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Want to Buy a Scrunchie Mask? Great. But Forget About That N95.:
It was the ad on Facebook — for a mask that doubles as a hair scrunchie — that pushed Dan Castle to despair.
His company, CastleGrade, makes a reusable, high-filtration face mask that has been popular among dentists, teachers and those who work in proximity to others — and willing to pay $44.99.
But he has been unable to sell his wares on Facebook since August, when the company abruptly blocked his ads, citing a policy aimed at ensuring medical-grade masks are reserved for health care workers. Since then, he said, sales have plummeted to $5,000 a day from $40,000. And yet, he sees ads for nonmedical grade masks all of the time.
[...] Mr. Castle's experiences with Facebook echoed those of other small mask producers who have recently began making N95s and other medical grade masks. Largely shut out by hospital networks, they had hoped to sell their high-filtration products online, where Americans do much of their shopping. But the tech giants have not made it easy, even as scientists have urged people to upgrade their face coverings to those that can block the tiny pathogens that cause infection.
Google and Facebook ban the sale of medical-grade masks, and Amazon limits their availability to shoppers — policies born during the early months of the pandemic, when hospitals were scrambling to obtain protective gear.
But some public health experts and mask manufacturers say these rules are outdated, especially given the spread of more infectious coronavirus variants and the abundance of domestically made masks that are gathering dust in warehouses across the country. The restrictions, they say, may hinder the country's ability to limit new infections in the months before vaccinations become more widely available.
Where do you get your masks? How did you learn of the provider?
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 02 2021, @08:12PM (2 children)
Mine's a Spiderman mask from Amazon. You want stupid, you can have stupid. But it's going to be stupid that amuses me.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:04PM (1 child)
My favorite mask is from TechDirt. It is a parody of the YouTube copyright takedown notice. Something like: The content of this mask has been taken down due to a copyright infringement. Along with the red sad face youtube symbol.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 2, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:09PM
Oh it's not a surgical mask with Spiderman on it, it's a full head Spiderman mask, complete with white mesh eye doodads.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by richtopia on Tuesday March 02 2021, @08:20PM (3 children)
Yea, FB has a stupid rule here. But I would imagine the easy solution is to sell a non-N95 rated product.
"Our consumer grade mask is made with the exact same high-quality materials and manufacturing as the N95 rated mask, but lacks formal certification"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:22PM
Yeah really, sell it as something else:
It's a bear trap!
NO! It's a garter belt!
Stop! You're both right!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday March 02 2021, @10:49PM (1 child)
This.
Just sell it without advertising it as N95, or make a tiny adjustment (add a colored square at the edge of the mask) that invalidates any former certification.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stretch611 on Wednesday March 03 2021, @06:52AM
Well, they can sell KN-95 masks.
They are formally certified like N-95... but they are certified by China, not the US.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02 2021, @08:23PM (11 children)
1) Why do people think Facesuck owes them a business platform?
2) I crocheted a mask and I have a cloth mask from a friend. Both don't wear out. If I forget to carry one, someone in a store is bound to give me a disposable one if they care.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Tuesday March 02 2021, @08:39PM (4 children)
Both of your masks are worthless except to pass the “must wear mask” rule. I suspect you are an “anti-masker”. Are you an anti-vaxxer as well? Your level of stupidity is inspiring.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:38PM
Damn right I am and fuck you if you mind.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @12:46AM
Use SCUBA gear. You bring all your own air.
Somebody will probably make you wear a cloth mask anyway. Just put it over top of the SCUBA gear, doing nothing.
If you happen to care about exhaust air too, so that you don't infect other people, I also have an answer for that. Feed the output air into a burner to incinerate all the viruses. There are many fine choices, most using acetylene or propane or butane or MAPP gas. You can put a bunsen burner or blowtorch on top of your head.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @01:22AM (1 child)
Nah, cloth mask will drastically stop them from infecting others and the crochet mask might do alright if it is woven tight enough. Only N95+ will prevent the wearer from inhaling COVID, the rest stop you from spreading it as far.
#CantBelieveWeStillNeedToExplainThis
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @07:19PM
who the fuck modded this Flamebait
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Tuesday March 02 2021, @10:02PM (5 children)
Because Facesuck gives similar businesses (and many other businesses) that platform. The act creates the expectations.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @12:51AM (4 children)
If you're not paying for the space, have no contract with the company, your welcome can be withdrawn at any time.
