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orm518 t1_j430fd9 wrote

Reply to comment by newtoRI22 in Employee masking forbidden? by s16016wb

> Please know that the protection afforded by most masks is negligible. (A proper fitting respirator is different from most of the masks you see around. Also, people who are sick should know that their masks generally don’t protect others. If you have a fever stay home!) If this person’s medical condition is serious enough that getting infected with flu (it’s flu season!) or other illness is of concern, a customer facing job is going to continue to have risks.

[Citation needed.]

Masks work, and better masks work better: link

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newtoRI22 t1_j438iq3 wrote

Theoretically, an N95 respirator should work well.

In practice, the benefit of wearing masks to mitigate respiratory illness is not detectable at meaningful levels in randomized clinical trials. Prepandemic, this was studied widely for flu. During the pandemic there were unfortunately very few robust studies.

This article gives a good overview: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/mask-guidelines-cdc-walensky/621035/

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