split: another masks argument

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 10:18 am

amother [ Babypink ] wrote:

I always get headaches from shopping. And on hot days if I don't drink enough.

ETA: The point of avoiding large indoor crowds, large simchos, handholding at weddings, et. is to avoid the second wave turning into the unmitigated disaster that Purim turned out to be. We won't have any warning. People will no longer be immune, and infection will spread silently and rapidly.

It makes sense to adjust our lifestyle a bit for the next year or two to avoid that level of tragedy.

This, this 100 times, this!!!

Amarante

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 10:46 am

I posted on another thread but I will repost here.

I just purchased face shields for myself and family. They are more comfortable than a cloth mask especially for children. I intend to wear a disposable surgical mask underneath as well for higher risk situations

They are also easy to clean even on the go as you can just spray and wipe with disinfectant. One is much less likely to fiddle with them since they are more comfortable.

I got mine from Bonafide Masks because they are an authorized distributor of KN95 masks by a brand approved by the FDA and I got a supply of those as well.

https://bonafidemasks.com

https://www.aarp.org/health/he......html

https://www.nytimes.com/articl......html

West End Tova

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:12 am

Amarante wrote:

I got mine from Bonafide Masks because they are an authorized distributor of KN95 masks by a brand approved by the FDA and I got a supply of those as well.

https://bonafidemasks.com

Which KN95 mask did you get, Ima Amarante? The Face Mask or the Respirator Mask? Thanks.

Amarante

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:19 am

West End Tova wrote:

Which KN95 mask did you get, Ima Amarante? The Face Mask or the Respirator Mask? Thanks.

I got the one that is called the KN95 Respirator because it is sold in quantities of 10. - ETA - I got the Respirator FDA Approved Model because it is Powecom brand which is approved by FDA and this company is an authorized distributor so it isn't counterfeit. I was a bit groggy when I first responded early morning so I didn't remember fully what I did. Very Happy

After researching the best way to clean a KN95 mask is to do nothing after you wear it except leave it out. Any virus will die on it after a period of time - no more than 72 hours so you would just use spare masks and rotate them. If you attempt to disinfect, you degrade their filtration ability.

Last edited by Amarante on Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:36 am; edited 2 times in total

West End Tova

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:24 am

Amarante wrote:

I got the one that is called the KN95 Respirator because it is sold in quantities of 10. The other one appears identical but is sold in quantities of 50 so it is slightly less per mask.

Thanks. Looks like the Respirator version has better filtration.
Have you worn it yet? Is it comfortable?

Amarante

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:27 am

West End Tova wrote:

Thanks. Looks like the Respirator version has better filtration.
Have you worn it yet? Is it comfortable?

My friend got her shipment and says it is very comfortable. I would imagine she also got the version with 10 masks because she wouldn't need 40 at one time.

The one I got (the Respirator) is the one manufactured by Powecom which is FDA approved and this company is an authorized distributor so it isn't counterfeit.

West End Tova

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:34 am

Amarante wrote:

The one I got (the Respirator) is the one manufactured by Powecom which is FDA approved and this company is an authorized distributor so it isn't counterfeit.

Many thanks for the information. I just ordered the shields and the respirator masks.

Amarante

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 9:44 am

About face shields - they might be a great option for kids in school.

https://www.aarp.org/health/he......html

But some health experts say shields appear to be very effective at preventing infection — maybe even more effective than masks — for someone going about regular daily activities and not in a high-risk health care setting.

Amesh Adalja, M.D., a pandemic preparedness expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says, “There's a lot of at least biological possibility to suspect that [shields] are definitely better than homemade face masks, and maybe even better than other types of masks as well, because they not only prevent you from spreading it … [and] because it also covers your eyes, it provides more protection to the mucus membranes of your face where you might be getting infected.”

James Cherry, M.D., a distinguished research professor and infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says that while experts aren't yet sure about how vulnerable our eyes are to infection from this coronavirus, “With many viruses, the eyes are important.” He points to measles and adenoviruses as examples of viruses that are known to infect people through their eyes.

Another benefit, says Adalja: With a mask, you may find yourself constantly adjusting it and therefore touching your face and possibly transferring the virus from your hands, but wearing a shield “doesn't really put you in a position where you're touching your face so much, because it's not as cumbersome to wear."

And finally, Adalja adds, “If you walk down the sidewalk, you can find lots of masks that are just discarded there, which are an infection control risk for other people. Whereas a face shield is something that people can just clean themselves and reuse."

A recent opinion piece in JAMA by Eli Perencevich, M.D., a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and two of his colleagues pointed to such benefits of shields for infection prevention, and noted that “face shields appear to significantly reduce the amount of inhalation exposure to influenza virus, another droplet-spread respiratory virus. In a simulation study, face shields were shown to reduce immediate viral exposure by 96 percent when worn by a simulated health care worker within 18 inches of a cough.” In an April 19 tweet Perencevich wrote, “Biggest benefit of face shields would be inside crowded office situations where air exchanges aren't ideal."

Another benefit? With warmer weather, many may also find a face shield attached to a headband or cap cooler to wear than a cloth mask.

Some members of the public are taking such arguments to heart — choosing shields especially for their ability to keep the entire face visible.

Lauren Lek, head of school at Academy of Our Lady of Peace, in San Diego, plans to have her 750 returning faculty and students wear face shields at school rather than masks this August. “Safety and health for our community is a priority for us in reopening,” she says. “As soon as we saw from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and our local public health office that face shields would be an acceptable alternative to face masks, we knew this was a direction we wanted to move in.”

Noting that face-to-face interaction is key to the education her school provides, Lek adds that face shields are better than masks for students with learning differences, including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), because they allow for full visibility of facial expressions that can help them read and understand social cues.

The school has purchased more than 10 different types of face shields to test before classes restart, Lek says, with each posing challenges in terms of clarity, fogging, ease of cleaning and reuse. They also shouldn't cause headaches when worn 10 hours a day. “With each product we try, we are getting closer to the best option for the start of school in August.”

Double protection?
Some people are choosing both infection-prevention methods. Hope Taitz, an investment manager in New York City who travels frequently for business, began wearing a face mask and face shield together when she saw the pandemic starting to unfold while logging 100,000 miles of travel in January and February. She said one of the best things she saw traveling in Asia were deep bubble umbrellas that can cover you from head to midsection.

You're likely to find only health care workers wearing both a shield and a mask simultaneously, however. “I don't wear the shield alone,” says Anne Mary Orr, a dentist in private practice in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. “At work, the whole point of the shield is to keep particulate matter off the mask. The N95 mask I wear under it helps filter breathing the virus. Our greatest risk is to inhale an aerosol at work, more so than focusing on the droplets.”

Kristi Carnahan, a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California, says she also wears a mask beneath her plastic face shield to provide more “protection against anything in the air getting into your mouth or nose as you breathe."

That reasoning may make sense in a health care setting, says Adalja, but “I don't think you get much added benefit to wearing a mask if you've already got a face shield on, for the average person.” The odds of the viral particles floating upwards under your shield are a long shot for most of us, he adds: “Someone would have to stand underneath you and sneeze up into you. It would be an odd circumstance that would cause that.”

West End Tova

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 10:21 am

Many thanks, Ima Amarante. Excellent information.