Random embedded tweet blaming Bill Cosby's victims in the middle of a paragraph about the Floyd protests in Portland. You're going out of your way to be... classy this morning, Mudede.

Oh, I see in the time I went to go look up who that was - Eddie Griffin - you've come to your senses and removed it. Thank God for the clarity brought by coffee, eh? (I assume you were not instead employing the use of one of those spoons around the neck he made mention of.)

@2) it was an item for another post. sorry. it was removed.

To clarify, the N95 designation refers to the particulate filtering material that some masks are made out of and not to any design elements like a valve. N95 masks can come with or without a valve as can many other non-N95 masks. But yes, don't wear ANY mask with a valve.

However, you shouldn't really be wearing N95s in general because they provide a higher level of protection than is necessary in pretty much any day-to-day scenario (and you probably aren't fitting it correctly anyways). They are best saved for health care use where they are still in short supply...

Ted Wheeler and the Portland city council love their bloated police patronage budget and will talk about reforms that are proven to make no difference while doing everything to prevent fundamental change through budget cuts. Don’t fall for the Trump distraction folks. Policing is local so they are doing everything they can to make this about Trump and the feds.
Demand budget cuts and fire every council member, mayor and DA that only talks about change while maintaining the status quo.

“There is nothing Trump is doing right now that is not about him keeping the seat in the White House.” If you say “right now” includes everything from January 2017 to today, then yes.

N95 refers to the tightness of the pore size. It has nothing to do with whether or not there's also an "easy breathe" type of exhalation flap.

All kinds of masks (as well as canister respirators) can come with unfiltered flaps for exhalations.

If you have a flap, you can tape over it. Or you can block / cover the flap area with fabric, which provides as much protection to others as a fabric mask, while the small pore size of of your mask potentially provides a smidge of extra protection for you.

Basically, don't run out and buy them. But if you have them on hand, in an already open package, or already partially used for woodworking or other crafts, you CAN adapt them for covid mask usage.

10

Thanks, Garb. I always enjoy the links you post.

The denial is incomprehensible. Perhaps we need to start showing the piles of dead bodies. And I don't mean body bags or coffins stacked in mass graves. If Americans are going to deny the dead, they need to see the actual piles of dead bodies. Health care workers are BURNED OUT. Just wait until they all quit their jobs or simply become incapable of handling the sick and the dead anymore. Will the denial end then?

Why are Americans so fucking stupid? Why do so many people have to die? Why do Americans need something to affect them PERSONALLY before they give a shit about anything? Honestly, the collective death wish that so many people in this country have is mind blowing. The longer this bullshit goes on, the worse everything is going to get, the more catastrophic loss (of all kinds) we are going to experience, and the longer it is going to take to ever get back to anything resembling a functional society.

Tourists are flooding the Oregon coast town in which I live, all behaving like there is no pandemic. The sheer number of people renting pedal boats, kayaks, surreys, etc. and packing the beach is mind boggling. Having a death wish is one thing. Denying reality and endangering the lives of others is something else entirely.

"There is no such thing as a balancing act when it comes to the virus. You must either check its spread by keeping schools closed or not check its spread by opening schools." Would you apply this same logic to grocery stores or meatpacking plants? If not, what's the difference? Or should we close those too?

The best idea I've heard so far is for those students who have BOTH high-speed internet access AND all-day adult supervision to stay home and learn remotely. For the others, convert the school buildings into online learning centers with computers, high-speed internet, socially distanced work stations, protective supplies, support staff and meals, but no in-person instruction for the general population (exceptions would be special-needs children and those with disabilities that prevent them from using a computer). It's probably the best that can be done safely right now.

@4 How prevalent are N95 masks with a valve that have no outflow filtration? I have seen several masks, consumer masks that is (and I have a couple, not N95 rated) and every single one has at least one filter layer between the mouth/nose and valve. I am suspicious that this recommendation has to do with masks that medical professionals use and not ones that are commonly available to consumers.

