chrisl137

It's hard to make water droplets that are even as small as a micron (1000 nm) unless you're actively trying to do it, and even then it's a pain. Water droplets are also relatively easy to catch on a filter as long as it's a type that will wet. Coughing and sneezing (and even talking) tend to produce droplets much larger than a micron, and virtually none smaller than 5 micron.

Most viruses don't last long outside the body, and it depends on conditions. Coronaviruses look pretty durable- as long as days on some surfaces, and on PPE, though some metals (copper, copper alloys like brass) seem to have antiviral properties. That there aren't planeloads of people running around with it suggest that it doesn't transmit that well through air.

FWIW, I'm flying transcon out of LAX tomorrow and not terribly worried about it. I keep a box of N95 masks at home for days when there are a lot of particulates in the air from fires, and they'll be staying in the box.

Vangrovsky

My sister-in-law was connecting at LAX just this morning. She said that a dozens of people at TBIT were wearing respirators. An elderly man was even wearing a gas mask. Strangely, none of the people that she saw wearing respirators were East Asians.(as in Chinese, Korean, Japanese)

I forgot to ask her, but I was wondering if the TSA asked people to remove their respirators at the checkpoints... (if so, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of respirators?)

I was unable to buy N95 respirators from anywhere(local or online). While I was getting my regular check-up, my primary doctor was kind enough to give me a couple dozen surgical masks.(better than nothing, right?) That's the least she can do, since she doesn't accept insurance at all and each visit was $150.

VegasGambler

I got a 10-pack of 3M N95s on amazon yesterday for about $40.

Vangrovsky

link, please?

thanks!

WineCountryUA

https://smile.amazon.com/3M-8511PB1-...BV2/ref=sr_1_3

chrisl137

It was $22 for a 10 pack of the 3M 9211 model a year ago.

chrisl137

Only sort of. There's not some uniform distribution of virus particles floating around, but rather some random distribution of spots that someone may have left a virus, and there's some chance of you picking it up or breathing it in. It doesn't seem all that airborne, so having the mask off for a few minutes at TSA probably won't have much effect (nor, probably, will wearing the mask). You'd probably want to discard a mask that you're wearing, and then put on a new one after TSA so that you don't pick up anything on the inside of the mask.

That said, probably the most effective thing you can do is wash your hands regularly and don't touch your eyes, nose, and mouth. Basically good BSL 1 lab practice.

VegasGambler

Fair enough. Supply and demand. I paid $8 for a 2-pack before I went to Delhi (from a pharmacy) so I'm ok with $4 per.

The ones I bought are these:
but they are now $60. Glad I bought them yesterday.

Exleftseat

We will be flying NRT-LAX on Tuesday and wearing plain surgical masks. Tokyo is full of Chinese visitors. NRT even more. Don't expect UA to deny us boarding. At my age I don't even know why I bother.

Exleftseat

Just for fun I googled this item. You can find it for less than $15.00 on U.S. websites incl. ebay. Might not arrive next day but the savings are substantial.

VegasGambler

Link please? A quick search on ebay doesn't find them for under $50

chrisl137

That's the same 9211 model I have a box of. They get really hard to find when there's a fire near an urban area, and then back to normal availability & price after. I also have a couple of masks with replaceable cartridges that I use when I'm making fine dust around the house. Looks like cartridges are available for normal price and ~3 day delivery.

zombietooth

This is wise since we don't know exactly how much virus is necessary to overwhelm the immune system. It is very likely that any reduction in viral exposure will have some benefit in one's ability to fight off a full blown infection. Survival rate, based on the current, admittedly tainted, Chinese information is around 80%, so there are many unknown variables that can help one overcome the infection, and reduction of total viral particle exposure is likely one of those factors.

travelinmanS

Survival rate is certainly higher than 80%. 1 in 5 people who get this virus dying would certainly be cause for massive global action. We are nowhere near that point yet.

zombietooth

Sorry, I misread the report. 20% of those who get the viral pneumonia are dying while the overall death rate is 3% of those who test positive for nCoV.

Below is something interesting from Foreign Policy magazine:

"Yet few children have yet been reported with coronavirus symptoms. That does not mean that no children have been infected. A similar pattern of benign disease in children, with increasing severity and mortality with age, was seen in SARS and MERS. SARS had a mortality rate averaging 10 percent. Yet no children, and just 1 percent of youths under 24, died, while those older than 50 had a 65 percent risk of dying. Is being an adult a risk factor per se? If so, what is it about childhood that confers protection? It may be the nonspecific effects of live vaccines such as for measles and rubella, which already have been found to provide protection from diseases beyond their immediate target. That may also explain why more men than women have been infected by the coronavirus, because women routinely are given a rubella vaccine booster in their teens to guard against the dangers of having rubella while pregnant. While we wait for an accelerated coronavirus vaccine to be ready, could innate immunity in adults be boosted by giving measles vaccines?"

Frequent travelers to China might consider getting a measles booster before they travel.