Monday, February 3, 2020

Coronavirus masks

A friend in China is asking me to send her some masks... Found these good links straight from the CDC on which ones are effective on what:

  • CDC - differences between these: 
    1. Surgical masks: basically protect the patient from the wearer's infections. I.e., if population wear these, they may protect a bit themselves, but they protect mostly the people they interact with.
    2. N95 respirator: filters small particles. May be effective against virus/bacteria (more than #1) but has to be worn properly and it is tough. This is usually for industrial use but can be used by medical personal in these days (in fact that's what US gov. is buying by the millions).
    3. Surgical N95 respirator: N95 respirator + protection against liquid splashes (blood from surgery, etc.) and flammability. You don't really need this for Covid-19.
  • CDC on Influenza and protections against it 
  • CDC - List of respirators
Update (11/13/2020): was wondering about the PM2.5 masks. Probably don't help much with Covid (they filter 2.5um particles or above).