Why Not Do-It Yourself (DYI) Masks?

Kunstruct

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Many believe it was only because there's a shortage of masks and they didn't want people hoarding them at the expense of health care workers.

Yes, I heard this. However as far as I know, they never said that (stop hoarding), it is other people who imagine that would be the reason for which they did not recommend face masks.
 
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Peater Piper

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Yes, I heard this. However as far as I know, they never said that, it is other people who imagine that would be the reason for which they did not recommend face masks.
Right, only those within the organizations know their reasoning, but given that their advice is in direct conflict with studies on the matter, and also that many U.S. health officials were actively trying to persuade the public not to buy masks because they're in such short supply, it becomes hard not to reach that conclusion. An alternate explanation is they really are clueless, which isn't any more comforting. Regardless, the shift in opinion is starting to happen. I wouldn't be shocked at all if we eventually get to the point where it's strongly recommended that masks be worn in public, if not required.
 
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So sorry for my duplicate postings
I don't know how I made that mistake my brain is gone at the moment.
@Blossom Can you please delete the surplus.
For whatever reason I thought the video didn't upload :screamcat:
 
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David PS

David PS

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This is what the CDC, WHO, and Surgeon General were pushing. Many believe it was only because there's a shortage of masks and they didn't want people hoarding them at the expense of health care workers. None of their arguments are supported by scientific studies.

The government has done a good job of educating the public so that now everyone knows and understands the concept of flattening the curve. At some point, they will need to educate the public about the need to make your own mask and not to simply buy mask that are needed by medical workers. This will happen when their dogma can no longer pass the red face test - Wiktionary

My approach is to disseminate the scientific studies. YouTube videos may be best for this. Here is a video showing how long micro-droplets stay airborne. The video has English subtitles.
 
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David PS

David PS

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Peater Piper

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I was in NYC in December and rode the subway several times during afternoon rush hour. I couldn't believe how packed the trains would get. It would get to the point where I didn't have to hold onto anything because I was literally wedged in placed by other bodies. I'm not surprised at all that New York is getting slammed.

This has already been posted above as part of longer videos, but the excerpt really highlights how micro droplets move around:
 

Kunstruct

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I was in NYC in December and rode the subway several times during afternoon rush hour. I couldn't believe how packed the trains would get. It would get to the point where I didn't have to hold onto anything because I was literally wedged in placed by other bodies. I'm not surprised at all that New York is getting slammed.

This is ironic because many countries have rushed out military laws on how people are not allowed in gyms, certain public places, they can't walk one aside the other in groups, no actual park gatherings are allowed, and other heavy rules like that, however the buses and other public transportation methods are still packed with people like sardines in a can.
 
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David PS

David PS

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Another nice video (less than 3 minutes) with a great viewing angle. However, one long sleeve t-shirt was harmed in the making of this video.

 

S.Seneff

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Impact of population mask wearing on Covid-19 post lockdown

Javid, Nathalie Q Balaban
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.13.20063529
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.


Abstract
COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV2 is a rapidly spreading global pandemic. Although precise transmission routes and dynamics are unknown, SARS-CoV2 is thought primarily to spread via contagious respiratory droplets. Unlike with SARS-CoV, maximal viral shedding occurs in the early phase of illness, and this is supported by models that suggest 40-80% of transmission events occur from pre- and asymptomatic individuals. One widely-discussed strategy to limit transmission of SARS-CoV2, particularly from presymptomatic individuals, has been population-level wearing of masks. Modelling for pandemic influenza suggests some benefit in reducing total numbers infected with even 50% mask-use. COVID-19 has a higher hospitalization and mortality rate than influenza, and the impacts on these parameters, and critically, at what point in the pandemic trajectory mask-use might exert maximal benefit are completely unknown. We derived a simplified SIR model to investigate the effects of near-universal mask-use on COVID-19 assuming 8 or 16% mask efficacy. We decided to model, in particular, the impact of masks on numbers of critically-ill patients and cumulative mortality, since these are parameters that are likely to have the most severe consequences in the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas mask use had a relatively minor benefit on critical-care and mortality rates when transmissibility (Reff) was high, the reduction on deaths was dramatic as the effective R approached 1, as might be expected after aggressive social-distancing measures such as wide-spread lockdowns. One major concern with COVID-19 is its potential to overwhelm healthcare infrastructures, even in resource-rich settings, with one third of hospitalized patients requiring critical-care. We incorporated this into our model, increasing death rates for when critical-care resources have been exhausted. Our simple model shows that modest efficacy of masks could avert substantial mortality in this scenario. Importantly, the effects on mortality became hyper-sensitive to mask-wearing as the effective R approaches 1, i.e. near the tipping point of when the infection trajectory is expected to revert to exponential growth, as would be expected after effective lockdown. Our model suggests that mask-wearing might exert maximal benefit as nations plan their post-lockdown strategies and suggests that mask-wearing should be included in further more sophisticated models of the current pandemic.
 

achillea

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I am sick of modeling health. It used to be they did some experiments then biased the results now in modeling ...Junk in...junk out.

A so called virus is at most 1 micron. An N95 is somewhat protective to a 5 micron particle.

In other words they are worthless
. These masks were made for keeping sawdust out, sweeping a dusty floor..stuff like that. You put them on, you do the job and then take them off. You are not supposed to wear them all the time over and over.

Where is the gunk from breathing going to accumulate ? On the mask. I see people take them off and put them in their pocket, back pack etc Then put them back on.

I have one of those $50 remediation masks and it says once it is used, it can be reused for a few weeks depending on the length of each use. If and only if you keep it protected from the air in storage..

The models do not take this into account.

How many times in this debacle are we going to hear the models were wrong because the " assumption" used were wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Peater Piper

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A so called virus is at most 1 micron. An N95 is somewhat protective to a 5 micron particle.
You're not inhaling the virus directly, they need to attach to something, like a droplet or aerosol, which are much larger than the virus itself. Various masks have been tested against particles much smaller than 1 micron, and even surgical masks still blocked 80% of the particles. That does mean some might get through, but there's going to be a required infectious dose, and the severity of the illness could also depend on the size of the initial exposure. In other words, a mask may keep the exposure low enough that the infection is prevented entirely, or if the virus does take hold, the smaller dose may buy enough time for the immune system to respond and prevent the infection from becoming severe. Also, there's several studies with real world scenarios, not modeling, that showed masks lowered the risk of infection, including during the 2003 SARS outbreak, so it's wrong to claim this is all just an assumption. Masks have a proven efficacy.
 
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David PS

David PS

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It seems that cotton masks may not work as planned. I forwarded this video to the relevant section beginning at 6:35.

 

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