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No. Masks are only useful if you are trying to keep from spreading the covid infection to others.

philip964 wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:25 pm So are masks now required or not?

Houston PBS has been re-airing a 50-minute American Experience program on the 1918 influenza epidemic. It can be streamed from this link: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... influenza/. It's from 1998, and it's definitely worth a watch. The number of similarities are pretty striking...and it seems we had lessons to take away from that pandemic, and a hundred years later we forgot some of them.

In Houston, I keep seeing TV news pieces about local folks who are sewing cloth masks to help during the N95 shortage. One of them I've seen highlighted twice because her company normally makes athletic clothing using anti-bacterial cloth. They make a huge deal out of that in the news segments, repeating "anti-bacterial" at least a half-dozen times.

Guess what, people: a virus is not a bacterium. They learned that lesson the hard way in 1918 when a treatment was released...that treated nothing at all having to do with the influenza virus because they had targeted much large bacteria that they could see under the microscopes of the early 20th century. Another thing they did in 1918--and I think this came down from the federal government--was begin requiring everyone to start wearing face masks when in public. These were simple cotton masks or even just bandanas tied around the head. The PBS piece has the winning line: "Putting a simple cloth mask over their faces was as effective as trying to block dust with chicken wire."

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:45 pm No. Masks are only useful if you are trying to keep from spreading the covid infection to others.

Depends on the mask. Surgical masks are primarily from sharing your germs with others.

Wearing respirators, like N95, will prevent you from breathing in viruses from the air. You just can't touch the filter media after use, because it's contaminated.

Paladin wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:54 pm

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:45 pm No. Masks are only useful if you are trying to keep from spreading the covid infection to others.

Depends on the mask. Surgical masks are primarily from sharing your germs with others.

Wearing respirators, like N95, will prevent you from breathing in viruses from the air. You just can't touch the filter media after use, because it's contaminated.

The government sucker punched us all. A couple weeks ago they fed into the propaganda stream that masks were only useful for people who were sick. They were lying because they already knew there was a shortage of masks. We cannot trust ANYBODY in government. They are all lying pieces of garbage. Every dog gone one of them. No exceptions. Yeah, I am angry! I was just about to get a few masks when I bought that line of crappola and decided I didn't need them.

03Lightningrocks wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:49 pm

Paladin wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:54 pm

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:45 pm No. Masks are only useful if you are trying to keep from spreading the covid infection to others.

Depends on the mask. Surgical masks are primarily from sharing your germs with others.

Wearing respirators, like N95, will prevent you from breathing in viruses from the air. You just can't touch the filter media after use, because it's contaminated.

The government sucker punched us all. A couple weeks ago they fed into the propaganda stream that masks were only useful for people who were sick. They were lying because they already knew there was a shortage of masks. We cannot trust ANYBODY in government. They are all lying pieces of garbage. Every dog gone one of them. No exceptions. Yeah, I am angry! I was just about to get a few masks when I bought that line of crappola and decided I didn't need them.

Virus is much smaller then bacterium. It can enter through tiniest of openings. N95 masks are ok, but they do not cover your eyes, so I guess you could be protected with N95 somewhatish provided that you had proper gloves, goggles etc.
Most masks I’ve seen are inadequate. I’m speaking of surgical ones primarily. As you breath in/out the condensation creates pores thru which a virus pathogen can easy pass through. Then there’s a need for gloves, goggles as well etc...

In short, you’re better off staying put and if you do wish to protect yourself keep distance, wash your hands, don’t touch the snout etc.

Good argument though for wearing any mask to keep from infecting others however.

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 3:12 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:49 pm

Paladin wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:54 pm

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:45 pm No. Masks are only useful if you are trying to keep from spreading the covid infection to others.

Depends on the mask. Surgical masks are primarily from sharing your germs with others.

Wearing respirators, like N95, will prevent you from breathing in viruses from the air. You just can't touch the filter media after use, because it's contaminated.

The government sucker punched us all. A couple weeks ago they fed into the propaganda stream that masks were only useful for people who were sick. They were lying because they already knew there was a shortage of masks. We cannot trust ANYBODY in government. They are all lying pieces of garbage. Every dog gone one of them. No exceptions. Yeah, I am angry! I was just about to get a few masks when I bought that line of crappola and decided I didn't need them.

