Bringing over the outcome of a lot of recent discussion I’ve had on Facebook and some research I’ve done regarding the Narwall Mask:
I believe there’s currently a lot of uncertainty as to the effectiveness of the Narwall, with multiple meaningful reasons for there to be uncertainty. A lot of effectiveness outcomes would not surprise me. I do not believe it has been well-tested nor well-analyzed, at least compared to those that meet NIOSH standards.
I think there’s enough information out there to statistically estimate its effectiveness with some reasonable degree of confidence, but it would take me another 3-8 hours (on top of my existing research) to do so. Considering a P100 is just ~$30 for me, I’ve just switched to that + glasses when relevant for now instead. I think others should do the same if they can achieve good fit with a P100 (the Microcovid authors seem to think this can often be achieved.) https://www.microcovid.org/paper/14-research-sources#masks
I think theres a 75% chance that after estimating its effectiveness, I’d find it to be meaningfully less than a P100 (e.g. less than 98.5% on the relevant filtration). I think there’s a 50% chance I’d find it to be approximately equal to an N95 mask or worse.
Sharing this here because some LWers wear it and I think there’s some value in sounding a warning about the mask potentially not being as effective as most likely anticipate.
Bringing over the outcome of a lot of recent discussion I’ve had on Facebook and some research I’ve done regarding the Narwall Mask:
I believe there’s currently a lot of uncertainty as to the effectiveness of the Narwall, with multiple meaningful reasons for there to be uncertainty. A lot of effectiveness outcomes would not surprise me. I do not believe it has been well-tested nor well-analyzed, at least compared to those that meet NIOSH standards.
I think there’s enough information out there to statistically estimate its effectiveness with some reasonable degree of confidence, but it would take me another 3-8 hours (on top of my existing research) to do so. Considering a P100 is just ~$30 for me, I’ve just switched to that + glasses when relevant for now instead. I think others should do the same if they can achieve good fit with a P100 (the Microcovid authors seem to think this can often be achieved.) https://www.microcovid.org/paper/14-research-sources#masks
I think theres a 75% chance that after estimating its effectiveness, I’d find it to be meaningfully less than a P100 (e.g. less than 98.5% on the relevant filtration). I think there’s a 50% chance I’d find it to be approximately equal to an N95 mask or worse.
Sharing this here because some LWers wear it and I think there’s some value in sounding a warning about the mask potentially not being as effective as most likely anticipate.