<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>Leary</author><text>The US has 12 million N95 in stockpile, another 5 million N95 that expired.&lt;p&gt;The US has 30 million surgical masks in stockpile.&lt;p&gt;The US needs 300 million N95 masks for medical professionals. [1]&lt;p&gt;[1]
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;28&amp;#x2F;us-mulls-using-sweeping-powers-to-ramp-up-production-of-coronavirus-protective-gear.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;28&amp;#x2F;us-mulls-using-sweeping-powe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore it is rational for public health policy to reserve high quality masks for medical professionals, regardless of their effectiveness for the general public.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how many masks they can manufacture a week in this emergency.</text><parent_chain></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Modeling the effectiveness of respiratory masks in reducing influenza (2018)</title><url>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30229968</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>tristanj</author><text>More here: Study finds N95 masks reduce risk of coronavirus infection &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.livescience.com&amp;#x2F;respirators-prevent-coronavirus-infection-study.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.livescience.com&amp;#x2F;respirators-prevent-coronavirus-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;As Wang&amp;#x27;s study revealed, rates of infection differed between doctors and nurses with [N95] respirators and those without.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Specifically, the authors examined data collected from Jan. 2-22 at six departments within the Zhongnan Hospital. Within the 10-day period, the hospital treated 28 individuals with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 58 &amp;quot;suspicious&amp;quot; cases. The medical staff in each department followed different safety protocols when treating the patients.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;About 280 medical staff in the hospital&amp;#x27;s Respiratory, ICU and Infectious Diseases departments wore N95 respirators and washed their hands frequently, while about 215 in the departments of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Surgery, Trauma and Microsurgery, and Urology wore no masks and disinfected their hands less frequently. Although the respirator group encountered confirmed cases more often than the unmasked group — more than 730% more often — no one in the respirator group became infected.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In comparison, 10 people in the unmasked group contracted the novel disease, despite treating fewer infected patients.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;It would appear that N95 respirators, no surprise, protect against health care acquisition of the virus,&amp;quot; said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, who was not involved in the current study. The small study is &amp;quot;reassuring in that sense,&amp;quot; although there was no reason to think that N95 respirators wouldn&amp;#x27;t block out the novel coronavirus effectively, he added.&lt;/i&gt;</text><parent_chain></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Modeling the effectiveness of respiratory masks in reducing influenza (2018)</title><url>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30229968</url></story>