Here I am, trying to get used to my new N95 mask. It seems a little small, no?
As you may have heard, the government has started distributing free N95 masks, some 400 million of them, through pharmacies and supermarkets. On Wednesday, a kind employee at Albany Fred Meyer asked if I had gotten mine, and when I said no, she handed me three.
Then I faced a short dilemma when I got home: How to wear the things.
All this time that we’ve been putting on masks in indoor public places, the things had rubber bands you hooked around the ears. Can’t do that with N95’s. Instead, these come with rubber bands that go over and behind your head.
For people with big heads, these bands are too short. Or they seem that way. Only with some difficulty do they stretch to go around and behind your head. In my case anyway.
Is that how they’re supposed to be worn? Yes, as luck would have it, various institutions have posted videos on YouTube going into great detail on how to put N95 masks on correctly and how to take them off again.
I recommend you take a look at one of these demonstrations, for there definitely is a wrong way to do it, and that’s something you want to avoid because the masks are stamped with a warning:
“Misuse,” it says, “may result in sickness or death.”
Fred Meyer is not the only place you can get these masks. Here’s a link to other Oregon retail outlets where they are supposed to be available. Just don’t let the warning scare you off. (hh)
Two of the N95 masks they handed me at Fred Meyer this week.
There are other brands and have ya been fit tested?
I was able to order a large quantity of N95 masks from Amazon. Happily, I have a relatively small head and they fit relatively well even when I’m wearing my eyeglasses.
Most N95 masks are made of a material called polypropylene; a synthetic plastic fiber made out of fossil fuels like oil. Think yoga pants.
You shouldn’t burn them. And they take nearly 450 years to decompose when littered or thrown in the trash.
The struggle of our time – human nature vs. mother nature.
1) Put your glasses on after you get the straps over your head.
2) I have had a couple of brands and Honeywell N95 seems to it better for me, and a few people in my lifetime have called me a “fat head”. (Give me a break on this one Gordon.)
3) KN95 are the over the ear models. Better than a surgical mask but less than an N95.
4) Rumor on tonight that by mid-March masks indoors may no longer be required since Omicrom has infected so many people.
HH
Worn a variety of respiratory protection devices over 40ish years of industrial ( and home) exposure.
None of us had a problem with fit at work or ib the home shop
Hmmm?
the guidance is that he masks really don’t help do anything. Having 3x vac’s is good enough. Many thanks to those Albany eateries who have indoor seating/eating for valued customers.
Nearly all do not force customers to wear masks upon entry because once seated/eating/conversation, rational people remove the masks as a nuisance.
We hear the recommendation often to buy local so we visited !st Ave in Albany recently rather that our usual; Rogers/Starbucks/Denny’s/Elmer’s.
To our disgust we were denied entry w/o a mask and they claimed they had none to offer. I explained we had 3 vax’s and would just remove mask when seated.
Oh no, she said we have rules. So we left likely to not return. Blindly imposing “rules” really makes no sense wrt Covid
We need to live with rational risk and over time even those who fear should learn.
I will admit I was quite surprised by two comments above…
1st – The businesses you mention did not have masks to hand out.
and
2nd. – That you didn’t already have one when you walked in the door…
Hmmm
Recollecting an acronym used by union safety leaders who were proactively moving toward a safer-performing workforce. As one would expect, there was significant pushback from a gaggle of contrarians. Union came up with an acronym CAVE to describe them
Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
Seems to fit many frequent commenters
Tom, props for efficiency for using the same text as both a comment here and a letter to the editor in the DH.
That’s exactly why we opted for the KN95 GB2626-2019 masks. Fortunately, those fit our faces snugly all the way around. Your results may vary.
As somebody who had the Moderna shots with the last one in May and then got Covid on Labor Day which I easily survived which I believe I would easily have survived without the shots, go look at the statistics from Sweden which did not mask ever and you will find they are quite similar to this Nazi state (good luck trying to find any believable statistics from Oregon). The last time I looked only one person in Sweden, under 24, had died from Covid and about a thousand under age 59 so why are we masking anybody other than ones with compromised health. Also, flu use to kill a large number of people each year and now nobody dies from it. Explain that to my satisfaction my liberal writers.
oh Buddy, careful throwing around the term NAZI. If you haven’t noticed, American nazis have been activated. Just recently in Florida. Activated partially by the former guy (TFG).
As for your Swedish covid numbers….well they are false and fake. A simple search proves that.
You GQPers sure cannot stand a little inconvenience. Or are you really in a death cult?
I’m sure you agreed with all the liberals who called George Bush a Nazi and I would guess you think most responders on HH are racist. If you don’t then you need to get with the liberal agenda.
As for your fictitious comment about my Covid data, please go to Statista.com for my Sweden facts. Right now they are reporting about 16,000 covid deaths for a population of 10.3 million which works out to 1553 per million.
As for Oregon, per The NY Times (a total liberal newspaper), they are reporting 6214 deaths on a population of 4.2 million, (guess as google says 4 million in 2019), which works out to 1480 deaths per million. Now who’s the liar anonymous.
Thanks Hasso
Thanks Hasso for not posting my comment and anonymous is a liar
I’m 7 1/4 hat size and feel your pain, Hasso.
Re masking utility, there’s tons of good studies verifying their usefulness. To best understand how mitigation makes a difference, don’t look at Sweden; try Hong Kong or New Zealand. Masking, vaxxing, quarantining arrivals and distancing make the difference. Canada is still doing loads better than USA despite some infection from alt-right Americans.
I remember back when Hasso was railing against hats being worn into banks because of camera identification issues.
Now we wear masks into them. How times have changed.