Although the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating effects it has had throughout the world have been well-known for months at this point, it’s still oddly difficult to convince a significant number of citizens to wear face masks when they go out in public.
This can be partially blamed on the mistaken belief that the masks decrease oxygen levels but such resistance seems to persist no matter how thoroughly that claim is debunked.
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Whether this mask aversion comes from the mild discomfort of wearing one or a refusal to be told what to do no matter why, it’s a constant source of anxiety for those who are doing all they can to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
And it’s also the inspiration for the peculiar invention we’re about to see in the full video.
As the video that appeared on his Sufficiently Advanced channel on August 15 begins, Youtuber Allen Pan addresses a type of person he calls a “maskhole.”
The more Pan encountered what he referred to as the “uniquely American problem” of widespread refusal to wear a face mask amid a pandemic, the more he wondered what he could do about it.
He considered making a “fun, educational video” about how safe and effective they are before noticing that so many — including Bill Nye — had already done this.
As Pan said in the video, he figured those who refuse to wear masks care more about the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution than they do about factual information regarding masks.
And so he decided to develop what he considered an American solution to an American problem by combining guns and public safety in the form of a “gun” that launches masks securely onto people’s faces.
To do this, he built a frame capable of accommodating four barrels that multiple strings would shoot from at the same time in similar fashion to a net launcher.
His source of combustion was a CO2 solenoid valve similar to what you might see in a paintball gun.
This unit is capable of exerting about 800 PSI of pressure and he discovered that this was more than enough to wrap a subtly weighted mask around a person’s face.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what it did when he fired the mask at a gelatin head he set up for testing.
However, Pan noticed from additional tests that while the laser sight he had made horizontal centering easy, it was hard not to accidentally shoot it either too high or too low to be effective.
Nonetheless, he proceeded to test it on himself anyway and found that his launcher attached the mask to his face securely.
At this point in the video, you’ll notice that his voice is similarly muffled to how it would sound if he put it on the conventional way.
You’ll also notice that it covers both his mouth and nose as intended.
This led Pan to bring his invention out into the world. More specifically, to Huntington Beach, California.
As this was the site of a significant coronavirus protest where anti-mask sentiment was common, he figured he’d find no shortage of people without masks.
However, he discovered that more people were wearing them than he expected so he decided to demonstrate what he developed to members of the community rather than ambush them.
We can see how he did this and how he addressed a sudden technical difficulty in the full video.
h/t: YouTube | Allen Pan – Sufficiently Advanced
