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The Worldwide C0VlD-19 Coronavirus Pandemic Discussion Thread...

Fox

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This a well made movie of something similar...

 
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MattR82

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Lol I’m in Bangkok right now too. Good thing we haven’t had any Coronas. We only drink Chang beer here.
Have you heard of lucky changs? Sadly I don't think they exist anymore since they got better at regulating the alcohol content percentage.

That shit would give you a hangover so bad you would wish it was only coronavirus lol.

I bet the corona marketing team are in crisis mode at the moment...
 

GPM

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Be honest.. how many ya'll suckin Big Macs while you worry about death by Coronavirus?
Terrorism!!! Ahhh. Excuse me while I hide in terror and avoid airports at all costs. The terrorists are out to get me. Added on top of that viruses! Sweet baby jesus, keep me safe!
 

scottmsul

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I'm honestly not too worried, but it has happened before.

Spanish flu - Wikipedia

The 1918 influenza pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920; colloquially known as Spanish flu) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people around the world, including people on remote Pacific islands and in the Arctic. Probably 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million (three to five percent of Earth's population at the time) died, making it one of the deadliest epidemics in human history.
 
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sparechange

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EVMaso

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One annoying thing is that the Corona Virus is causing a run on N95 masks. People on NA are buying them en masse and sending them back to China. Some entrepreneurs are putting them up in online marketplaces for huge markups (I don't know how I feel about this). Lots of businesses big and small need these things for their day-to-day operations.

 

Jon L

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Normalcy Bias. The normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a belief people hold when there is a possibility of a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster and its possible effects, because people believe that things will always function the way things normally have functioned. This may result in situations where people fail to adequately prepare themselves for disasters, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias in disasters.
I had this happen to me on a relatively small 'disaster.'

15 years ago, the local water company accidently injected 100x or so the amount of chlorine they normally use into the water supply. The water that came out of the faucet was pretty caustic. I ended up being ok, but I took a shower in it.

As I was showering, I couldn't believe how nasty the water smelled. It also seemed to be irritating my skin. And yet, I continued to shower in the stuff. While this was going on, I pictured being interviewed by John and Ken of Los Angeles talk radio fame, 'So tell me, why would you keep showing in water that was smelled so bad it burned your eyes?'

Even with all this going through my head, I still continued to shower.

So yeah, normalcy bias is a real thing.
 
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ChickenHawk

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From the CDC's SARS Basic Fact Sheet: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 8,098 people worldwide became sick with SARS during the 2003 outbreak. Of these, 774 died. In the United States, only eight people had laboratory evidence of SARS-CoV infection.

With this New Coronavirus: As of right now, there are five confirmed cases in the United States: Illinois, Orange County CA, Los Angeles, Arizona, and Washington State. Just a few days ago, there were zero.

If the trend continues, we will see many more cases in the coming days/weeks. Considering the long incubation period, chances are, right now, lots of people are walking around spreading it, and have no idea they're sick.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Here

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So anyone who's recently traveled to China, or was in contact with someone recently in China, is suspect now? I was going to take my 2 year old to an event that will include some Chinese citizens, should I be leaving him home? Or is that paranoia?
 
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ChickenHawk

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So anyone who's recently traveled to China, or was in contact with someone recently in China, is suspect now? I was going to take my 2 year old to an event that will include some Chinese citizens, should I be leaving him home? Or is that paranoia?

If you take him, and he gets sick, you'll never forgive yourself. If you don't take him, and nothing happens, you'll be bummed, but eventually get over it.

Of course, the event may be cancelled outright. In several large U.S. cities, Chinese New Years Eve celebrations have been cancelled outright because (all?) the Chinese performers have cancelled. If it were me, I wouldn't take my child or attend myself. There's too much strangeness right now, and to me, the potential risks vastly outweigh the potential rewards, especially if it's just a fun time.
 

JordanK

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Rutt roh, just became local for me...


I might want to steer clear of the gym.

Can't wait to leave the safety of Ireland and come visit Phoenix for the summit next weekend :wideyed:
 
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PapaGang

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ZF Lee

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I'm surprised no one seems to be taking down product ideas, even with the virus emergency.
I'll give one example: face masks

Just now, a friend said to me,' The city's out of masks!'

'I'll see if online has the goods.' I said.

I looked, and it was all sold out! Amazon, Qoo10, Lazada...
Then I checked out doomsday prepper sites, mask reviews on Youtube...and the market voice came in. I'll write them down here.

