Its been over a year that we have been told to were masks over our noses and mouth to prevent the spread of Covid 19. We have heard many opinions and scientific reasons for the need of wearing them but with many disagreements between the scientists and politicians. The virus has given the politicians a new power that most have never seen before and the politicians like it. Many are continuing to use it even when the pandemic is nearly over and the spread is very small. The controversy over the use of masks continues after the CDC tells us that if vaccinated or recovered from the virus there is no need to wear masks. My coffee shop is still asking for masks and my Church is still requiring reservations with your temperature taken and signing in. They have limited attendance to about 25% capacity and seem to think that they have become permanent television preachers. Sad and has forced me to attend another Church.
Why masks in the first place? This question was asked by many and answered as protection for others by limiting exhaled breath to travel very far with any contamination such as the Covid virus. The mask would not protect the wearer but others supposedly. The N-95 mask was preferred but in such short supply it was not possible to distribute it to very many people. The result was paper and cloth masks that were manufactured rapidly for the public. We all were wearing them and even went so far to find fashioned masks. The problem with most of those manufactured was that they were very porous and did little to prevent anything smaller that 50 microns from escaping from our exhales. They did shorten the travel as the velocity of the exhale was inhibited some. Many thought that they were being protected by these masks and that was false but the media tried to shore up the politicians and their new acquired power by telling people that the masks were needed. We found later that children were very unlikely to get the virus and the masks did more harm to them than the virus could but schools are still insisting on their use. Some children were found to wear the same mask for days and even weeks with the accumulated filth in the mask being inhaled constantly. The masks were actually harmful and are still being worn.
How about the masks and what they are good for. N-95 masks are made of a blown polypropylene and not woven which allows smaller pores down to 3 microns. They may have some pores as large as 50 microns but very few. For those not aware of this measurement a micron is .001 millimeter or .00004 inches. To put the virus in perspective an e-coli bacterium is 1.5 microns long and .5 microns in diameter. The Corona virus is about .12 microns which would allow about 10 to20 of them to fit inside of an e-coli cell. The N-95 mask will not stop the e-coli and certainly would not stop a virus from going or coming but it would catch many of them and reduce the population within the exhalant. Any other mask will perform very poorly with germs this small and are almost worthless. A pinhole is nearly 1 millimeter or 1000 microns if you wish to compare your masks to the pin hole.
Many years ago while I was in the second grade I received the polio vaccine and felt saved as my uncle had just died from the disease. The smallpox vaccine and then the tetanus and I was covered. The measles, hooping cough and mumps were not available and I acquired immunity to these diseases by suffering through them as well as chickenpox. I received my first shot of Covid vaccine in January and the second in early February and according to the CDD was protected from the disease after two weeks but here it is in May and I am still being asked to wear a mask in many places including Church. It is totally ridiculous since I cannot get the disease and cannot transfer the disease to another human being. Our governor has lifted the mask mandate for those that have been vaccinated but many are clinging to the power they got when the politicians took over the medical world. Wearing a mask for many is dangerous since it limits oxygen intake and causes the rebreathing of carbon dioxide along with the accumulate dust and germs that contaminate the mask. We are beyond the herd protection and the only people that should wear a mask and that should be a N-95, are those that could not be vaccinated because of a lowered immune system or other health problem. We need to take them off now and throw them away to start living again.
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