masks N95/KN95/KF94?

3M 7502 with any of the P100 filters

Definitely p100. You can get them on ebay. Get a UV sanitizer to re-use since they're not cheap to use as one-time.

I have two of those in the garage, picked up in the early days of lockdown! Do you wear them out and about? I have yet to see one on the streets.

Lots of chatter lately in the news about doubling up on masks as well

We have been double masking every time we go indoors - using our current stack of N95 masks from home renovations projects as the initial layer and then our three-layered Tom Bihn cloth mask over it. Once we run through our stack, I don't think it'll be a big difference to use a KN95 vs a KF94 (as long as it's from a FDA-approved vendor). Here's a NYT article about it: nytimes.com/2021/01/12/heal...

I picked up a couple packs of 10 nice, coffee cone-shaped KN95 masks from Pacific Supply on Capitol Hill. They fit great, with a wired bridge (perfect if you have glasses), and are super thick, making me feel safe whenever I go out. But I still double-up with a cloth mask on top, out of fear that they're not as effective as they state.

Check out this list by someone I trust:
- docs.google.com/spreadsheet...

and that comes from this group:
- facebook.com/groups/sccin

I wear the 7502 for the grocery store, Outdoor Research mask for outdoor walks. Edit: I'm very skeptical of double masking providing additional protection to the wearer, it doesn't help air leaking around the side and actually can make it worse due to resistance.

cov.care has a variety of masks including N95

Fit is important. I personally find KF94 butterfly masks fit better (fit is critical!) and are more comfortable. I like the La Hateur masks that I got at KollecteUSA.

3M 9205* N95 is great

Seems N100 would be a good idea for anyone particularly in a high-risk category.

Yes, I agree. Here's how I think about it. Outdoor transmission is virtually nonexistent, so really you just have to worry about indoor contact:

bad: cloth mask
good: cloth mask over N95
better: P100 (maybe just for high risk people)
best: avoid entirely

With the new covid variants we could be stuck like this for a while. Even with the vaccine. Gotta wait for case counts to plummet.

Thank you everyone for this helpful post - several excellent resources. It is hard to find N95 masks but I found 2 good resources in this conversation.

Our healthcare friends at work are using BYD brand N95's, which are not available to the public but on the FDA approved list. But I did find BYD KN95's are available to the public on Amazon for about $1 a mask so we ordered those last. their reviews are accurate as the ear loops are tight on me, but that also means the mask is extra tight too (just may not work for bigger than average head folks).