Open Line Friday Caller Debunks Mask Myths

CLAY: Let’s go to Dominic first up. Dominic, what you got for us?

CALLER: Okay. Subject: Masks. I worked in several operations in industry using filters to sterilize things. I would have to get things cleared through FDA. We would make sure that the filters would work. They were certified to work. They were tested, quality tested and so forth.

BUCK: But when you see people saying things like, “Mask up between bites,” do you also want to start throwing things at the wall or what?

I can tell you, considering the size of viruses, they are transmitted for covid through fine aerosols. The cloth masks, surgical masks do nothing. To get some level of effect, you have to go — and this in is the respirator category — to an N95. Even those are designed for dust. None of the things that people commonly buy are designed for viruses.

CLAY: So how frustrating is it to you, Dominic, as someone who has expertise in the mask industry, to be walking around and seeing everybody wearing these masks and hear all the debates about virtue signaling and everything else?

BUCK: Masks? What about the Kamala-Biden 2024 kerchiefs and things that people are putting on?

CLAY: Yeah, but it has to be insanely frustrating if you have actual knowledge of how flawed these are from working your job.

CALLER: Okay. It makes no sense. I’m surprised… I’ve actually gone to our local school board here, and I’ve challenged anybody I can talk to — I challenge them — specify a mask that works.

CLAY: Yeah.

CALLER: Now, anybody who’s used an N95 knows how uncomfortable they are. When I worked in a factory, I had mechanics working for me. If it was a dusty atmosphere, under OSHA regs, you had to wear an N95 mask. However, before you can wear that mask, you had to get an okay from a physician in case you had breathing difficulties.

Then you had to go through training. Then you would be fitted, ’cause these come in different facial sizes. You couldn’t have any facial hair. They have to seal up against your face. And I would not have them work, because I knew how uncomfortable they were — I would not have them work — any more than 20 or 25 minutes.

BUCK: Dominic, again, what you’re talking about here in a sense is the mechanics and aerodynamics, which falls under the category of science too, I think.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

BUCK: But when you see people saying things like, “Mask up between bites,” do you also want to start throwing things at the wall or what?

CALLER: It makes no sense to me, and here’s the thing that doesn’t make any sense, either. How many people really believe that masks work and, “Gee, yeah, I have these symptoms; maybe I have it! But because I’m vaccinated and I have a mask, it’s okay.” Maybe those are the people who are spreading. Who knows?

BUCK: These things they do where they have the spray bottles? Where did they come up with this? You know what I’m talking about. This is where they started to tell us early in the pandemic, they would have mannequins with liquid spray bottles and then they would look at the droplets that got through the spray. If somebody was spraying chlorine gas, I wouldn’t say, “Oh, well, some of it got stuck in the mask.”

CALLER: Droplets, yes. Okay? But all of the data that’s out, the studies have shown the virus is primarily transmitted as a fine aerosol.

BUCK: Right.

CALLER: So, as a fine aerosol, depending on whose definition you look at, generally that’s less than a half micron. So now —

BUCK: So, it gets right through the mesh. So the people in the beginning who were saying it’s like firing a hose through a chicken wire fence or something —

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.

BUCK: That’s a rough analogy, but —

CALLER: — and the thing is, these aerosols are so small, you cannot see them generally. If there’s like sunlight in the background or whatever like dust you might see it, but generally you can’t see the stuff. As you speak or breathe, even. These droplets — which, again, they’re fine aerosols — start drying, and they become extremely small.

BUCK: That’s what I thought. Dominic, thanks so much. I appreciate it. #Science, Clay, #ClayAndBuck. Keeping it real.