Originally Posted by pondering_it_all
My wife is sewing adult custom masks in four different sizes, with two layers of cotton and a pocket in the middle so you can insert a blue shop towel paper filter. She also adds a rubber-coated wire to the top, so it can be molded around your nose. They don't leak at all, if you pick the right size. She's sending them to friends and extended family.

I'm sure a correctly sealed N95 mask is better, but most of us can't get them.

Cotton pocket with blue shop towels are the second-best home-made masks only behind a HEPA filter inserted in the pocket, but the cotton/shop towels are mostly effective against large viruses such as the influenza virus. Their efficacy drops to 50% with small viruses like the coronavirus. Surgical masks, though, with ASTM rating at least Level 1, are good for the small coronavirus, and can filtrate more than 95% with a good seal. Levels 2 and 3 can get up to 98% of filtration.

I don't have the link for you now but on Debate Politics I posted the two studies that established what I just told you above.

Last edited by GreatNewsTonight; 05/19/20 12:08 AM.
Please take COVID-19 seriously; don't panic but don't deny it; practice social distancing (stay 6ft from people); wash your hands a lot, don't touch your face, don't gather with too many people, so that you help us contain it.