N95 Respirators vs. Medical Masks: A Randomized Clinical Trial (2019) | Hacker News Reader

N95 Respirators vs. Medical Masks: A Randomized Clinical Trial (2019)

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37 pointsReedx15 comments

Another study with SARS. Might be more applicable. Says masks reduce infection 68%, N95 91%.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2190272/#!po=1....

Cochrane reviews (of which this is one) are the gold standard for meta-analysis and evidence-based medicine. I trust their work a lot

It might be good to keep "influenza" in the title. I assumed this was about COVID-19.

2019 study. They do look at influenza, so similar to current situation but I am not sure if it can be used as is in the current pandemic

> Findings In this pragmatic, cluster randomized clinical trial involving 2862 health care personnel, there was no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza among health care personnel with the use of N95 respirators (8.2%) vs medical masks (7.2%).

Started to see groups hand sewing medical masks with the appropriate materials provided by the hospitals as a way of boosting production.

I know Disney had some forward work on fabric 3D printing, wondering if that will see a push in a new direction. A hospital able to “print” its own supplies seems useful to distribute the supply for emergencies.

Ok, so, by "medical masks" they mean the cheap isolation masks that come 50 to a box and are in no way rated to block viruses?

I've been told they make literally no difference when it comes to the user becoming infected. Is this study indicating they're worth wearing if you can't get an N95 or P100 mask?

You were told incorrectly. They help quite a bit:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23498357

Even home-made masks help quite a bit:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18612429/

Wow. I wonder why it's such a persistent mantra here in the US. I've been needlessly ignoring valuable protection because of misinformation.

It's done by all authoritarian regimes on purpose.

They want people to get sick to shorten the time to herd immunity.

Of you don't care about pensioners dying, only getting to fully working economy the fastest, this may be a strategy to try.

The only problem with this is that people get really scared after thousands of people die in their country from COVID, so I don't think that herd immunity strategy works.

Told by whom?

Plenty of people in the West are of the opinion that anything less than an N95 is useless. I know because I've argued with them and see comments everywhere to that effect. It doesn't help that the CDC and other Western health institutions have spoken against mask use.

I mean, if you're infected and cough its a physical barrier of sorts... it will reduce the amount of droplets in the air and def reduce sputum expelling.

If you're not infected it'll help stop you touching your mouth and nose at the very least.

These are not air filtration protections as such but they're def better than "no protection" and in their own way will help reduce the curve...

No doubt one of the many newly minted epidemiologists across the Internet ;-)

N95 masks are not rated for viruses either, the eponymous N95 standard test is about filtering NaCl.

For influenza, maybe. Doctors in general dont take too many precautions with Influenza. I am pretty sure they are similar because the doctors are more lax about donning and doffing protocol. Now when everyone is super paranoid, the masks become the critical link.

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