Turns out, there are many, many classifications of face masks-not just N95. There some like R95, which offers a similar level of protection of the former, as well as coverage against oil (for sprays incidents)

Here's some articles:


OPPORTUNITY POINT: Many have claimed that N95 masks are sold out, be it in the States or elsewhere. While I've seen other classes of face masks sold out as well, I feel that they can be still tapped into, be it from a buyer or seller standpoint, since the governments keep hyping N95 as the go-to product.



Now, not all of them work to block off dust, viruses or aerosols, no matter what the product descriptions seem to say. Even a few 'doomsday prepper' blogs were making noises about it.

For instance, I was reading up on a certain mask brand from Japan.
29972

This Japanese brand of mask promises to be not only washable and reusable, but also provide up to PM2.5 (refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair, according to blissair.com) worth of protection from the particles.

Although its more suitable for pollen protection, it's ironic that the reviewer in the blog found that not only it could not hold back even the promised benchmark of particle protection, but actually washing it over time may wear down the filters' later effectiveness.

OPPORTUNITY POINT: Face masks that not only can be washed, but reused over and over, and can block the particle sizes more effectively...there's more work needed on this.

A not-so OPPORTUNITY POINT:
Probably face mask sellers with less deceptive copywriting could be seen in a better light...don't just mention that your mask is N95, or virus-protective, when the image of your product just shows a bland-ol' surgical mask.

Specify the microns size that the mask can filter through, which environments the mask is best used, a small insert of an instructional/doomsday prep guide, how long it can roughly last, any notable lab tests it has gone through, their results...



As for 'multi-use masks' (or as claimed by the pundits on Lazada and other online sellers)?
I found this paper that tested 3 general classes of filters (PFE, BFE and VFE), and from the results, it looks that having all filter types in one mask may not make it any better.


A jack of all trades is master of none, I guess.

So it may be better to have a wife range of disposables masks, i.e. masks for air pollutants, masks for viruses, masks for fires, etc.

Sure, there may be respirators or full-face gear that could tackle all the vectors, but for most folks, it might not make sense, economically or realistically. So, perhaps a mini-package of an assortment of masks for the events might do?

OPPORTUNITY POINT: Assortment of disposables masks for various scenerios

Then I realised that even if I got the masks from somewhere, if stocks overall stayed low- then where would we get fresh masks once the disposables ran out?

OPPORTUNITY POINT: Renewable/washable/reusable masks (reiterated as above)

That's the braindump for now.
I am also seeing some opportunities in the e-commerce delivery and re-supply systems in general, especially when it comes to restocking emergencies or necessities.

Also, looking at some INSIDERS tales on how the medical personnel are duking it out in Wuhan itself, and protective measures at airports, there may be TONS of procedures, tools and equipment that await mini-improvements or innovation, in like of crises such as this.

The China make-shift hospital, currently still being built (within a 10-day framework?) in Wuhan, may be also a great engineering/design case study.
 
Last edited:

ZF Lee

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I'm surprised no one seems to be taking down product ideas, even with the virus emergency.
I'll give one example: face masks

Just now, my girl said to me,' The city's out of masks!'

'I'll see if online has the goods.' I said.

I looked, and it was all sold out! Amazon, Qoo10, Lazada...
Then I checked out doomsday prepper sites, mask reviews on Youtube...and the market voice came in. I'll write them down here.

Turns out, there are many, many classifications of face masks-not just N95. There some like R95, which offers a similar level of protection of the former, as well as coverage against oil (for sprays incidents)

Here's some articles:


OPPORTUNITY POINT: Many have claimed that N95 masks are sold out, be it in the States or elsewhere. While I've seen other classes of face masks sold out as well, I feel that they can be still tapped into, be it from a buyer or seller standpoint, since the governments keep hyping N95 as the go-to product.



Now, not all of them work to block off dust, viruses or aerosols, no matter what the product descriptions seem to say. Even a few 'doomsday prepper' blogs were making noises about it.

For instance, I was reading up on a certain mask brand from Japan.
View attachment 29972

This Japanese brand of mask promises to be not only washable and reusable, but also provide up to PM2.5 (refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair, according to blissair.com) worth of protection from the particles.

Although its more suitable for pollen protection, it's ironic that the reviewer in the blog found that not only it could not hold back even the promised benchmark of particle protection, but actually washing it over time may wear down the filters' later effectiveness.

