I asked you recently to comment on overall effectiveness of KN95 masks in preventing COVID-19 spread. Are N95 masks significantly better, and more effective than the current data from scientific studies actually show?

The N95 masks are superior, and this has been demonstrated in scientific studies comparing mask effectiveness. They are designed more rigorously to fit the face contours more closely, and so that better sealing both prevents most exhaled air from leaking around the edges of the mask and direct inhalation of outside air, as opposed to what is being pulled through the mask and being filtered in the process. So the N95s are more uncomfortable to use because they do require greater respiratory effort to get air moving back and forth through the extra-fine filtering and containment they provide. They are not perfect in filtering out aerosolized viruses, but the combination of many such aerosols being attracted to and sticking to the fiber components of the mask and reducing their numbers, make the masks of benefit to some degree in reducing exposure of the mask wearer, and that is the point, to provide some greater safety margin, and that they do. They will not prevent a majority of people being exposed to virus particles in an environment that is contaminated but will reduce the overall viral load inhaled, and that can, in some cases, be enough to prevent a symptomatic illness that would otherwise happen if the person were not masked with an effective device offering rigorous filtration at the submicron level, as is true of the N95 approved masks available commercially.