Mask theater

Just went to Home Depot. Half the customers were wearing masks. Of those, about half either had their nose out or were wearing it as a chinstrap, with the nose and mouth uncovered. It's as if they think a mask is a magic talisman to ward off evil spirits.

Of those who actually attempted to wear it correctly, most had gaps so large that you could stick a finger in the gap. A few of the men were wearing them over beards.

The COVID virus is 80 nanometers in diameter. That is 80 billionths of a meter. Even worn correctly, a surgical mask has pores that are up to 500 nanometers in diameter- more than 7 times larger than the virus. Cloth masks are even worse. The human hair is about 1,000 times wider than this virus. If you can fit a hair between your mask and skin, it isn't doing you any good.

What the powers that be aren't telling you is that the order to wear masks isn't there to keep you from catching it. They just don't work for that. What they are for is to keep you from coughing and sneezing particles over longer distances. When you cough or sneeze, you eject large droplets that fly as far as 2 meters away, which is why the social distance rule is 6 feet. The smaller droplets, called aerosols are the ones most likely to squeeze past a mask, stay suspended in the air for much larger periods.

There is little that can be done to filter out aerosols. The secret here is that the Wuhan virus is fairly fragile and is destroyed by sunlight. So while the aerosol is suspended, any Wuhan V that are in it will be destroyed fairly quickly if exposed to daylight. Your best defense is to be outdoors and at least six feet from others, or be in a building with an HVAC system that exchanges the air frequently. Believe it or not, newer gun ranges have air systems that do just that.

The healthiest thing is to go outdoors or to an indoor range.