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Comment by URfejk | Hacker News Reader

How do you comment this then: https://videopress.com/v/4egEyh2b

That seems to support parent's comment. The surgical masks prevented much of the smoke from going out the front, the "cloth mask he borrowed from his wife" let much of the smoke come through the mask.

Regarding the rest of the video, his claim of "masks have no effect" seems to be easily demonstrated as false from his experiments. Yes, some smoke does leak, but compare that to him exhaling without a mask. You would get a blast of vape smoke right in your face. The masks clearly filter some smoke and deflect the rest of the smoke away from where he's facing. While obviously not perfect, it looks like a clear improvement to me.

Finally, comparing smoke to covid-19 is disingenuous. You will almost never find individual virus particles floating around the air, they will instead be contained in water droplets which you exhale.

I wonder how no one came out with a better version with some filter "installed"?

Is this the best we can do?

You mean a mask which filters both on inhale and exhale? N95 masks do a decent job of that, although I'd guess there's still some leakage on exhale (not designed for that). N95s are still sold out in my area, so I got some KN95 which I use. The CDC tested some of them for effectiveness, many of them got pretty high marks: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/respirators/testing/NonNIOSH...

Some of the KN95s have been found to be counterfeit. Some of the ones we tested were no better than a cloth mask. When buying KN95s, please check that they've been validated by the CDC's list.

If it's legitimate KN95, it probably protects at least as good as a medical mask but probably not as good as a N95. This is because KN95s are not designed to form a complete seal so many folks will have some leakage around the edges. This is the reason that you see many systems 3d printing molded frames to improve the KN95 fit and decrease leakage.

"Disposable" medical masks cost pennies to make, can be worn for multiple days, and are highly effective. In an environment where some folks refuse or can't mask, they are the most effective way for people to keep themselves safe.

By the way, I don't make or sell masks. I'm just interested in keeping people out of the hospital and my friends/family safe.

This video only claims that YOUR mask doesn't protect others from your breath. This seems like a good reason for BOTH parties to wear a mask.

Do people expect the air not to go anywhere...?

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