Two Masks

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that, quite some time ago, before it was the newest hysteria, I fiddled around with two masks--mostly a paper surgical mask under a bandana. And, ya know--though again, I hate to say it--whereas one mask feels like some kind of joke that's just not gonna do much--two of them felt like they might actually do something. I tried a couple of configurations, but settled on a paper surgical mask under a bandana. There seems to be evidence that the surgical masks aerosolize the globs of goo you exhale from your swamp-like maw...which is bad. I think there's a decent chance that bandanas will, when all the dust settles, turn out to have been one of the more effective options, since the fit loosely over your nose and mouth, but form a barrier around your lower face. Thus you're not forcing air through the fabric as with most masks. Using a surgical mask and a bandana gives you a tight-fitting mask and a loose-fitting mask of two very different materials. And if the surgical mask does aerosolize your deadly exhalations, at least the bandana should mostly deaden their momentum and keep them near your own face.

   Anyway, now that "double-masking" is the newest half-assed thing being advocated by our moral, social, and epistemic betters, my enthusiasm for the experiment is pretty much over... Though I'm trying to contain my natural hyper-contrariness on this one.

   Bottom line, though, really: it's worth a try. It may end up actually being more than mere virtue-advertising. Or so it seems to me...based on, y'know, nothing more than purely subjective facts about how it felt...which is worth very little.