Posted on 02/13/2022 9:18:29 PM PST by lightman
When you take into account the divisiveness, unscientific nonsense, and tyrannical madness that has gone into the mask wars over the past two years, the thought that it could have all been avoided with a simple compromise is astoundingly frustrating to say the least. What, you ask? You mean there has always been a workable solution to insane, hypochondriac mask nazis doing everything possible to force damp, bacteria-laden pieces of cloth over everyone’s faces for nigh-on 22 months now? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying, and the solution was so obvious, so perfect, and so logical that, ever true to Branch Covidian form, it has been entirely avoided by the powers-that-be … until now.
That solution, of course, is "one-way masking," and the concept, which Team Reality has known about since the forced masking insanity began, is finally gaining steam among leftists who are ready to take the OMICRON off-ramp but aren’t sure what to tell their more crazed, uh, risk-averse Covidian cultists. Here are just a few examples.
"If you are vaccinated, boosted, and wearing a well-fitted N95 or similar indoors, 'your risk is extremely low,' says Joseph Allen, a COVID and ventilation expert at Harvard. 'I mean, there’s not much else in life that would have as low a risk as that. I would qualify your risk as de minimis.' An N95 mask filters about 95 percent of airborne particles. But two surgical masks—one on me, one on you—filter only about 91 percent, Allen wrote recently for The Washington Post. Because most people’s masks aren’t perfectly sealed onto their faces, studies show that N95s reduce the wearer’s uptake of coronavirus particles by 57 to 86 percent. And that’s on top of the protection that vaccines and boosters already offer."
"After all, N95s were what ER doctors wore to treat COVID patients at the very beginning of the pandemic—before vaccines or boosters were available, and before most people began wearing masks indoors at all. 'These masks are literally designed to block out infectious aerosols,' says Abraar Karan, an infectious-disease doctor at Stanford. He thinks that more everyday people should upgrade their masks, and that for health-care workers, N95s should be made mandatory."
In a piece for The Washington Post titled, "Schools can safely make masks optional with the CDC’s new guidelines," Drs. Shira Doron, Westyn Branch-Elliman and Elissa Perkins wrote:
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance on masks this past week, stating that respirators, such as N95s, are more protective than surgical masks, which in turn protect better than cloth masks. These updates are appropriate from a scientific standpoint. They also offer a pathway to compromise in the place where masking policies are most hotly debated: schools."
"Respirators and other high-quality masks are highly effective at protecting their wearers, regardless of what people around them are doing. That makes the old mantra “my mask protects you and your mask protects me” obsolete. As a result, schools can finally safely make masks optional for students and staff."
Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a frequent media contributor on the topic of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, told "CBS Mornings" anchor Tony Dokoupil earlier this month that one can protect oneself "under pretty much all circumstances" with a KN95 or N95 mask.
"When I think about when I've been in the hospital taking care of sick patients with Covid, I'm wearing an N95 and they're not," he said. "The patients are not necessarily wearing masks, and yet I know that I am protected by that and of course I'm protected by my vaccine. So for immunocompromised people and for people who are worried about getting sick, wearing a high quality mask provides an enormous amount of protection against getting infected."
Then there’s Dr. Leanna Wen, the former Planned Parenthood head best known in these circles for recently supporting draconian measures against the unvaccinated, including basically locking vaccine refusers in their homes. Even Wen, the queen of the Branch Covidians herself, is doing an about-face on restrictions and mandates and is touting one-way masking as a compromise.
"Times have changed," she wrote in a WaPo op-ed last week. "Cases are falling rapidly. Vaccines are widely available for everyone 5 and older, and they work: People vaccinated and boosted are 97 times less likely to die of covid-19 compared with the unvaccinated. Research also shows that respirator masks (N95, KN95 or KF94) are highly effective at protecting wearers, even if others around them are unmasked."
There you have it. They’re all-in, although it’s obvious to any thinking person that their motives are likely politics rather than any understanding of real science. They know the forever-restriction crowd can’t win in November, but they also need the staunch Covidians to come along. So this is a compromise, obviously. Except, I wonder if they realize what they’ve done? Because in effect, taking the “one-way masking” off-ramp to forced masking and contending that properly worn N95s could provide some real protection to the vulnerable forever discredits forced masking of the public going forward, from now until the end of time.
Before you comment (and I know you’re thinking it), it doesn’t matter whether N95s actually “work” to stop or slow the spread of the virus. In fact, I would argue that, given failures in Germany and much of Europe, mandating them has NOT worked, at all. The point is that our Covidian would-be overlords, those arbiters of all things ‘science,’ are now declaring that they do work to protect the wearer. Fine. No take-backs. If your N95 mask protects you during the next Covid wave, I don’t need to wear one. Ever.
