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and in the United States we are being drenched with omicron a variant. So contagious that it has caused daily cases to double in the past two weeks now, just like you would put on a better raincoat in a bad storm. We need better masks more than ever. Our best bet an N- 95 mask, you're going to wear a mask where the best masks possible. Erin Collins a self proclaimed mask nerd is a mechanical engineer with a background in aerosol science. There is significant improvement in the amount of aerosol that are going to be exposed to when everyone's wearing it in 95 you're wearing an N 95. That's why there's such a powerful tool. I think it's worth reminding people why exactly they work so well. It has to do with the actual material. There are electrostatic lee charged fibers in here. So it's not just filtering particles, it's actually attracting particles kind of like a blanket. Might attract your socks in the dryer also, it works well not just for air that's potentially coming in, but also for air that's potentially going out. Now, one key thing about the N 95 masks, because you got to make sure they actually fit really well, having these two bands around the back of your head and then making sure no air is escaping around your eyes or your cheeks or your chin. Studies have shown that cloth masks can have about 75% leakage, a surgical mask 50% but with an N 95 it can go down to as low as 1%. Even with the CDCs updated mask guidance there is still no explicit recommendation to wear an N. 95. However on thursday president joe biden announced a step in the right direction. Next week will announce how we are making high quality mask available to american people for free. If you buy your own, the average cost of an N 95 is just under $2. That's according to Project N 95 a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about high filtration masks but how to pick the right one can be bewildering. There are more than 6000 different models of NIOSH approved respirators. NIOSH being the National Institute for occupational Safety and Health, a federal agency that evaluates safety equipment like masks, it's an incredibly difficult market for consumers to um to navigate. And unfortunately in this in this circumstance that information could cost someone their life Kelly Carruthers is the Director of Government Affairs at Project 95. The problem she says is that counterfeits have infiltrated the market, you can find a list of NIOSH approved products on the C. D. C. S. Website. But here's some of the things to look for. Remember those head straps? NIOSH approved N 90 five's are always going to have head straps instead of ear loops and the mask itself will say NIOSH along with the manufacturer name and an identifying number starting with T. C. If you can tolerate an N. 95 do it if you want to get a kn 95 fine wearing any mask is better than no mask at all. But there is a gradation of capability of preventing you from getting infected and from you transmitting it to someone else. So we should be wearing the best possible mask that we can get. The KN 95. Dr Fauci just mentioned there another type of high filtration masks. But finding the right one of these can be even trickier. That's because KN 95 is a chinese standard meaning none of these are currently approved in the United States. Even worse, The CDC says about 60% of these masks are fakes. Yes. Even the ones you buy online, there's no way to tell um if a manufacturer has met those qualifications or not. It is it is very difficult for for someone to discern whether or not it's a it's a safe mask. Now that doesn't mean all can 95 are bad but it does mean you're going to have to do more homework such as checking to see if the manufacturer has a valid lab report. We need to recommend better hyper filtration masks and we need a mass standard, a general public mass standard so that we can cover all of the range of masks that people want to use. We could go back to pretty much normal quote unquote life if we all had really good respirators. Something so simple that could help us slow the pandemic dr Sanjay, Gupta CNN reporting.