Conservatives should be in agreement with that.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday March 03 2021, @12:04PM (2 children)
"IF". They pay for the space and have a contract with the company just like every other user of Facebook. They pay through ad views. And the terms of service are the contract. It appears to me that Castle and similar vendors are attempting to get Facebook to liberalize the terms of service enough that they can do business. All legally.
I'm not conservative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @03:15PM (1 child)
Like any other user? When I was on, I never paid a cent.
"IF" this business actually paid FB for services that weren't rendered, I hope they sue them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 03 2021, @10:12PM
You paid in eyeballs.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday March 03 2021, @12:45PM
Advertisers on Facebook and other websites pay for the space. That's literally what advertising is.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday March 02 2021, @08:26PM (3 children)
At first I used shirtsleeves I'd ripped from short-sleeve Hanes T-shirts because they were already there being used as headbands to absorb sweat while running. They could be pulled down over the nose and mouth in a pinch if somebody started bitching.
Later I got wise and ditched the masks altogether, claiming to be Orthodox Jewish using my best Yiddish accent. Of course that ruse doesn't work well unless you also stop bathing and using deodorant on a regular basis, which is pretty easy to do during lockdowns. Then, with the right amount of stench dialed in, you can simply accuse all objectors of being anti-Semitic. Even after that, there are limits: for example, you will get kicked off of planes. They will tell you it's mask-related, but it's really because Jews and especially Orthodox Jews are stinky as fuck, rude, and obnoxious (just like I am!).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Tuesday March 02 2021, @08:42PM
You must lead a sad life where your main excitement is seeing how fast your intricately crafted trolls get modded into oblivion...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:06PM
Dumb is as dumb does.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bart9h on Tuesday March 02 2021, @10:40PM
I assume they at least do the courtesy of providing you a parachute.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday March 02 2021, @09:03PM
I believe there are masks that double as a jock strap.
Uh, nevermind.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02 2021, @11:06PM (1 child)
Texas
Buy 'em up before the rednecks realize they're fucked
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 03 2021, @02:41AM
By fucked you mean they'll lose maybe a tenth of a percent of their population, mostly the very old who also refuse to take the "vaccine"? Anyone else remember when "fucked" actually meant something?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @12:38AM
I have a bunch of reusable fabric masks that I take and put a folded basket coffee filter inside. I can replace the filter every hour - like getting a new mask. The filters are completely recyclable, and cheap.
It’s effectively the same as being double masked.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2021, @02:09AM
I bought a few thousand masks for a few hundred bucks, I think it worked out to under $1.99/pack of ten.
They are sealed in plastic and should with care last a decade or three. I anticipate needing masks again, and I might have grandkids by then.
Compared to medical insurance, this was cheap.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday March 03 2021, @04:04PM
Got my "daily driver" off ebay, but from a seemingly reputable local work safety shop. I've gone all the way with a top-of-the-line 3M 7502 facepiece and 6035 P3 particle (to 300nm) filters in spray shielded boxes. I have a "lesser" model too, but the soft silicone gasket of the 750x is really nice to wear and even seals nearly perfect over a bit of beard, magnitudes better than that FFP2/N95 single-use stuff. The filter boxes allow for very easy airflow and I could work out for over an hour with the mask on. As a further bonus I've got a set of 6055 solvent filters with 5935 P3 pre-filters in 501 holders on them, which I used once when rattlecan-spraying a widget: the solvent smell approaches zero in that configuration.
It does have an exhaust valve, which is seen as a problem in some places, but can't be seen from the outside. The exhaust is spray-shielded and directed downwards. If anyone is knowledgeable enough to connect the dots, they'll also understand that the overall risk from this combination is way smaller than with any of the simple masks.
I do have a set of single-use FFP2s, too, just in case, or if I have to talk and need to be understood, these are from a local pharmacy and were obtained as a 6-pack with a (German) government voucher which appeared in my letterbox one day. They are made in China and have a paper slip with some "traceability" notes and a red star printed on it. Made me think that the CCP wasted a huge propaganda opportunity by not having a "seal of the party" (and a "Harmony!" or such slogan) printed on every mask itself with some lame excuse that "ALL masks need to be certified to be safe, and it happened to be party volunteers doing the certifications" and occasional televised executions of forgers of the seal (which could be just staged for propaganda, if there are no actual forgers).