An N95 mask filters about 95 percent of airborne particles, the article says. But the N in the name stands for Non oil particle resistant. The coronavirus is a strand of RNA in a lipid nano bubble. How in the world is an N95 mask going to keep it out?!
They are masks.
They’re muzzles.
CoupFlu has NEVER been about public health.
That goes for NYS, too. Which is still muzzling publik skrewl kids. And allowing public sector employers to muzzle their employees.
Ive posted about this myself a while back.
I know that DoD knew this well over 30 years ago because its getting closer to 40 years for me since I took the NBC (NuclearBiologicalChemical) classes. How much longer before that they knew about what it would take to stop a virus I dont know but Id be willing to bet that they knew much further back because they had been working on and improving mask filters since WWI.
In the movies of the 40s and 50s then TV shows of the 60s and 70s the hero comes across some kind of gas and then puts a handkerchief, tshirt, wet towel, or something similar over his face and bravely strides into the cloud to save people.
The instructor showed us the mask and the filters and told us what it was. Before he even had gotten into the specifications of the filters the instructor said something along the lines of, “and dont think any amount of tshirts, handkerchiefs, towels, or surgical masks are going to save you. You will learn to wear this equipment correctly because its the only thing that will save you.”
They might not talk specifically about these things in these classes anymore because its not a common trope in entertainment that may have mislead someone into thinking such methods might be good enough. But the fact is that I know that all veterans of at least the last 40 years have known this all along. I doubt many of us remember the specifications of the filters but everyone should have remembered that it was the MINIMUM necessary to block biologicals and even that was “temporary” and you would require decontamination when you got back to safety.
Now that I mention it, Im kind of surprised they didnt push decontamination tents...
I was about to make a joke about them requiring some kind of magic cootie spray like Lysol to go along with our magical paper masks and then I realized that they did push that. In many facilities its still required to use a product called “Array” on a regular basis through the day.
Have you ever gotten any of that in your mouth? The taste is absolutely disgusting but fades quickly. Yknow what happens shortly after that? Your nose might start running and you lose your sense of taste. I have to wonder how much productivity we lost due to waiting for fake test results just because somebody accidentally got cootie spray in their mouth.
The N for nonoil is for hydrocarbon vapors in an chemical or industrial setting think pil based paint vapor. Using the wrong mask with those kinds of vapors can kill ypu. Hence the P100 rating which is certified for hydrocarbon vapors as oil Proofed there is an R95 rating that’s oil resistant but not proofed like a P rating. The lipid coating of a sars covid ii virus is irrelevant to the masks NPR rating. Individual virus particles are never produced in thr human respiratory track they always are attached to mucus, water vapor droplets or solid particles leaving the lungs, throat or nostrils every one of those particles is multiple microns in size the whole the virus is smaller than the holes in the filter arguments is pure scientific ignorance. P100 rated filter will absolutely protect thr wearer against a lipid coating virus airborne on human generated aerosol droplets
I have tinnitus that gets worse all the time.
I’m learning to read lips pretty well.
Masks don’t help me. I’m always saying to people, “Say again, please?”
It’s much worse in crowds.
Airbrone particles <> a 100 nm virus.
The ignorance was mine. I thank you for the information.
That unvaccinated number includes people who died of CoVid before we even had vaccines available. Everybody who died with or from CoVid before vaccines were available are all still in that fake statistic they keep using. Fake comparison, fake statistic, fake science, fake news. We are living in a fake world folks.
I have the same problem, I didn't realise how much I relied on seeing your face to hear you. I only ask a diapered person, one time to repeat themselves, then I just make up make something up. I am not going to ask someone to repeat something a dozen times. It is frustrating.
This professor must not get out much. 95% of people at our local university are boosted and the university has been handing out N95 masks. Omicron burned through the university a fairly good clip after coming back for the spring semester.
Sorry to tell you, but there is plenty of evidence that the “vaccinations” are no longer effective. We can thank Omicron for this now undeniable revelation... all over the world Omicron hit heavily “vaccinated” areas worse than areas where “vaccinations” were much less prevalent. You are obviously intentionally ignoring any information that contradicts your faith in the “vaccines”. On the bright side... five years from now when your cell phone is swamped with attorneys wanting to help you sue an employer for “injuries” you sustained after they required you to be “jabbed”... you may be able to cash in.
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