We are going to be using masks from now forward, so it would be a good idea if people finally started learning to use them correctly. That is the subject of this piece.
It is also a followup to a piece I did a few weeks back; the New Pandemic Age. In it I made clear that we are not going to be ‘living with’ airborne diseases. Neither are they going to magically go away.
The measures to control airborne diseases are not temporary measures, needed just until the pandemic is overcome. They need to become permanent, in the way that other disease control measures have been made permanent. I am going to explain why we must wear masks, how to wear them, what masks to wear, and where and when to wear them.
This information is not only not being distributed by public authorities, but is actively suppressed. A growing class of public health activists is working to break through this and get the message out. I am doing my part as well as I can.
Why
Masks are the single best way to reduce transmission of airborne diseases. That is why there is so much effort put into gaslighting those with the sense to use them.
The hard truth is that there are numerous economic interests in keeping the pandemic going. For example, selling vaccines is lucrative and so the vaccines themselves are deliberately made weak. Weak government allows greed to trump public interest and public health.
The public interest is in eliminating airborne disease in the same way that waterborne disease was eliminated in industrial countries a century ago. This was resisted in the same ways, by the same kinds of people, for roughly the same reasons. It was too expensive, interfered with ‘freedom’, reduced profits.
Masking is really no problem, any more than hand washing and sanitation is. The Japanese are famous for wearing masks during flu season. It is said that they got in the habit during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1919 and never got out of it.
Masking must likewise become a permanent part of Canadian culture, along with the other four ‘pillars of protection’; Air quality, Social Distancing, Surveillance Testing, and Vaccination. The problem with actualizing all this a social one. Most people, outside of a small and loud minority of people acting out mental problems, will support it if not subjected to disinformation and social pressure.
To repeat, the easiest and most effective thing which people can do individually to protect themselves, is to mask up. Thus it is important that people learn to do it right.
How
Most of the art of mask wearing is just common sense. It requires no brilliance to grasp that wearing a mask so it covers your mouth but not your nose, or nose but not mouth, is not doing any good. The point of the mask is for the air to go through the filtering medium.
Toward that, the mask should not leak out the sides or around the nose. This requires finding the right mask and adjusting it right. This is complicated by the fact that everyone’s face is different.
There is a lot of snobbery about mask wearing. Much of it is about getting people to buy what they do not need.
For example, there is no need for any special equipment to test the fit of a mask. Just put the mask on and give it a good blow. If there is a leak, you will feel it. Adjust it accordingly or get a different mask.
If you have trouble getting a mask to fit right, there are such things as mask braces and nose clips. An internet search should find a reliable brand at a decent price, to order in. They may soon be available in stores, as well.
Double masking is way wrong. That is, putting one mask on top of another. This will usually break the seal on the bottom mask, leading to much reduced filtration efficiency.
A problem for eye glasses wearers during cold weather is lens fogging. If the glasses fog immediately after exhaling, then there is leakage around the nose, which can be attended to.
If the glasses fog a little after exhaling, at least you know there is no leak. The humid air is not moving away from your face due to some outside atmospheric condition as well as being slowed by the mask. It may be hard to find a solution except to wipe the glasses often.
Mask designs are improving but there is not yet an adequate solution for condensation buildup. This can be a problem, especially during intense physical exercise, or humid conditions. One solution is to change masks often, letting them dry out.
The best solution for condensation build up is exhalation valves, but these have their own problems and the health establishment has banned them. More on this below.
Other issues with masking include people with beards and small children. Intense physical exertion can cause masks to be drenched in sweat and lose effectiveness. There are no solutions yet for these problems.
However, it must be emphasized that these are minor problems. Good masks are not seriously inconvenient or uncomfortable. They usually work well.
What
More on mask snobbery. Many people cannot afford higher quality masks. This is why government should subsidize masks, give them out free in some cases, and take more interest in inspecting them and improving design.
There is a hierarchy of masks. At the bottom of the ladder is the cloth mask. If folded three times, they are better than nothing, but that does not say much.
Next is the surgical mask, the ubiquitous ‘blue bagger’ or ‘square face’. For some reason the health bureaucracies right up to World Health Organization want everyone to wear these.
Hospital workers are forced to wear them instead of better ones. If you go into a hospital or health clinic with a higher grade mask, you will likely have a bagger pressed on you unless you fight back.
Surgical masks are for wearing during surgical procedures, to prevent little droplets of body fluids from falling on the patient. They are not meant for preventing viral transmission.
There is much weirdness surrounding all this. For example, earlier in the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WTO) wanted to discourage people from wearing masks at all.
Once a mask has come up to the N-95 standard ‘or better’, it acquires the grand title of ‘respirator’. This apparently signifies that it is tested and shown to stop 95% of virus sized particles (.3 microns and up) from passing through it, assuming it is fitted right. It must be made from an ‘electrostatic non-woven polypropylene fiber’.
Earlier in the pandemic there was a problem with fake respirators. This has largely ended, and respirators sold now are usually what they are presented to be.
Good N-95s are now getting fairly inexpensive. There is a surplus of them and some producers are now shutting down. This is due to the campaign to convince people that the pandemic is ‘over’.
This does not stop some producers from trying to use snob appeal or misrepresentation to overcharge. Many inexpensive respirators are as good as some costing three times as much.