Virus is much smaller then bacterium. It can enter through tiniest of openings. N95 masks are ok, but they do not cover your eyes, so I guess you could be protected with N95 somewhatish provided that you had proper gloves, goggles etc.
Most masks I’ve seen are inadequate. I’m speaking of surgical ones primarily. As you breath in/out the condensation creates pores thru which a virus pathogen can easy pass through. Then there’s a need for gloves, goggles as well etc...

In short, you’re better off staying put and if you do wish to protect yourself keep distance, wash your hands, don’t touch the snout etc.

Good argument though for wearing any mask to keep from infecting others however.

Thanks for the info! I am entering 2-4 homes a day and am beginning to get a bit nervous about it. We had a meeting yesterday and decided to only service homes with broken AC systems. We are postponing our maintenance checks until the first week of May. I am still wishing I had purchsed those N95 masks when I had the chance.

If you can find some of the painter masks that come with filter, they work good. I don’t have a link handy but some hardware stores might have them.

My FD gave all of us few with a box of replaceable filters, along with goggles...

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 3:12 pm Good argument though for wearing any mask to keep from infecting others however.

Yep; at least almost any mask will help shorten the distance some explosive sneeze will hurl saliva droplets. Remember the Tueller Drill? 6-feet social distancing only applies to the very largest droplets. Somebody who really sneezes when he sneezes, like me, can get out to 27 feet.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/hea ... 091526002/

I've been meaning to ask The Annoyed Man about something, because we're in the same boat. Masks and beards don't mix. No seal around big parts of the mask. I haven't shaved because of the Coronapocalypse, and I guarantee TAM hasn't. Maybe we need full CDC biohazard onesies in our prepper cache.

"Dr. Annoyed? Is that you?"
"Dr. Rafe! How have you been..."

03Lightningrocks wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:49 pm

Paladin wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:54 pm

parabelum wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:45 pm No. Masks are only useful if you are trying to keep from spreading the covid infection to others.

Depends on the mask. Surgical masks are primarily from sharing your germs with others.

Wearing respirators, like N95, will prevent you from breathing in viruses from the air. You just can't touch the filter media after use, because it's contaminated.

The government sucker punched us all. A couple weeks ago they fed into the propaganda stream that masks were only useful for people who were sick. They were lying because they already knew there was a shortage of masks. We cannot trust ANYBODY in government. They are all lying pieces of garbage. Every dog gone one of them. No exceptions. Yeah, I am angry! I was just about to get a few masks when I bought that line of crappola and decided I didn't need them.

I bought eight N95 masks about 5-6 years ago, precisely because being at least minimally prepared for a pandemic or environmental disaster was part of my general preps. I also bought two Sundstrom H10-0014 Silica Dust Respirator Kits with SR 100 M/L Silicone Half Masks, P100/HE Particulate Filters and Prefilters a little over a month ago on Amazon, when it started looking like we’d probably be on some kind of quarantine/lockdown/travel ban. I bought the first eight for just my wife and me, because we lived alone at the time. Now we share a house with my son and his family. We are 8 people in this house now—my wife and me, my son and DIL, their two kids, and my son's BIL (who is staying with us while he’s going through a divorce) and his small son. So we’ve got 8 N95s for 5 adults and 3 children. I’m pretty sure that they won’t fit any of the children without somehow modifying them.

It’s like being prepared for most things....if you can imagine it, and there’s some realistic possibility that it could happen some day, you should take it into account in your preps. I’m not saying I’m some kind of genius or anything, but the possibility of either a pandemic or some kind of environmental disaster was something I did think about, and at the time N95 masks were CHEAP....so I bought a few. But I never seriously thought the likelihood of something like this was very high. So I was pretty much as caught by surprise as anyone else. I just happened to give it a moment's thought at a time when filter masks were cheap and easily available. I had also bought s ever all boxes each of nitrile gloves in medium and large ... again, while they were cheap.

