Originally Posted by k0nr4d

How do you figure man? The new variants are the same size. They are going to be exactly as effective against any variant. It's N95 or nothing with ANY covid variant. That's the minimum to filter it, and anything above that (N99) you will be starved of oxygen. Maybe saturation won't drop per-say but breathing is definitely labored and difficult.

The situation in India is what it is because it's crowded as fuck and filthy as fuck. Many people don't even have a place to wash their hands. They wash in the Ganges, dispose of their dead in the Ganges, etc. It's not exactly a model of sanitation even before any kind of pandemic. It's not because they aren't masking. The Indian variant anywhere in the west would look dramatically different.