This is what I'm wearing for covid protection on public transit now. Tee hee, if it's not evident by what I'm wearing, I wasn't much of a follower of fashion or concerned with what I looked like before covid-19.
This is bus level protection (read doucebag(/ettes) lowering their masks and forcing coughs as soon as they get past the driver) protection. It's not N95 because cartridge respirators have a different rating system. I've heard soooo many people say that you MUST get the P100 particulate cartridge and nothing else will protect you. GAH! Yes, many people have become authorities on all things respirator during this pandemic and shame on anyone who would spread "misinformation" contrary to anything they say! Meh, I just happened to have an organic vapour /acid gas respirator around in February that I used while soldering because I buy cheap sketchy solder. I also know that to classify as a gas the range of size is 0.0003 - 0.006 microns. P100s only protect against particles down to 3 microns and larger. Covid-19 is about 0.12 microns in diameter so either will do. Speaking of shame, a respirator directs what you exhale downwards toward your feet but people who would shame for wearing one conveniently miss the fact that their surgical or cloth mask is directing what they exhale out the sides bottom or top of their masks...which is why they don't turn blue. As for a proper seal; It's rubber smashed up against your face. The cartridges are only good for roughly 40 hours though and I do worry about future availability, luckily that hasn't been a problem so far. These ones are for ammonia methylamine which was chosen because the banding is a very pretty shade of green. The very best part about using gas cartridges though is that I haven't smelled someone else's passive aggressive bus fart since February! :D
At work I either use the company issued and branded cloth mask or a disposable paper one for most of my shift. In the morning, when I see the most people, I wear the respirator with a surgical mask literally scotch taped over the vent to avoid complaints. Regardless, I don't see anyone that I'm less than 2 meters away from while at work.
Being socially distanced at all times was one of the conditions for me coming back to work. Last year, just last year, I discovered that I had been born with a bicuspid aortic valve when I thought I was having a heart attack (luckily I wasn't :)). I'm also an asthmatic who chain smokes; Strange but true, my asthma actually got better when I started smoking. As it was, work was too dangerous an environment for me to be in. I was off work for a while but decided to go back when that and some other conditions were met to make it safer for me (I've got the super fabulous best supervisor ! :)) I'm also running a diffuser in the little isolated work space I'm in. Yes it's something that many will laugh at, and I'm not saying covid-19 has a facet of it to its transmission, but the more I read about miasma the more it intrigues me . Anyhow, I'm chucking some humidity and negative ions in the air at work just in case and I haven't any poseys in my pocket ;)
The goggles are cheapy vented goggles that I cut the top of the vents off and glued surgical mask material over the newly made holes to make them filtered. Then I hot glue gunned an anti-snoring nasal device (tiny little fans) without the plugs on so air will fill the goggles. That drastically cut down on the fogging of the goggles. It's not perfect but I'm not tripping over stairs anymore :)
I still don't feel entirely safe though, especially on public transit, and I miss the pubs. I can do more. I'm trying to do more by working on a PAPR system and hope to post soon.