Links: Masks, and a reason to use better ones

[sonia]

Some Covid masks are better than others. I know – I’m the Mask Nerd by Aaron Collins.

A typical cloth mask, while better than nothing, only provides around 30-60% protection to the wearer. Surgical masks, while better at 40-80%, lack a tight fit to the face, resulting in large amounts of leakage around the mask.

Much, much better masks exist. [...] Mask makers such as Masklab and Posh have created highly decorative designed masks, with bright colours and intricate patterns. Many KF94 masks feature built-in ear-loop adjusters, making for a comfortable, but tight fit. Other mask makers such as 3M – with the 9152 (9105 in the US), a mask that helps the wearer breathe as if there were none on their face, while also providing a full range of motion for the jaw – provide great options for singers and choruses.

I tried ordering some masks from Masklab a few days ago, and they haven't shipped yet. I hope they fit well once they get here!

Upgrading Masks [COVID-19] by siderea. "I ordered a box for my household directly from Honeywell (https://ppe.honeywell.com)." She predicts shortages as everyone suddenly notices that omicron requires better masks. Comments are worth reading as well.

And a motivation to wear a better mask:

Cognitive deficits in people who have recovered from COVID-19 by Adam Hampshire, William Trender, Samuel R Chamberlain, Amy E. Jolly, Jon E. Grant, Fiona Patrick, et al.

Findings: People who had recovered from COVID-19, including those no longer reporting symptoms, exhibited significant cognitive deficits versus controls when controlling for age, gender, education level, income, racial-ethnic group, pre-existing medical disorders, tiredness, depression and anxiety. The deficits were of substantial effect size for people who had been hospitalised (N = 192), but also for non-hospitalised cases who had biological confirmation of COVID-19 infection (N = 326).

Relatedly, The Brain Doesn’t Think the Way You Think It Does by Jordana Cepelewicz via nancylebov in a comment on another post from siderea on starting to talk about Long Covid.

Recent work has found, for instance, that two-thirds of the brain is involved in simple eye movements; meanwhile, half of the brain gets activated during respiration.

Comments

[sonia]

Sampler packs are a good idea! I hope they work out for you. Your link got into a loop on my browser, but this link worked for me: https://www.armbrustusa.com/products/armbrust-mask-sampler-kit

There's a local Portland mask company protectly.co which endearingly delivered masks to me by bike courier, but I didn't like the masks, and they're now price-gouging by more than double on BinaxNow rapid tests, so I'm definitely done doing business with them.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for finding a better link.

I so wish the 3M Aura 9205+ respirators didn't have that scratchy black foam on the inside backing up the nosewire -- creates cranky pressure sores after 2 hours.

My oh my, it looks like someone panicked on the protectly site! Big black letters basically saying "we can't help it! we can't meet deadlines! random supplies are random!" (and [extra warrant canary][bird]) "when this alarming notice disappears things will have been improved"