OPPORTUNITY POINT: Face masks that not only can be washed, but reused over and over, and can block the particle sizes more effectively...there's more work needed on this.

A not-so OPPORTUNITY POINT:
Probably face mask sellers with less deceptive copywriting could be seen in a better light...don't just mention that your mask is N95, or virus-protective, when the image of your product just shows a bland-ol' surgical mask.

Specify the microns size that the mask can filter through, which environments the mask is best used, a small insert of an instructional/doomsday prep guide, how long it can roughly last, any notable lab tests it has gone through, their results...



As for 'multi-use masks' (or as claimed by the pundits on Lazada and other online sellers)?
I found this paper that tested 3 general classes of filters (PFE, BFE and VFE), and from the results, it looks that having all filter types in one mask may not make it any better.


A jack of all trades is master of none, I guess.

So it may be better to have a wife range of disposables masks, i.e. masks for air pollutants, masks for viruses, masks for fires, etc.

Sure, there may be respirators or full-face gear that could tackle all the vectors, but for most folks, it might not make sense, economically or realistically. So, perhaps a mini-package of an assortment of masks for the events might do?

OPPORTUNITY POINT: Assortment of disposables masks for various scenerios

Then I realised that even if I got the masks from somewhere, if stocks overall stayed low- then where would we get fresh masks once the disposables ran out?

OPPORTUNITY POINT: Renewable/washable/reusable masks (reiterated as above)

That's the braindump for now.
I am also seeing some opportunities in the e-commerce delivery and re-supply systems in general, especially when it comes to restocking emergencies or necessities.

Also, looking at some INSIDERS tales on how the medical personnel are duking it out in Wuhan itself, and protective measures at airports, there may be TONS of procedures, tools and equipment that await mini-improvements or innovation, in like of crises such as this.

The China make-shift hospital, currently still being built (within a 10-day framework?) in Wuhan, may be also a great engineering/design case study.
Now, masks can seem to be a commodity.

So, there can be some selling funnels to consider as well.

Some of those posts I found seem to have this chain of processes:

Article revealing myths of masks and the crises --> link to buy info product on prepping/ survival pack with masks/ affiliate link to masks --> offer an exclusive, no-stock-finished subscription service for masks/other disposables

More for the brain dump:
Now, barriers of entry to the mask business that I can think of:
1. The country of supply

Some countries have great tech to make the masks.
Especially Taiwan. I found some good brands for the masks from Taiwanese sellers, both on Amazon and their own sites.

However:


So, you've got to figure out where else to get the masks from.


2. Masks certification and product quality validation
Even if you were to sell regular N95 masks from 3M or whatever, health products always need to be tested- be they be newly brought from the lab, or to be shipped out.

I find that reading academic papers on the masks tells me a lot what is important to look in a good face mask, as well as crucial components that needs to have the green light. I have already put up one such academic journal.

Some papers focus on studying the different mask designs/shortcomings based on participants/focus groups, while others focus on SIMULATING the inflow of air and pollutants (i.e. weak bacteria, dust particles of a certain size, etc.) and see how much the mask catches on.

I tend to prefer the latter...the former approach seems sketchy.

So, there's plenty of stuff to change up in the product tests, or if you truly wanted to come up with your own mask:
-size of pollutants
-speed of airflow
-temperature
-consistency of exposure
-the control specimen of mask (if you want to improve your mask, of course, a tougher control's performance is to be beaten)
And so on...

I believe some mask manufacturers mention such specs, so it's not totally foreign...I must dig back my history lol.
 
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Jonathan Hoch

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This comparison doesn't really make sense, since car accidents don't spread from person to person in the grocery line.
Clearly you've never driven through a grocery line.
 

Xeon

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So anyone who's recently traveled to China, or was in contact with someone recently in China, is suspect now?

Yes. I don't remember the exact numbers, but before Wuhan got locked down, a lot of their residents went out of the city and traveled to other countries......

I was going to take my 2 year old to an event that will include some Chinese citizens, should I be leaving him home? Or is that paranoia?

No, leave him at home. Better to be safe than sorry.
Even I'm avoiding Chinatown in Singapore and other places where mainland Chinese tend to congregate.

The masks here in my country are all out of stock, online and offline.
Good thing I have 30 pcs in my home bought from late last year, and managed to order another 100 pcs from Aliexpress which will be shipped here in the coming weeks.

