6335

There is belief that it does more harm than good. That was also posted here, many, many times. Right along twith he information about the difference between the N95 masks and the surgical masks. And a whole host of information people are choosing to overlook or ignore to artificially feel better about wanting something they have very little to no chance of getting a hold of.

It makes very little sense to look at the part of the world that these viruses arise from for answers in order to contain it. If they could contain these through their everyday tendencies, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now with most of us sheltering in place at home. And this is not the first virus coming from that region of the world.

They don’t know how to contain these without extreme measures, and wearing masks is not extreme over there, because if they did,we wouldn’t keep getting things like this spread all over the world in the first place.

6336

So if the god of face and surgical masks - truly a most neglected god of the Roman pantheon - suddenly saw their moment and provided an infinite number of low grade masks (non-N95) to whoever wanted them, you all would still council people not to wear them?

6337

And now back to our regularly scheduled mask debate.

6338

If you give a shit about yourself, your family, or anyone else on this planet, social distance. You can strap a feminine napkin to your face for all I care, just don’t post a meme on the internet telling people to follow your idiocy.

6339

Wait, what’s the meme i posted?

6340

If the worry is about doing more harm than good, extensive basic mask (non N95) wearing make much more sense than shelter in place for an indefinite period of time.

Perhaps that needs other policies, like contact tracing, but wearing what is essentially a thin piece of paper over your mouth and nose is very low hanging fruit.

As far as origins, that’s a poor argument. It originated in an unhygienic animal market where mask wearing was not the norm. We’re talking about policies that help stop a pandemic once started, not preventing it outright - it’s too late for that.

6341

Poor arugment huh.

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You started this whole thing again with that idiotic drawing up there.

I guess in this date and age anyone with a Sharpie or Windows Paint can pretend they’re giving out data.

6342

I would pay as much attention to their mask-wearing as I do to their sock-wearing. Why would I care?

6343

I wonder if this is known. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m wondering if it is definitely true.

6344

I mean, right, i’m not advocating either/or. Social isolation is obviously the most important thing you can do.

6345

What is known is it jumped from wild animal to human around the third week of Nov. First recorded cases, around that time, at a Wuhan market, which become a major epicenter. It’s doubtful more will ever be known publicly because the Chinese government put out a gag order in early December and reprimanded doctors for sharing information in early Jan.

6346

Just from a purely logical perspective, masks do in fact prevent transmission of infection when used correctly.

That’s why we have masks.

Surgical masks prevent transmission from the sick. N95 masks prevent transmission to the wearer.

The only reason for people to not all be wearing masks, is because there aren’t enough of them.

6347

Which can be remedied fairly quickly. China was ramping up daily mask production by tens of millions over a few weeks. The US has plenty of paper products companies, so it’s not inconceivable that it could be done here also. I expect in the US we’ll all be wearing masks by summer. Surgical masks.

6348

No, said Michael Ben-Aderet, MD, associate medical director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai.

“Masks are almost never useful for the general public,” Ben-Aderet said. “When trying to protect yourself from getting a communicable illness in a public setting, masks have almost no role in that for healthy people. There are very few scenarios in public where people should be wearing masks.”

Like how many licensed medical physicians have to keep telling people this?

6349

This is dogma which others disagree with.

6350

This is negation without any actual information content.

6351

Funny, just now i was thinking that it should be possible to jerry-rig a coffee filter to be an effective mask. Couple of safety pins to hold the sides and anchor the elastic to go around your ears, something a little better in the middle to filter, maybe some alcohol in there. I dunno, seems doable.

I mean shit, in world war 1 they figured out that pissing into a rag and covering your mouth with it can save you from mustard gas…

Nesrie, you’re never going to convince me that masks don’t work, cause they do. There’s studies that indicate they do, if you want me to link them, i will. I am dubious of their air-filtering ability and also people’s ability to use them properly. But i’m not dubious of their ability to diminish droplets and airborne particulate from an infected person (who doesn’t know their infected) and i’m not dubious of their ability to reduce airflow. Go ahead, try this - pick up a coffee filter, light a birthday candle, now blow out the candle with and without the coffee filter in front of your mouth. Which was easier?

Lets’s create another thread for mask talk shall we? I like the discussion, i just think it should be separate…

6352

At some point this just becomes an exercise of which country’s doctors you believe in - as wearing masks is the official medical recommendation in the East Asian countries.

6353

When you read what they are actually saying, you see that it agrees with what I said.

Surgical masks, which are what most people wear in Asia, don’t protect the wearer.

What they do, is prevent the wearer from transmitting disease to others. Again, that’s their purpose. That’s why medical professionals wear them.

So, the benefit is in the sick people wearing them. Because then of they cough or something, it isn’t transmitted as easily to others.

Likewise, N95 Masks absolutely will protect you against inhaling aerosolized viruses. Again, this is their purpose. This is why medical professionals wear them. Technically, for full protection, you’ll want to wear other PPE.

But the idea that they only work on doctors is silly. There are lots of folks outside the medical professionals who use n95 masks effectively for protecting themselves.

6354

That is not coming from me. That is coming from our health organizations, the CDC and i believe WHO. If you don’t believe some of the top physicians, scientist and individuals who have combated epidemics for a lifetime… then why do anything they say?

This run on masks, toilet paper, hand-sanitizer… whatever we have next is driven by people who just want the answer to be… buy something. And if you forgo data, decide that the front-lines are just not worthwhile, then why do anything else they say like washing your hands, not touching your face… not going to parties. It’s from the same sources.

If China could’ve contained this thing with everyone wearing masks, would’t be here today. That’s not an answer nor has it been a solution for any of the dozens of issues we’ve had over the years.

The panic buying isn’t for people who are sick. They’re healthy people who think this is an answer, and in many cases it causes them to behave in a less safe manner. And again, they’re not designed for you to just stick on and wear for hours, a whole day.