Nonetheless, designs keep improving. The ‘over the head’ strap design gives a better fit and is easier on the ears. There are now many designs with a permanent soft plastic frame and replaceable filters.
At the top of the ladder is the elastomeric respirator. These are permanent, with no replaceable parts. You clean the face pads and filter periodically.
The filter is, of course, elastomeric fiber which lasts for years and is very effective at trapping virus sized particles. They are a little expensive initially but save money over time.
These are rated ’N-100’; they stop 100% of the nasty germs. The problem, of course, is they can be bulky and uncomfortable, and muffle speech.
Their best use is in a covid ward. Or, in a really crazy situation like a crowded bar full of loud, drunken idiots.
Another of the crazy things about covid is that the Ontario health system sits on a warehouse full of elastomer masks. For three years now, they have refused to distribute them to hospital workers.
When and Where
Government information about covid transmission prevention is at least partly right; you have to use your own judgement about when and where to mask up. However, it must be informed judgement. Government fails to deliver the information on which to make these judgements.
Here are the basic rules about not catching covid, and the other lovely diseases which are coming our way due to government incompetence. First, if you do not breathe it in, you do not get it. Airborne means airborne; you do not get it from surfaces.
Second, the amount of virus which you breathe in determines whether you get it, and how bad you get it. The amount you breathe in is determined by; how concentrated it is in the air in a given place, how long you stay in that place, and how good your mask is.
Given this, determining when to mask, and when to get the hell out of the location, is mostly down to common sense and your acceptance of risk.
There is generally no need to be masked outdoors. If you are in a crowd, put it on. If you stop and talk with someone on the street, try to stay upwind and a few feet back; especially if she is coughing and sneezing, and libertarian.
If you go indoors, consider whether the proprietors have heard the news that there is a pandemic on, taken the right advice, and brought their ventilation system up to standard. By ‘standard’, I mean what needs to be the standard in all indoor space going forward; six complete air changes per hour, and so on.
Another example of covid snobbery are the people who carry expensive CO2 monitors around with them. Or, who want the monitors hanging everywhere. The idea of this is that people breathe out a lot of CO2 and it accumulates in poorly ventilated areas, just like viruses do, thus indicating the air quality.
You should be able to feel if an indoor space is adequately ventilated. If the air feels close, and people are close, get the mask on. Do not stay around long.
Note on Valves.
A solution for the condensation problem, and other issues with mask comfort, is exhalation valves. However, they filter the air being breathed in, but only partly filter the air being breathed out.
Thus, they do not well protect anyone who is not also wearing a mask. As well, the exhaled air and virus from them would build up more rapidly in a poorly ventilated space.
Thus, the medical establishment does not allow valves on masks. However, their reasoning, while superficially valid, is partially flawed.
This is fine as altruism and virtue signalling, but poor psychology and of course, poor epidemology. It also impedes the design of better masks.
It was never a good idea to frame mask wearing as being about protecting everyone else. People will wear masks in order to protect themselves, not those who refuse to wear them. As well, if the mask is more comfortable to wear, people will more readily wear them.
Valve masks may even motivate more people to get their own masks. However, masks by themselves are not the solution for covid transmission as most are of only partly effective.
Better run tests have shown that well made valve masks restrict the outward flow of particles at least as much as the blue bagger mask. Here is another of the weird things about the global medical establishment; the same people who forbid the use of valve masks, also force hospital workers to wear surgical masks.
Many people who have used valved masks have found ways to cover them so as to improve outward filtration. Mask designers are working on ways to switch to an outflow filter when justified.
The idea that valved masks will increase the spread of airborne disease is based on some flawed and unproven assumptions. Many designers and producers of good masks point this out. Some are trying to get the public health establishment to show some flexibility.
What is a good design of respirator should be between doctors and industrial designers, not a matter for medical bureaucrats. A big part of eliminating infectious diseases will be in the development of cheap, comfortable, 100% effective masks.
Conclusion
Until we have a really effective vaccine, masks and air cleaning will be the main ways of controlling covid. For most people, masking is the only thing they can do which is really effective.
But it cannot be overemphasized that all infectious diseases must be eliminated. In developed countries, airborne diseases are the last challenge.
Even before covid arrived, medical research was starting to reveal that even supposedly benign diseases like colds and the flu had consequences. Flu can harm the brain and the heart. There is evidence that some forms of cancers start from viruses, most of them airborne.
Alas, right now we are moving backward on public health because of elite capture. We are ruled over by people who want a ‘poor country’ approach to health care. They and those who do their dirty work should be arrested.
The good thing about the great pandemic is that people now know what they need to do to eliminate infectious diseases world wide. We will be wearing masks for a long time, but finally a generation will grow up not knowing what a cold or the flu is, let alone covid. The disposable respirators of today will be seen only in museums.
I was in hospital 8 days in 2010 with Swine flu. It nearly killed me. It left me with Emphysema and enlarged ventricle. The asshole bullying and making fun of people about masks, and making up stories about why masks do not work were evil, imo. Oh, and yes, for many reasons, they do not work 100%, but do NO MASKS? How do you argue that nutsoism? So. Give my situation with breathing, i am still looking for a perfect mask for comfort. I wore my mask with a shield. My breathing we difficult, but, my oxygen did ok. still, though exhausting.
Especially in USA, people who mask are being made fun of often and brutally. Kim Iverson LIKED a post from Trump Jr that was so toxic and mean.