6 October 2020
By Lynn Peeples
The standard mask for use in health-care settings is the N95 respirator, which is designed to protect the wearer by filtering out 95% of airborne particles that measure 0.3 micrometres (µm) and larger. As the pandemic ramped up, these respirators quickly fell into short supply. That raised the now contentious question: should members of the public bother wearing basic surgical masks or cloth masks? If so, under what conditions? “Those are the things we normally [sort out] in clinical trials,” says Kate Grabowski, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. “But we just didn’t have time for that.”
So, scientists have relied on observational and laboratory studies. There is also indirect evidence from other infectious diseases. “If you look at any one paper — it’s not a slam dunk. But, taken all together, I’m convinced that they are working,” says Grabowski....
Wear the masks, they work to protect human life. The cloth masks is better than paper. Paper is better than nothing. I saw a really nice mask in Walgreens. They were manufactured by "Hanes" and they were cloth that could be washed and worn again and again. It is just nice to know so many companies that have flourished in the USA for decades and possibly a century are on the side of the American people as we progress through treatments and strategies to vanquish a very dangerous virus.
Americans should not surrender to a killer no matter the form it takes.
I also need to thank Chris Christie to make it clear letting down one's defenses in wearing masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene is the worst thing that can happen to an American. I am glad he made it through to the other side of the infection of this virus. He is a decent man and I believe the truth means something to him, especially when looking at his career as a US Attorney.
All Americans need to heed the warnings of scientists and moral political persons.
