Re:Why is Japan still a coronavirus outlier?
by Aeolun on Sunday March 22, 2020 @05:00AM
(#22653664)
Pretty much all masks protect you to some extend, but the extend and the way in which they offer protection is different.
Surgical masks protect you from inhaling larger particles to some extend, but there’s large holes in it’s coverage, so you still basically get a bunch of contaminated air in, especially when spending time in a saturated room. What they do do however is prevent you from spraying droplets all over everyone near when you sneeze/cough/exhale, and that’s their main benefit. Protecting others from the bacteria and viruses in those droplets.
I think a study was done that indicated they make you about 30% less likely to get sick.
More highly rated masks (generally called respirators), will completely seal your mouth and nose (at least to a much greater extend than a surgical mask) and prevent bad stuff from coming in much better. Generally this is indicated in the form of a rating N95, N99, N100 (actually 99.97). And indicates what percentage of bad stuff the mask is likely to keep out. They’re less useful for protecting others, since there’s still some exhalation valve to get rid of excess air (still mostly same usefulness as surgical mask though).
Medical professionals generally want the N95 masks, but they’ll happily settle for just a surgical mask if that’s the only thing available.
Surgical masks protect you from inhaling larger particles to some extend, but there’s large holes in it’s coverage, so you still basically get a bunch of contaminated air in, especially when spending time in a saturated room. What they do do however is prevent you from spraying droplets all over everyone near when you sneeze/cough/exhale, and that’s their main benefit. Protecting others from the bacteria and viruses in those droplets.
I think a study was done that indicated they make you about 30% less likely to get sick.
More highly rated masks (generally called respirators), will completely seal your mouth and nose (at least to a much greater extend than a surgical mask) and prevent bad stuff from coming in much better. Generally this is indicated in the form of a rating N95, N99, N100 (actually 99.97). And indicates what percentage of bad stuff the mask is likely to keep out. They’re less useful for protecting others, since there’s still some exhalation valve to get rid of excess air (still mostly same usefulness as surgical mask though).
Medical professionals generally want the N95 masks, but they’ll happily settle for just a surgical mask if that’s the only thing available.