6315

damn, that mofo even talks about himself in the third person.

6316

The CDC itself recommends wearing masks, though, for those infected or suspected of being infected. I would hope they wouldn’t if the masks were entirely useless.

  • The patient should wear a facemask when you are around other people. If the patient is not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), you, as the caregiver, should wear a mask when you are in the same room as the patient.
  • Wear a disposable facemask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the patient’s blood, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
    • Throw out disposable facemasks and gloves after using them. Do not reuse.
    • When removing personal protective equipment, first remove and dispose of gloves. Then, immediately clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and dispose of facemask, and immediately clean your hands again with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
6317

Which I have been saying… I never, ever said they were useless.

I mean you’re mixing two different masks and trying to tell me what exactly?

6318

Nah, that’s just looking behind the curtain that his Twitter account on his behalf by someone or some group.

6319

you, as the caregiver, should wear a mask when you are in the same room as the patient.

6320

Well, some level of production has to be maintained willy nilly. That’s why testing for the virus has to become a widely available commodity, so we can figure out who can safely work and who can’t.
But until that happens, a UBI of sorts is in order and it can be taxed away from high income people/the unscathed later.

6321

Then there’s this

6322

Yes, the mask helps if they’re coughing or sneezing, to impede the spray. Bu masks for healthy people are of, at best, questionable utility.

6323

Wth.

I have been saying that… for weeks. Those are the healthcare workers, droplets… etc.

6324

Yes, I know.

6325

I guess what i’m saying is that it’s not as if they have no utility for ordinary people who are not sick, which was my only point. Then the first argument is weaker, because then healthy people would gain some utility from wearing them. Just not anywhere near foolproof, 99%.

6326

The point @Nesrie and others are missing is that in Asia success stories the common trend is assuming everyone is asymptomatic and contagious. That dictates simple masks (not N95) to prevent droplet spread. Simple masks can be ramped up very quickly, given how low tech they are.

6327

German media reports Angela Merkel has to quarantine herself at home. On friday she was treated by a doctor who tested positive. Oh my.

6328

It does NOT say ordinary, every day situation. Caregiver, healthcare worker. You’re not supposed to wear the one mask all day long. They’re not designed for that. They’re just doing that now in a healthcare setting because they don’t have a choice.

The ordinary people wearing those are not even using them right. They have photos of people just pushing them aside to eat.

6329

I don’t really get why you think the one argument impacts the other.

6330

Rand Paul is basically the Ron Swanson of congress. He does everything possible to slow everything down.

6331

Is it at all clear that Asian countries are doing better because of masks?

6332

Asia success story. These viruses keep coming from Asia. If they could contain them with masks it would not be all over the world right now.

Just listen to your public officials and not random people on the internet. That’s science, not wishful thinking. And the CDC does not recommend that use being described here. It’s right there on their site. And it’s not just the USA with these guidelines.

6333

If the value of wearing masks is above 0 ( i guess pushing R0 closer to 1 or < 1), then the question is not one of effectiveness but opportunity cost. It seems like people who dismiss masks are saying that anything other than a substantial diminishment in R0 doesn’t count, or that they expect to implement only such substantial diminishment.

Again, i don’t think dismissing even very minor effects in a pandemic - were it shown to be so - is an assumption we should lean into. But, what seems to happen, is that people are leaning into the second argument, that we don’t have enough masks, to push their belief that because masks may not be perfect means they should not being used at all.

6334

But this is an argument which works for wearing a bucket on your head. It works for a bandanna. It works for stuffing plugs in your nose and breathing through a snorkel. It works for wearing a hockey mask.

But that isn’t what people are saying. People are saying that masks are much more important for health care workers and patients, so maybe people shouldn’t buy them all up.