“You Should Get a Reusable Mask” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

A pandemic that's substantially worse than COVID-19 is a serious possibility. If one happens, having a good mask could save your life. A high quality reusable mask is only $30 to $60, and I think it's well worth it to buy one for yourself. Worth it enough that I think you should order one now if you don't have one already. But if you're not convinced, let's do some rough estimation. COVID-19 killed about 0.2% of people (20M of 8B). The 1918 flu killed more like 2.5% (50M of 2B). Estimating from two data points is fraught, but this gives you perhaps a 0.02% annual chance of dying in a pandemic. Engineering could make this much worse, especially given progress in AI, but let's set that aside for now to make a more conservative case. A reusable mask ("elastomeric respirator") would be really valuable [...] --- First published: October 8th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o3fAeDAComexCiNRx/you-should-get-a-reusable-mask --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.