Such is the nature of black swan events .... and there is NO doubt that with COVID-19, we are experiencing a black swan event. I was lucky with the masks and gloves, but there are other things which I wish I’d thought of while I had the money that might have made things easier today. Most of all, I wish I’d had the wherewithal to buy a farm away from the city before all of this. I have a strong belief that many people are going to have to have to grow a lot of their own food going forward, like many families had to do back in the depression. We will eventually pull out of this, but it’s not going to be weeks or months.

Rafe wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 3:39 pm I've been meaning to ask The Annoyed Man about something, because we're in the same boat. Masks and beards don't mix. No seal around big parts of the mask. I haven't shaved because of the Coronapocalypse, and I guarantee TAM hasn't. Maybe we need full CDC biohazard onesies in our prepper cache.

"Dr. Annoyed? Is that you?"
"Dr. Rafe! How have you been..."

Seriously though, I’ve already realized that if it gets that bad, the beard has got to go. I’d prefer to keep it, but I’d hate having COVID-19 more than I’d hate shaving off my beard.

I have one of these and beard. Now my beard is not as epic as it once was but this mask has worked for me putting epoxy on my shop floor, painting the house, staining my room, and last weekend 12hrs on the tractor spraying the pasture. With a beard I never smelt any of the items I was using. With the epoxy floor, soon as you walked outside and took the mask off, you could smell the fumes. There's no way you could do a floor without a mask. Even didnt smell the diesel exhaust from the tractor.

I use the voc filters and was going to get a new set before setting on the tractor but even they were sold out. Not sure how a N95 mask would work with a beard but I know how this one works.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/ ... 138&rt=rud

The Annoyed Man wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 6:07 pm
Most of all, I wish I’d had the wherewithal to buy a farm away from the city before all of this. I have a strong belief that many people are going to have to have to grow a lot of their own food going forward, like many families had to do back in the depression. We will eventually pull out of this, but it’s not going to be weeks or months.

The thing that caught me off guard is the run on items at the store. When I sold my house 3 years ago, I lost my garden which had been worked for years and had good dirt. Chickens gave me eggs and I had goats if I had to get my own meat. I had a sprout house and started all my own plants from seed.

We didn't get moved out here until 18 months ago. Between moving and building the house, I just put in a garden this year. I do not have high expectations because the ground wasn't worked like I would have preferred. What I did do was till an extra spot and planted every bean, corn, and pea I had in hopes that in a couple of months I would be able to put some back if need be. If not, there's plenty of wildlife around here to eat.

For my future plans, I'm trying to talk work out of a small drill they don't want any more and plant about 10k square feet of grain (wheat and oats) to harvest and put back. I plan on making my own flour mill and not getting caught with my pants down again. Hopefully next year fences get up and I get a few cows. Even though goats would be better to slaughter due to ease of processing and storage. Goats are just a pain.

My brother is pretty much self sufficient. He has a good garden and built a greenhouse this winter with an aquaponic setup that he's getting figured out. He also has some hydroponic plants and has already ate a tomato. One tomato plant will make enough tomatoes in hydroponics that he doesn't need to have others planted even though he does. My brother also hasn't bought meat in years. If he doesn't shoot it or raise it to be slaughtered, he doesn't eat it. Plus he likes chickens and has 60 of them running around. The only problem is he is on a 4 acre lot in a very small town so everyone knows what he has.

I'm going to try some hydroponic tomatoes outside and see how they do. I would suggest looking into it if you don't have a large area for a big garden.

We've talked about if it gets really bad, we'll move his family out here even though it would be starting over.

WalMart is controlling the amount of shoppers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news4j ... utType=amp

Walmart will begin imposing new limits on the number of customers allowed inside its stores at a time, the retail giant announced on Friday.

Starting on Saturday, Walmart locations will allow no more than five customers inside for every 1,000 square feet of the building, or approximately one-fifth of the average store’s capacity.

carlson1 wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:36 pm WalMart is controlling the amount of shoppers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news4j ... utType=amp

Walmart will begin imposing new limits on the number of customers allowed inside its stores at a time, the retail giant announced on Friday.

Starting on Saturday, Walmart locations will allow no more than five customers inside for every 1,000 square feet of the building, or approximately one-fifth of the average store’s capacity.

Our local HEB was doing this last week. I don’t know if they use the same ratio or not, but they let only so many people in at a time and they had “social distance” marks on the sidewalk for the line waiting to get in.