re: #173 Weaselone

Counterpoint on mask vs. bandana wearing.

Part of the reason the CDC originally recommended against wearing masks (besides the whole attempt to prevent the public from buying up all the masks needed by hospital and other essential workers) is that unless you are wearing a properly fitted N95 respirator, the protection it grants to you and others isn’t anywhere close to 100% effective. At the same time, there is a worry that people wearing masks would think they were safer than they actually were and fail to follow social distancing guidelines, i.e. they would go out more often, fail to avoid crowds, fail to maintain proper distances and engage in other activities that would more than offset the benefits of wearing a mask.

I unfortunately have no choice but to wear a bandana. The fabric is actually fairly tight, better than what many people have in their masks, but as noted my breathing pulls through and pushes out near my nose where there is no seal. The base isn’t as much of a problems as it’s bunched against my neck and buried inside my coat. Essentially, it’s little more than safety theatre, with the benefit that it encourages social distancing from me and may help minimize the size and spread of the droplet cloud I produce on exhaling. Having said that, it’s still better protection than the 25% of people I see who have masks and either aren’t wearing them or are wearing them incorrectly (often in bizarre fashion).

I have a couple of shemagh/keffiyeh/lots of other names scarfs on order. I don’t want to waste any N95 masks but I am in the camp that anything is better than nothing. I try to stand back, turn to face away if I am getting too close, wash hands and using sanitizer more. At present there are very few cases near here; I do what I can to keep it that way.