Please explain to me why N-95 masks aren't the standard for EVERYONE to wear

The manufacturing capacity for N95 masks is insufficient to supply both the health care sector and the general public. Currently, the health care sector gets first dibs and there is nothing left for the general public. We have known about this problem since the only domestic manufacturer begged the Trump administration to buy his masks back in March. The supply chain for these masks is very tight and cannot be expanded quickly. If the US was serious about combating the virus, we would have nationalized the supply chain and made sure that the US has 100% domestic production capacity for N95 masks instead of hoping that Jared Kushner can find some former bit coin trader who just formed an LLC called MediFirst Logistics to work deals on the international market to buy the masks out from under Bangladesh.

N95 masks for everyone would be better than cloth/surgical masks. But cloth and surgical masks to make a huge difference compared to no mask at all.

To prevent sparking hoarding and a resulting shortage for medical workers. Cost to manufacture doesn't mean you can make an endless supply in short order.

because masks are required to demonstrate compliance of the sheeple.

there is merit in this idea, but too complicated to explain to the sheeple, who would prefer simple slogans over reality, but lets not go there.

Precious Roy wrote:

The manufacturing capacity for N95 masks is insufficient to supply both the health care sector and the general public. Currently, the health care sector gets first dibs and there is nothing left for the general public. We have known about this problem since the only domestic manufacturer begged the Trump administration to buy his masks back in March. The supply chain for these masks is very tight and cannot be expanded quickly.

Supply should be ramped up more though. The government should be encouraging and incentivizing more companies in the US to create factories/supply chain to make N95s and other essential PPE.

Grassrunner wrote:

It seems clear enough to me, yet no one is publicly promoting this concept. They are cheap as dirt to manufacture and there is no reason they shouldn't be readily available to the masses by now. You simply are not well protected with anything less.

The other masks most are wearing do not protect you well from the virus. Why wouldn't you want to protect others AND YOURSELF well??? If you get it, then you become a threat to others, so any way you look at it the masks most everyone is wearing now are a poor option.

The primary reason for requiring masks by regular people is not to protect the individual but to reduce transmission because all the droplets from your mouth get caught in the mask and if everyone does it we become collectively less exposed to covid-19. They aren't recommending masks as PPE for the general public because most people wouldn't even be able to use them properly as PPE and an N95 is overkill for reducing transmission.

Precious Roy wrote:

The manufacturing capacity for N95 masks is insufficient to supply both the health care sector and the general public.

That's not true. N95 masks are very easy to manufacture and produce. Harbor Freight carried lots of N95 masks, and they mysteriously all disappeared when this fiasco began, perhaps by design.

They're not unavailable because they're not available, they're not available because that's all part of the plan. People think they need an N95 mask and can't have one. Boo hoo!!! Boo hoo!!! Which creates mass hysteria about absolutely nothing.

You don't need a freaking N95 mask for a virus.

dullard wrote:

The primary reason for requiring masks by regular people is not to protect the individual but to reduce transmission because all the droplets from your mouth get caught in the mask and if everyone does it we become collectively less exposed to covid-19.

You're forgetting that people commonly fart and pass wind, so how are you accounting for that?

People need to start putting duct tape on their butts, and not eliminating anywhere except in their own homes.

No one should be allowed to go out in public without duct tape on their butts, and no one allowed into stores until this is verified at the doors.

The N95 mask is the only mask that will actually protect you from aerosol because its seals your face and has fabric that removes 95% of sub micron particles. Surgical masks were only designed to reduce the spread of bacteria to a patient, particularly during surgery, when a health care worker talks, coughs, sneezes, etc. They do not provide protection for the person wearing the mask and were never intended to.

The cloth masks that people are wearing over their nose do not provide a seal to prevent you from breathing in ambient aerosol or for you from expelling an aerosol so does little to prevent transmission in a closed environment. Most people actually wear these masks below their nose which always makes me laugh. I guess is reduces talking aerosol, but a joke none the less.

TheseKidsUnderstand wrote:

The N95 mask is the only mask that will actually protect you from aerosol because its seals your face and has fabric that removes 95% of sub micron particles. Surgical masks were only designed to reduce the spread of bacteria to a patient, particularly during surgery, when a health care worker talks, coughs, sneezes, etc. They do not provide protection for the person wearing the mask and were never intended to.

The cloth masks that people are wearing over their nose do not provide a seal to prevent you from breathing in ambient aerosol or for you from expelling an aerosol so does little to prevent transmission in a closed environment. Most people actually wear these masks below their nose which always makes me laugh. I guess is reduces talking aerosol, but a joke none the less.

Exactly. If they want everyone to wear masks, N95 masks are what they should be producing for the masses to wear, not the crap most people are wearing and often not wearing properly, as you note. And it's more difficult to wear most N95 masks below the nose (incorrectly) because of the way they are designed.

Also, they swab the nostril to check for corona virus. Do you think if you breath out of your nose you don't spread the virus? It may not be as bad as the aerosol from the mouth, but it's lurking there too.

Grassrunner wrote:

It seems clear enough to me, yet no one is publicly promoting this concept. They are cheap as dirt to manufacture and there is no reason they shouldn't be readily available to the masses by now. You simply are not well protected with anything less.

The other masks most are wearing do not protect you well from the virus. Why wouldn't you want to protect others AND YOURSELF well??? If you get it, then you become a threat to others, so any way you look at it the masks most everyone is wearing now are a poor option.

Cause you can't find them.

Because it is too tight and messs up people's makeup, and their hair.

And for those "can't breathe" types, why is it that construction workers have been wearing them for days and weeks, and nobody claims that they can't breathe?

Also, the valve on the N95 mask allows your germy air to escape, unfiltered.

RyecorDone wrote:

Also, the valve on the N95 mask allows your germy air to escape, unfiltered.

I've got one that doesn't have the valve. Air escapes around the edges but at least it's not going straight out towards someone in front of you.

Nah, you clearly don't deserve an explanation. You don't even deserve to know, really.

No mask!

zzzz wrote:

Supply should be ramped up more though. The government should be encouraging and incentivizing more companies in the US to create factories/supply chain to make N95s and other essential PPE.

You can't just ramp up production. Maybe a little bit. But not by a couple 1000%. For that you need to build production lines and this takes awhile.

That's something Trump does not understand when he wants to bring back stuff from China. At this point it is simply impossible.

Don't wear a mask with a valve.

I worked in production wrote:

zzzz wrote:

Supply should be ramped up more though. The government should be encouraging and incentivizing more companies in the US to create factories/supply chain to make N95s and other essential PPE.

You can't just ramp up production. Maybe a little bit. But not by a couple 1000%. For that you need to build production lines and this takes awhile.

That's something Trump does not understand when he wants to bring back stuff from China. At this point it is simply impossible.

You misunderstand what I meant. I'm saying build those production lines to ramp up production. We can't have more masks yesterday, but we can in the future. I'm also not saying everything like electronics, etc. need to be produced in the USA. I'm specifically saying PPE, as part of a big view pandemic response plan. This pandemic will last for a year or two, and there will be other pandemics. They are becoming more frequent as humans encroach more into natural areas - SARS 2003, swine flu 2009, MERS 2015.

Your breath shouldn't bypass the N95 mask, unless you are wearing it wrong or some other reason. You should be breathing in and out through the mask, without bypass. And do not have a valve on front. Perhaps you bought a Chinese knock-off.