Mask synthesis: Use elastomeric respirators. Elastomerics offer better fit and more protection (N100) than any disposable PPE. If necessary, develop respirators that fit even better with little to no fit testing (like PAPRs).
Expert consensus: “Don’t wear a mask...oops, wear a cloth or surgical mask until you get vaccinated.” This advice has led to millions of preventable deaths and counting.
Conclusion: Don’t worship experts. When making critical decisions, quadruple-check any expert advice (especially if it’s about a soft science). If the advise doesn’t make sense, disregard it and make a decision based on your own research and reasoning.
Mask synthesis: Use elastomeric respirators. Elastomerics offer better fit and more protection (N100) than any disposable PPE. If necessary, develop respirators that fit even better with little to no fit testing (like PAPRs).
I think you get to that position by using first-principle thinking which is a different way to reason then the dialetic way. Practically, first-principle thinking is also seldomly done by those making health policy but we should keep different reasoning strategies apart as rationalists when we want to understand how to think about thinking.
As far as the substance matter goes:
“Use elastomeric respirators” is a decent personal decision if you are in a jurisdiction that doesn’t require you to wear a FFP-2. It’s not a general policy position.
“Require everyone to wear elastomeric respirators” would be a policy position but there are certainly contexts where those are unpractical.
One problem with elastomeric respirators is that they are generally designed for a use-case where filtering exhaled air isn’t central for that use-case they often have ventils that allow exhaling unfiltered air. From the outside it’s hard to know whether someone wearing a elastomeric respirators is filtering their exhaled air or isn’t which makes it harder to enforce policies around them and many people won’t understand that they should not use the exhaling vents. While it might be better policy it isn’t a slam dunk.
I understand that you’re trying to analyze the policy failures in terms of dialectic reasoning, but the policy about masks that results from that reasoning is not good enough. So, perhaps first-principles thinking should be emphasized as a better way to formulate policy, at least in certain situations.
The policy position about masks would be to recommend the use of elastomerics (assuming adequate supply) but not to mandate their use. Mandates would only be required if compliance was so low that there was a high risk of hospitals becoming overwhelmed.
Assuming adequate supply of elastomerics again, vents are mostly a non-issue. If some people would want to risk infection by not wear an elastomeric, that would remain a personal decision. Also, the users of elastomerics would have a much lower chance of being contagious. Vents would be a problem only in special circumstances like nursing home care where disposable PPE would be more appropriate. [Ventless elastomerics are available such as the MSA Advantage 290, so disposable respirators seem completely unnecessary in any circumstance.]
There are certainly other possible ways to make address the mask issue.
I can improve my decision making over that of people who simply follow the official recommendation a large percentage of the population likely won’t be able. In a situation like a pandemic I’m very dependent on the actions of others around me.
PAPRs have the potential to be better than elastomeric respirators. They can be cheaper (the DIY kind), filter incoming and outgoing air as well as an N100 filter, and fit testing and seal checks aren’t needed.
Mask synthesis: Use elastomeric respirators. Elastomerics offer better fit and more protection (N100) than any disposable PPE. If necessary, develop respirators that fit even better with little to no fit testing (like PAPRs).
Expert consensus: “Don’t wear a mask...oops, wear a cloth or surgical mask until you get vaccinated.” This advice has led to millions of preventable deaths and counting.
Conclusion: Don’t worship experts. When making critical decisions, quadruple-check any expert advice (especially if it’s about a soft science). If the advise doesn’t make sense, disregard it and make a decision based on your own research and reasoning.
I think you get to that position by using first-principle thinking which is a different way to reason then the dialetic way. Practically, first-principle thinking is also seldomly done by those making health policy but we should keep different reasoning strategies apart as rationalists when we want to understand how to think about thinking.
As far as the substance matter goes:
“Use elastomeric respirators” is a decent personal decision if you are in a jurisdiction that doesn’t require you to wear a FFP-2. It’s not a general policy position.
“Require everyone to wear elastomeric respirators” would be a policy position but there are certainly contexts where those are unpractical.
One problem with elastomeric respirators is that they are generally designed for a use-case where filtering exhaled air isn’t central for that use-case they often have ventils that allow exhaling unfiltered air. From the outside it’s hard to know whether someone wearing a elastomeric respirators is filtering their exhaled air or isn’t which makes it harder to enforce policies around them and many people won’t understand that they should not use the exhaling vents. While it might be better policy it isn’t a slam dunk.
I understand that you’re trying to analyze the policy failures in terms of dialectic reasoning, but the policy about masks that results from that reasoning is not good enough. So, perhaps first-principles thinking should be emphasized as a better way to formulate policy, at least in certain situations.
The policy position about masks would be to recommend the use of elastomerics (assuming adequate supply) but not to mandate their use. Mandates would only be required if compliance was so low that there was a high risk of hospitals becoming overwhelmed.
Assuming adequate supply of elastomerics again, vents are mostly a non-issue. If some people would want to risk infection by not wear an elastomeric, that would remain a personal decision. Also, the users of elastomerics would have a much lower chance of being contagious.
Vents would be a problem only in special circumstances like nursing home care where disposable PPE would be more appropriate.[Ventless elastomerics are available such as the MSA Advantage 290, so disposable respirators seem completely unnecessary in any circumstance.]There are certainly other possible ways to make address the mask issue.
I can improve my decision making over that of people who simply follow the official recommendation a large percentage of the population likely won’t be able. In a situation like a pandemic I’m very dependent on the actions of others around me.
PAPRs have the potential to be better than elastomeric respirators. They can be cheaper (the DIY kind), filter incoming and outgoing air as well as an N100 filter, and fit testing and seal checks aren’t needed.
https://www.viralhelmets.com