put on a new, dry one, in those cases.
Wearing the mask all day, every day, would be a big problem. Even for me. 🙂
There is a claim out there that masks, even the cloth masks, have dramatically reduced the flu virus infections since the pandemic.
There is also a claim out there that getting a flu vaccination will help you fight off the Wuhan virus.
And if Pfizer successfully develops their new pill, which is said to be effective against the Wuhan virus and all its strains then we can do away with the masks. This new medicine is due to be available around the end of this year.
And I was heartened by a report I saw the other day, which said that about five percent of children who are infected by the Wuhan virus, symptomatic or unsymptomatic, go on to develop aftereffects from the virus, which discombobulates the immune system even after the virus is out of the body, but it appears that this condition clears up after about eight weeks. My chief worry about the Wuhan virus has been about the aftereffects and how long they persist. This study gives hope that the aftereffects are shortlived in children.
Again, I’m not advocating mandatory mask wearing, but if a mask is to be worn, it should be an N95.
With weekly testing false positives are essentially guaranteed as no test is 100%. If the policy for a positive result is to close the classroom (or school) for 10/14 days then they might as well not open the school – the choice to test becomes a choice to close.
If the policy response is to send the just the positive individual home, then one wonders how effective that would be given the likely exposure of their classmates if indeed they were positive.
Even immediate re-testing to try and rule out false positives will return a double false positive often enough at the scale of a school (hundreds) and proposed frequency (weekly) to make the strategy useless.
It’s a difficult conundrum for sure, balancing risk of spread with the benefits of learning and socializing.
I think the best solution is to do surveillance testing and only consider results at the school or other relevant population level. If we expect 1% false positives (optimistic) based on previous test performance, then we select a relevant risk threshold for when the next escalation of policy is implemented – for example a 3% positive rate from an adequate sample size.
mask with 3 layers one being ultrafine grade poly med fabric made for myself
well it prob worked better but i couldnt breathe well
since mask mandate hit vic for ALL outside home travels my sinuses are bad and Im using an inhaler sporadically
bloody stupid idea theyre ok for stopping your own cough sneeze spreading as much
thats about all
This mask wearing is blatant abuse of children.I would doubt Dr Wen has ever worn a N95 mask as she would not otherwise be promoting its use in children as she describes.Sweden has not locked their schools once since the start of the pandemic and the teaching profession has one of the lowest incidences of Covid of all.As well,children have a greater chance of death and illness,albeit small, from the flu, for which no special measures are suggested of course.
As an aside,we have no long term data for the new gene technology vaccines ,as we do have for the old technology influenza vaccines,and therefore Covid vaccination for children up to 16 (at least) should not proceed as a risk/benefit analysis is totally unknown.The risk is unknown and we cannot quantify any benefit which may ensue from vaccination.
To vaccinate children to protect the vulnerable ,would be a “first” in vaccinology.
As in the field of climate science,there is a lot of scientism out there.
Idiots abound out there. As the young do not get Covid, why all the precautions. It’s to train them to be compliant sheeple for when more restrictions are imposed by the Communist in the WH.
Our governments at every level have abdicated their responsibilities in the face of this virus. It just demonstrates how useless they are as they hide behind the medical experts when the resulting decisions have massive implications that go well beyond whet the medical people are prepared to balance. For the politicians, they see nothing to be gained by making brave, principled or rational decisions. So they just hide behind medical priorities that are extremely limited.
The proper course of action for this epidemic would have been to protect and shelter the elderly and infirm while letting the virus run , particularly in the schools. Masks and social distancing may have been helpful in reducing transmission and an overload of our health care facilities, but even that is somewhat doubtful.
The legacy of this is decades of debt repayment and inflation, increased drug and suicide deaths and extended damage to the economy that does more harm than the virus ever did.
The last 60 years has ben about discovering the vast no man’s land beyond what government can do effectively. Science is likewise out there.
Well, N95 masks should be worn at certain times in Wood Shop, not that anyone at CNN ever went to Wood Shop.
masks dont work to stop respiratory viruses…. not even n95… check the following study done waaaaaaayyyy back in september 2019
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214/
I had to wear an N95 mask to finish painting my house due to smoke from wildfires in 2018. I would paint for half an hour, then go in the house, BREATHE and recover so I could return to painting. It was very uncomfortable, but necessary due to the smoke in the air. To wear those masks for schooling? That sounds like abuse to me. I wouldn’t send a child to school if the masks required were N95.
I’m guessing, too, that no one is going to check the masks for fit like they do in a hospital. The kids will wear whatever their parents put on them. Fit is a vital part of the mask function, so one has already rendered the mask less than optimal by not properly fitting it.
Graphene coated mask anyone?
During Army Basic Training in 1981, we hade a 20 mile road march in full NBC (Nuclear/Biological/Chemical) gear. Obviously that meant gas masks as well. This was in July in Kentucky (Ft Knox). It was pure hell.
Now, an N95 mask is nothing like a full gas mask, but unless it’s properly fitted, and you’re not fiddling with it (kids won’t fiddle with their masks, no sirree), it’s worthless.
Forcing children who have practically a zero chance of dying from Covid is child abuse. Every parent should threaten to sue their school board members… and actually do it.