@29 This is somewhat anecdotal, but in my experience at hardware stores in the year or two preceding the pandemic N95 masks with a totally unfiltered outflow valve seemed to be the norm (as opposed to no valve at all). The whole point of them is to simply protect from small particulates like wildfire smoke when there used to be no downside to freely breathing air out. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen a mask like you describe with a filtered outflow through a valve and I'm not sure I see the point. Technically, a valve is a replacement for passive filtered outflow. I'd be interested if you have a link to such a mask.

And @11, N95 refers more to the amount of particulate matter that gets filtered, but not really a pore size. It's true that the N95 material filters out larger particles based on physical size limitations, but it actually also filters out the smallest particles very effectively via electrostatic attraction. It's actually the medium-sized particles that it struggles to filter the most as they are small enough to fit between the fibers, but heavy enough to not be readily pulled out of the air.

@26 MarciaX: Great ideas! Agreed and seconded. Your suggestions speak truly of common sense. Oh, for the long overdue return of common sense, particularly in this benighted country..........
@28 blip: And all because we have zero leadership in Washington, D.C. and no real president. I'm just as appalled as you are.

@9: Perhaps you'd care to provide the tweet I was referring to, then? Clearly you must know exactly which one it was, to have such an opinion on how unimportant it is.

@28: If only ~40% of the population was capable of seeing the direct line between the abject failure of leadership shown at the highest levels and the numbers of infected or dead within our borders. It's not like we weren't warning them in 2016 that this exact sort of result would follow.

@30 I see what you are talking about. The disposable dust masks from like Home Depot are indeed like that. I have one sitting in front of me. Every one I have seen that is sold online (RZ Mask, Vogmask in particular, as well as the cheap Chinese ones I have, which are not N95, have filtration layers, often disposable filters). I read about authorities banning masks with valves in SF and I had no idea what they were on about. The problem we have here is that anything nitwits can get agitated about they will bet agitated about so I would not be surprised if altercations regarding masks with valves are the next thing. This is fairly ridiculous because there is nothing definitive to compare them to. People are wearing everything from respirators, to handkerchiefs to re-purposed underpants. Can the authorities ascertain that re-purposed underpants are better at filtering contaminants than masks with valves?

@33 As a fastidious wearer of face-underpants (or the functional equivalent, at any rate) I can say with certainty that by far the most important and effective impact of any face-covering at all for the time being is that it signals to the world at large that I believe things are not normal, I believe the world has changed, I am not willing to behave the way I used to behave, I see the world today as a fundamentally different place than it was in the autumn of 2019.

This, and very little else, is what the anti-mask-or-any-other-countermeasure-at-all brigade is freaking the bugfuck out about.

It has nothing to do with peer-reviewed research, nothing to do with droplets or viral load or any other science-people gibber-jabber. We're still miles away from the public reaction getting anywhere near any of that. We're still trying to lift our foot all the way up to the "admit I have a problem, and want to change" step, collectively speaking.

@34 So true, and I am trying real hard to not allow this business to ruin my day. A month ago or so, only the fastidious virtue signalers were wearing masks on the streets. Now it seems like the tide has turned, until you walk past a restaurant with outside seating (for instance). Let's be clear, current directive: masks should be work outdoors WHERE SOCIAL DISTANCING IS NOT POSSIBLE. Science'y types: (aren't we all science'y types here?) there is zero evidence (zip) that clouds of virus are wafting around outdoors. And at least some evidence that this theory (which sounds paranoid and probably therefore is) is, well, wrong. I get it that WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING. Nonetheless, the uptick in virus cases almost certainly has absolutely nothing to do with people wandering Volunteer Park sans face underpants, and even less to do with people wandering Volunteer Parks with face underpants that have valves afixed to them.

@22: Yes, you can teach kids remotely, but all of the reports are that the results are terrible. Accusing me of being oblivious to a public health crisis is a straw man argument.