micky expressed precisely :
In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 2 Jan 2021 03:58:01 -0800 (PST),
" wrote:

On Friday, January 1, 2021 at 4:39:30 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 1 Jan 2021 03:37:57 -0800 (PST),
" wrote:

On Thursday, December 31, 2020 at 8:55:10 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 31 Dec 2020 20:26:25 -0500, Hal Bundy
wrote:

On 1/1/2021 12:24 AM, micky wrote:
OT? Why is it that everyone one sees on the news, politicians of both
parties and others, is wearing a cloth mask rather than an N95 or even
KN95 mask?
I should have said N95 or KN95 respirator, but calling them masks is
very common, and only means the same devices.
You can tell by looking that they are cloth.

But in addition, all N95 masks have, aiui, rubber bands around the head
rather than earloops. KN95 masks seem to all have earloops and I'm not
sure why, but afaik they all seem to be "beak" masks and no one on the
news is wearing that.

Is it just because they can't get N95 masks? I try not to be cynical
but when did that stop a US Senator, esp. for example McConnell?


Someone recently published a list of dozens of hypocrite politicians who
were ordering people to wear masks but were later caught in public
without one.
But it's way beyond that. I'm talking about people who wear masks not
for the image it gives, but because they don't want to get sick,

Masks aren't for preventing you from getting sick. They're for preventing
you from making other people sick. Even if you're a politician.

That's what surgical masks are for.
What does 'that' refer to. What is what surgical masks are for?

Surgical masks are for preventing the surgeon from breathing
germs into his work.

That's what I thought you meant.

Preventing you from making other people sick or preventing you from
getting sick.
If a surgeon doesn't want to get
patient goo on him, he wears a face shield.
Fair enough.

But From wikip, A surgical mask, also known as a medical face mask, is
intended to be worn by health professionals during healthcare
procedures. Surgical masks are intended to prevent infections in
patients and treating personnel by catching bacteria shed in liquid
droplets and aerosols from the wearer's mouth and nose.[3][4][5] They
are not designed to protect the wearer from breathing in airborne
bacteria or viruses whose particles are smaller, but could be protective
because viruses on droplets are filtered-out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgical_mask **

So I guess some of these are better than cloth masks, but they still
protect other people, not the wearer. I'm happy to protect other
people, even though I haven't been sick and haven't actually protected
anyone, but I definitely want to protect myself.

Then stay at home.

Or get a better mask, which is what I've done.

but
still wear only cloth masks, which doctors and scientists say are much
more beneficial for other people around you than they are for the
wearer. So why don't they get better masks?

They don't need better masks. The general public doesn't need
better masks, and politicians don't need better masks.

Huh? Why do you say that? Everyone would be better off if there were
enough N95 masks / repirators to go around, and, of course, if they were
worn.

Who's going to properly fit all these masks and train the wearer in their
proper use?

This is not rocket science. YOu can see how to wear them by reading
instructions and looking at how others do.

Otherwise they might just as well wear a bandana.

I'm lucky that I had 2 unused ones and one moderately used one
that I bought to prevent inhaling fiberglass. The rubber bands broke
after an hour or two so I sewed new elastic on one. I don't go out
much and I'm still using it, but it's starting to look old.

Do these N95 masks have output valves? If so, they're useless
for protecting other people.

I think they did but they were square with holes along the bottom. The
valves can be plugged through the holes in the bottom front. 3 holes
side by side, and one seems big enough to push some non-permeable
material through, but if not, the little ribs between the holes can be
broken and then there's plenty of room.

Cindy Hamilton

Like the one pictured here?

https://www.ferguson.com/content/tra...espirator-mask