My Humble Opinion On The FFP-2 Masks

 Early on, in my Air Force career....we got introduced to gas masks (the old MCU-2P type).  

While effective.....you quickly came to realize that air flow was forced to some degree, and everything you did....required additional 'huffing'.  

One day, before I retired....we had some base exercise, where I was selected in some group of a hundred....to do five or six physical tasks over a couple of hours, while wearing the mask.  At the end of roughly two hours, I was fairly exhausted on the huffing business, and at the conclusion of four hours....I was fairly drained.  I had lunch and sat for an additional hour....trying  to get my breath back.

When the Germans introduced the first bunch of ban-rules for Covid.....cloth masks were perfectly acceptable.  In terms of breathing....it didn't really detract from your normal breathing, but I doubt if there was any real protection with the cloth masks.  This ban-rule lasted about six months.

So then we launched into version two of the rule....cloth masks were forbidden, with surgical masks/FFP-2 masks being the accepted deal.  

I quickly accepted the surgical masks, with no subtraction on breathing.  On being 'aged' or not fully functional after 8 hours of use....I just kinda overlooked that.  I admit....most of these surgical masks....I probably put 30 hours of use into....way beyond the 'norm'.

This week....they went to the next level of 'pestering'....saying only the FFP-2 mask will be acceptable.  

I've attempted on various occasions to wear it.  Once you pull it from the bag....it's got a tight fit, and air flow is ridiculously minimum.  With some effort, you can survive an hour with these masks on, but it's definitely draining you by the end of sixty minutes.  If you had to wear it three hours?  You probably will require at least 30 minutes of non-mask wear, and fresh air....to get your breath back.

Wearing out and stretching....allowing more air in?  Well...if you kept the masks for a minimum of twenty hours (way past what they advise).....it will stretch and lose the 'tight' fit.  In simple terms....it allows in more airflow.

Somewhere between twenty and forty hours of use....this FFP-2 mask become acceptable.....yet is degraded by the level that the Doctor Doom's advise.  

What I expect to see now with this new rule?  In a hot grocery store, with the FFP-2 mask on....I expect to see a German here and there....collapsed on the floor, with some ambulance crew reacting and trying to pump fresh oxygen into the gal/guy lying on the floor.  

Maybe six months into this....some university crew will announce they've found that lesser oxygen flow creates 'foggy-brain' issues, and they don't know the relationship of that to Covid.  

Yeah, we'd basically go solve problem 'A' by creating problem 'B'.  Maybe we just ought to all have oxygen tanks that we carry around....with store-bought oxygen (bottled up in the Alps of course by virgin Bavarian women).