You shouldn't get down-voted for an honest question. Especially since the messaging from our (US) experts was, in my opinion, criminally confused.
There is a lot of theater going on but: 1. masks do help in aggregate 2. theater can also help (I won't address that).
For the record I am a physicist, not a physician or a biologist. Everything I'm writing below are conclusions I arrived at from an understanding of physics, not biology. But it turned out that my conclusions were largely correct.
Let's assume this is, primarily, a respiratory disease. Therefore, the virus is present in the respiratory tract -> let's assume that it will exploit that power of exhalation (to jump out) and inhalation (to establish) to spread itself.
I think my assumptions are fair.
As you point out, there are two types of masks: N95 vs. surgical masks. In fact, there is an important subtype of mask, the N95 with valve. These last ones are great for individuals, but are very dangerous overall.
The cheap surgical masks with wide openings on the sides doesn't protect you very much. It's not meant to. It's meant to protect others from you. It does this by destroying the kinetic energy of the droplets so that they mostly come into contact with you (and you're already sick, so who cares?). Also if the virus needs droplets to survive, the mask will dry them out.
The N95 with a valve only protects you, not others. The N95 mask seals your face and forces all inhaled air through a filter that the virus cannot penetrate. But the valve forces the unfiltered air in am accelerated jet aimed at whoever you are facing.
The N95 mask without a filter protects others and yourself.
Now, there is mounting evidence that the COVID virus is aerosolized, meaning that it doesn't need a droplet. Still, the face coverings are important because the exhaled air is slower and therefore limited in its spread.
I arrived at these conclusions in late January, and was able to buy a few N95 masks in time. I didn't buy many because I didn't want to be an asshole (and I couldn't find them already). I planned to re-use them and I have. In five months my wife and I have lost two to due wear, so at this rate we have enough to last about a year, year and half. I never believed the admonition that you cant re-use masks. You can, if done right, and Dr.s have been forced to do so at work.
I wonder where the problem is with these set of assertions?
Question. Name me something Trump did that:
1. Is obviously unconstitutional.
2. He continued doing is after courts found it unconstitutional.
3. Isn't something previous presidents did.
I'm willing to relax #3 if you are willing to acknowledge that previous presidents were just as dictatorial in their disregard for the constitution, and therefore Trump abuse of power is a non-issue.
My company hires H1Bs to contract us out to the Federal govt. Half my group was on an H1B at one point.
The contract has a lot of really weird particularities too. For example, I can't remote work (over ruled by the pandemic) even though my job is 100% on computers and 100% FOIA-ble. Noting stops the Fed from putting a "no H1B" workers clause.
Of course, the best way for the Fed to have the workers it prefers would be to hire them directly. But I prefer this system since I have no intention of becoming American, and its just about impossible to get a Fed position in my particular corner of government.
I think his point is that they're all clones, or running American OS, or selling excellent quality commodities (in the sense that as a designer or engineer I don't care much about the part past its specs)
Lenovo -> IBM
Samsung + Huawei -> Google
SSD, screens, ram -> commodity
You might balk at SSDs being mere commodities (or screens for that matter). Surely Samsung SSDs and screens are better! Sure, and as a designer I might care. But I probably wouldn't, past the promised MTBF, viewing angle and contrast ratio.
Put the SSD+display+CPU together and you get, for better or worse[1] , a largely American computing device. You don't get a BBC micro or an Acorn. Or a Setun.
Nintendo is the only one who obviously stands out as different, making a unique computing device (albeit with an American CPU). Although even the N64 was largely an American design (SGI)
[1] I think worse, in the sense that everything is a Unix monoculture.
[edit:] Third law states 0K is impossible. That's the obvious and simplest answer. So everything bellow assumes the limit as you approach 0K.
I think in that case you reach a paradox because temperature is a quantity (typically) defined in thermodynamics, i.e. systems in equilibrium. A metastable glass is not in its ground state, therefore not in equilibrium, therefore not technically within the purview of thermo. This might seem like a cop out, but a similar question was asked in my qualifier. The answer, glass is not technically described my thermo and at 0K the whole thing breaks down [1]
Sure we still talk about entropy and temperature of glass, but it's stretching the definitions.
Another way to look at it, though, is that at 0K there is only one state available to the system (even though it is a glassy one). Therefore call the glass a new state of matter, and set S=0. If that feels weird because it's not the ground state, consider that glass' constituents, Si and O, are not in a ground state either, that'd be Fe. You don't have any problems dealing with metastable Si and O, do you? Either way, 0K makes no sense!
Also, it's weird (actually wrong) to even think about materials at 0K. In classical thermo your heat capacity is zero. In modern physics your atoms' "positions'" are fully determined, therefore their "momentum" is fully undetermined. So 0K is a state that makes zero sense.
[1] I forget the question. I think it was like this: the entropy of glass has a greater slope than the crystal, therefore, if you cool the glass low enough it will achieve a lower entropy than the crystal. How can a glass have lower S than its crystal state?
There is a lot of theater going on but: 1. masks do help in aggregate 2. theater can also help (I won't address that).
For the record I am a physicist, not a physician or a biologist. Everything I'm writing below are conclusions I arrived at from an understanding of physics, not biology. But it turned out that my conclusions were largely correct.
Let's assume this is, primarily, a respiratory disease. Therefore, the virus is present in the respiratory tract -> let's assume that it will exploit that power of exhalation (to jump out) and inhalation (to establish) to spread itself.
I think my assumptions are fair.
As you point out, there are two types of masks: N95 vs. surgical masks. In fact, there is an important subtype of mask, the N95 with valve. These last ones are great for individuals, but are very dangerous overall.
The cheap surgical masks with wide openings on the sides doesn't protect you very much. It's not meant to. It's meant to protect others from you. It does this by destroying the kinetic energy of the droplets so that they mostly come into contact with you (and you're already sick, so who cares?). Also if the virus needs droplets to survive, the mask will dry them out.
The N95 with a valve only protects you, not others. The N95 mask seals your face and forces all inhaled air through a filter that the virus cannot penetrate. But the valve forces the unfiltered air in am accelerated jet aimed at whoever you are facing.
The N95 mask without a filter protects others and yourself.
Now, there is mounting evidence that the COVID virus is aerosolized, meaning that it doesn't need a droplet. Still, the face coverings are important because the exhaled air is slower and therefore limited in its spread.
I arrived at these conclusions in late January, and was able to buy a few N95 masks in time. I didn't buy many because I didn't want to be an asshole (and I couldn't find them already). I planned to re-use them and I have. In five months my wife and I have lost two to due wear, so at this rate we have enough to last about a year, year and half. I never believed the admonition that you cant re-use masks. You can, if done right, and Dr.s have been forced to do so at work.