I'm thinking if I should start ordering 5,000 pcs of masks from Alibaba and start a quick hustle with that, run some FB/SEO ads and profit. A box of 50 pcs of masks is being sold at approx US$100 - $250 here on some local marketplace listings.
 

ZF Lee

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The masks here in my country are all out of stock, online and offline.
Good thing I have 30 pcs in my home bought from late last year, and managed to order another 100 pcs from Aliexpress which will be shipped here in the coming weeks.

I'm thinking if I should start ordering 5,000 pcs of masks from Alibaba and start a quick hustle with that, run some FB/SEO ads and profit. A box of 50 pcs of masks is being sold at approx US$100 - $250 here on some local marketplace listings.
I’m tempted to be your first customer haha.

But in all seriousness, I’ve seen masks go as high as USD$399- to the price point I’d rather buy a full-on prepper mask haha.

Be careful of shooting up prices too high...I’m not sure if Singapore or other governments would start enacting price controls, what with public noise and all.
 
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JAJT

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I fully expect a genuinely serious pandemic to hit hard at some point in my life. Hopefully not, but I do expect it.

That being said - I'm not poor, I live in a first world country, and have access to world class health care.

Call me ignorant but I don't get too scared about anything that is reasonably treatable with proper medical attention. A quick google shows that 2019-nCoV has a 4% mortality rate and the symptoms sound basically more or less like a bad flu. Not exactly the type of thing to bunker down for, in my opinion. Not unless this gets much worse in some meaningful way.

What worries me is what happens when an antibiotic resistant "super bug" takes flight. They already exist and thankfully are more or less some combination of isolated, controlled, or generally considered non-lethal. A family member on my wife's side contracted one and quite literally went through every antibiotic the doctors had at their disposal over the course of something like 9 months to try and get rid of the damn thing and nothing, no matter how potent, was working. She ultimately beat it but the story sends shivers down my spine.

What's sad is that they are popping up at an increasing rate. I feel it's only a matter of time before nature rolls the dice and produces a highly contagious, high mortality version that sweeps the globe while medical staff become little more than palliative care workers. This is a bit of a doomsday scenario but I don't see it as unrealistic either.

When I hear the news start talking about a contagious super bug with a significant mortality rate like I just described - that's when I will go into full worry mode.

Every serious illness kills - the yearly flu does a nice number on a lot of people, for example - mostly the very young, very old, and otherwise immunocompromised. As a relatively healthy adult in a first world nation though I don't really worry too much about this stuff. I keep my ears open for specific keywords like "super bug" "antibiotic resistant strain" and failing to hear that I go about my life.
 

pat9000

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100 years ago 50M died in the 1918 Pandemic. It killed 3x the people WW1 did. We are about due for another one.

Accelerating infections:

They are treating an infected guy in Seattle using a robot:

"Plague Inc" is best selling iOS App:
Would make life easier
 

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BellaPippin

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I fully expect a genuinely serious pandemic to hit hard at some point in my life. Hopefully not, but I do expect it.

That being said - I'm not poor, I live in a first world country, and have access to world class health care.

Call me ignorant but I don't get too scared about anything that is reasonably treatable with proper medical attention. A quick google shows that 2019-nCoV has a 4% mortality rate and the symptoms sound basically more or less like a bad flu. Not exactly the type of thing to bunker down for, in my opinion. Not unless this gets much worse in some meaningful way.

What worries me is what happens when an antibiotic resistant "super bug" takes flight. They already exist and thankfully are more or less some combination of isolated, controlled, or generally considered non-lethal. A family member on my wife's side contracted one and quite literally went through every antibiotic the doctors had at their disposal over the course of something like 9 months to try and get rid of the damn thing and nothing, no matter how potent, was working. She ultimately beat it but the story sends shivers down my spine.

What's sad is that they are popping up at an increasing rate. I feel it's only a matter of time before nature rolls the dice and produces a highly contagious, high mortality version that sweeps the globe while medical staff become little more than palliative care workers. This is a bit of a doomsday scenario but I don't see it as unrealistic either.

When I hear the news start talking about a contagious super bug with a significant mortality rate like I just described - that's when I will go into full worry mode.

Every serious illness kills - the yearly flu does a nice number on a lot of people, for example - mostly the very young, very old, and otherwise immunocompromised. As a relatively healthy adult in a first world nation though I don't really worry too much about this stuff. I keep my ears open for specific keywords like "super bug" "antibiotic resistant strain" and failing to hear that I go about my life.

