Without disagreeing with the conclusion, I think this is a poor discussion of the pros and cons. The big con is weirdness points. That’s basically why people don’t do it. Probably if you articulate that it’s easy to see that it’s a win, but if you don’t articulate it...
Yes, they’re supposed to be more effective. I think this is emotionally difficult because it sounds like a Pascal’s Wager. Yes, you should invest at the prepper margin, but how far? How many other points are comparably far down the list? What should I do before this? Here’s a concrete point: if I have a beard and an N95, I will achieve more by shaving than by switching to a reusable mask. Shaving is pretty low cost (especially, conditionally shaving in the event of crisis), not a tradeoff with changing masks, but knowing to shave is important and competes with mental resources.
Here are two other advantages over paper masks: you say elsewhere that it is more cost effective than paper masks. If you are already committed to having a stock of masks, this makes it much less like a Pascal’s Wager and more of free lunch. And I suspect that they are more comfortable, which is important for actually using them.
Without disagreeing with the conclusion, I think this is a poor discussion of the pros and cons. The big con is weirdness points. That’s basically why people don’t do it. Probably if you articulate that it’s easy to see that it’s a win, but if you don’t articulate it...
Yes, they’re supposed to be more effective. I think this is emotionally difficult because it sounds like a Pascal’s Wager. Yes, you should invest at the prepper margin, but how far? How many other points are comparably far down the list? What should I do before this? Here’s a concrete point: if I have a beard and an N95, I will achieve more by shaving than by switching to a reusable mask. Shaving is pretty low cost (especially, conditionally shaving in the event of crisis), not a tradeoff with changing masks, but knowing to shave is important and competes with mental resources.
Here are two other advantages over paper masks: you say elsewhere that it is more cost effective than paper masks. If you are already committed to having a stock of masks, this makes it much less like a Pascal’s Wager and more of free lunch. And I suspect that they are more comfortable, which is important for actually using them.
We don’t need to shave ahead of time anyway (we can do it when the pandemic is already here), so it doesn’t compete with mental resources now.