Best mask available is still limited protection, strongly consider safety glasses to compliment the mask. The mask is more to protect others from you(if infected), wearing glasses helps protect you. Just thoughts. I wont lie and say its fun, but i have been wearing safety glasses for a couple of month now........anti mist ones help a little. You can also buy an anti mist spray to coat the lenses which does help/work. This does need to be done daily .
I still think a face shield is the best choice, but you will get some funny looks!
Here is a little health guide for NHS in the UK, level 1 PPE everyone working there has to follow as a minimum.
What is PPE?
PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment, and comes in several levels.
What is level 1 PPE?
- Single pair of gloves
- Disposable plastic apron
- Fluid repellent surgical mask
- Eye protection if you feel there is a risk of patient coughing, or splash or droplet exposure.
https://www.ouh.nhs.uk/working-for-us/staff/covid-staff-faqs-ppe.aspx
show me the evidence any of above works and I'm all on board!
your link only describes what is PPE ... no evidence said PPE are effective preventing virus transmission
so far I've not seen a shred of evidence masks work to prevent corona virus infection
but I've seen several randomize trials with thousand that shows no difference wearing N95 masks for flu in healthcare settings
now the lastest BS is wearing googles and/or face shields is somehow going to help prevent spread of C19
it's reasonable to ask ... where's the actual evidence?
no actual evidence = BS
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N95 respirators
Honeywell is a manufacturer of N95 respirators. These are made with a 0.3 micron filter. (12) N95 respirators are so named, because 95% of particles having a diameter of 0.3 microns are filtered by the mask forward of the wearer, by use of an electrostatic mechanism. Coronaviruses are approximately 0.125 microns in diameter.
This meta-analysis found that N95 respirators did not provide superior protection to facemasks against viral infections or influenza-like infections. (13) This study did find superior protection by N95 respirators when they were fit-tested compared to surgical masks. (14)
This study found that 624 out of 714 people wearing N95 masks left visible gaps when putting on their own masks. (15)
Surgical masks
This study found that surgical masks offered no protection at all against influenza. (16) Another study found that surgical masks had about 85% penetration ratio of aerosolized inactivated influenza particles and about 90% of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, although S aureus particles were about 6x the diameter of influenza particles. (17)
Use of masks in surgery were found to slightly increase incidence of infection over not masking in a study of 3,088 surgeries. (18) The surgeons’ masks were found to give no protective effect to the patients.
Other studies found no difference in wound infection rates with and without surgical masks. (19) (20)
This study found that “there is a lack of substantial evidence to support claims that facemasks protect either patient or surgeon from infectious contamination.” (21)
This study found that medical masks have a wide range of filtration efficiency, with most showing a 30% to 50% efficiency. (22)
Specifically, are surgical masks effective in stopping human transmission of coronaviruses? Both experimental and control groups, masked and unmasked respectively, were found to “not shed detectable virus in respiratory droplets or aerosols.” (23) In that study, they “did not confirm the infectivity of coronavirus” as found in exhaled breath.
A study of aerosol penetration showed that two of the five surgical masks studied had 51% to 89% penetration of polydisperse aerosols. (24)
In another study, that observed subjects while coughing, “neither surgical nor cotton masks effectively filtered SARS-CoV-2 during coughs by infected patients.” And more viral particles were found on the outside than on the inside of masks tested. (25)
Cloth masks
Cloth masks were found to have low efficiency for blocking particles of 0.3 microns and smaller. Aerosol penetration through the various cloth masks examined in this study were between 74 and 90%. Likewise, the filtration efficiency of fabric materials was 3% to 33% (26)
Healthcare workers wearing cloth masks were found to have 13 times the risk of influenza-like illness than those wearing medical masks. (27)
This 1920 analysis of cloth mask use during the 1918 pandemic examines the failure of masks to impede or stop flu transmission at that time, and concluded that the number of layers of fabric required to prevent pathogen penetration would have required a suffocating number of layers, and could not be used for that reason, as well as the problem of leakage vents around the edges of cloth masks. (28)
Masks against Covid-19
The New England Journal of Medicine editorial on the topic of mask use versus Covid-19 assesses the matter as follows:
“We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 20 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.” (29)
https://www.primarydoctor.org/masks-not-effect