I always worry about this exact thing... and biowarfare. Sometimes I daydream of making a fallout shelter in a backyard or getting some sort of property in the middle of nowhere. o_o
 

reedracer

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Now, masks can seem to be a commodity.

So, there can be some selling funnels to consider as well.

Some of those posts I found seem to have this chain of processes:

Article revealing myths of masks and the crises --> link to buy info product on prepping/ survival pack with masks/ affiliate link to masks --> offer an exclusive, no-stock-finished subscription service for masks/other disposables

More for the brain dump:
Now, barriers of entry to the mask business that I can think of:
1. The country of supply

Some countries have great tech to make the masks.
Especially Taiwan. I found some good brands for the masks from Taiwanese sellers, both on Amazon and their own sites.

However:


So, you've got to figure out where else to get the masks from.


2. Masks certification and product quality validation
Even if you were to sell regular N95 masks from 3M or whatever, health products always need to be tested- be they be newly brought from the lab, or to be shipped out.

I find that reading academic papers on the masks tells me a lot what is important to look in a good face mask, as well as crucial components that needs to have the green light. I have already put up one such academic journal.

Some papers focus on studying the different mask designs/shortcomings based on participants/focus groups, while others focus on SIMULATING the inflow of air and pollutants (i.e. weak bacteria, dust particles of a certain size, etc.) and see how much the mask catches on.

I tend to prefer the latter...the former approach seems sketchy.

So, there's plenty of stuff to change up in the product tests, or if you truly wanted to come up with your own mask:
-size of pollutants
-speed of airflow
-temperature
-consistency of exposure
-the control specimen of mask (if you want to improve your mask, of course, a tougher control's performance is to be beaten)
And so on...

I believe some mask manufacturers mention such specs, so it's not totally foreign...I must dig back my history lol.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H1x52skNvk
 
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Megalodon

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It may not kill us - but I'm interested to see if there's a bigger economic impact (which may, in turn, kill us :playful:)

As someone who lives in Australia our economy is hopelessly tied to Chinese business/tourism - our stock market dropped $36 billion on open yesterday morning....

The media spent the last month touting our 'world record breaking' stock market highs (usually a good indicator of a coming crash), we have more short term debt than ever before and some of the most expensive property and living costs in the first world.

Couple all this with the fact that half the country is on fire and in drought, we're having a great time down here.

The thing is, modern macroeconomic theory was mostly developed in the 1980s-90s, it didn't take into account how interconnected everything would become with the internet. There are parts of the world that didn't get the effects of the 2008 market crash until TWO YEARS LATER! If we go, it will be interesting to see what else then goes...

tldr; The Coronavirus may give you the sniffles, but it might kill the Australian economy
 

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Now, masks can seem to be a commodity.

So, there can be some selling funnels to consider as well.

Some of those posts I found seem to have this chain of processes:

Article revealing myths of masks and the crises --> link to buy info product on prepping/ survival pack with masks/ affiliate link to masks --> offer an exclusive, no-stock-finished subscription service for masks/other disposables

More for the brain dump:
Now, barriers of entry to the mask business that I can think of:
1. The country of supply

Some countries have great tech to make the masks.
Especially Taiwan. I found some good brands for the masks from Taiwanese sellers, both on Amazon and their own sites.

However:


So, you've got to figure out where else to get the masks from.


2. Masks certification and product quality validation
Even if you were to sell regular N95 masks from 3M or whatever, health products always need to be tested- be they be newly brought from the lab, or to be shipped out.

I find that reading academic papers on the masks tells me a lot what is important to look in a good face mask, as well as crucial components that needs to have the green light. I have already put up one such academic journal.

Some papers focus on studying the different mask designs/shortcomings based on participants/focus groups, while others focus on SIMULATING the inflow of air and pollutants (i.e. weak bacteria, dust particles of a certain size, etc.) and see how much the mask catches on.

I tend to prefer the latter...the former approach seems sketchy.

So, there's plenty of stuff to change up in the product tests, or if you truly wanted to come up with your own mask:
-size of pollutants
-speed of airflow
-temperature
-consistency of exposure
-the control specimen of mask (if you want to improve your mask, of course, a tougher control's performance is to be beaten)
And so on...

I believe some mask manufacturers mention such specs, so it's not totally foreign...I must dig back my history lol.

I can see it now... people dropshipping masks from Aliexpress to paranoid westerners, only to end up spreading the infection from the factory workers in China.
 

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