4 ms·
I'm not knowledgeable about the efficacy of the masks themselves, but I suspect there's a forest-for-the-trees issue, here. There are at least a few ways to thi
by abathur 7y ago
I'm not knowledgeable about the efficacy of the masks themselves, but I suspect there's a forest-for-the-trees issue, here. There are at least a few ways to think about whether masks (broadly, or any specific mask) "work"...
- Whether wearing a mask makes it less likely someone will pick up an infection in constant conditions (direct mask efficacy, reduced touching, etc.)
- Whether wearing a mask makes it less likely someone will transmit an infection in constant conditions.
- Whether wearing a mask leads infected people to spend more time around others.
- Whether wearing a mask leads uninfected people to spend more time around others.
- Whether the way masks end up getting allocated in the event of a shortage promotes or inhibits spread at population scale (for example, if masks ended up overallocated towards people who're so concerned that they stay home anyways and away from people who don't have the ability to).
- CWuestefeld 7y agoGood questions. You remind me of some of the arguments against wearing a helmet on a bike. In particular, real studies show that automobile drivers are more careful in the presence of bikers without helmets - that is, if you're wearing a helmet, drivers are more careless around you.
- D2187645 7y agoSomeone texting, driving drunk, or not paying attention is still gonna hurt you more without a helment though.
- ornornor 7y agoAnd sometimes you just fall on your own as well. Out of the few times I’ve met the ground while biking, I’d estimate roughly half to be because I lost balance after hitting a pothole I didn’t see or ice/snow/rain making my bicycle slide. I was glad to have a helmet in these cases.
- CWuestefeld 7y agoI'm not making an argument against helmets, partly because I don't know if that effect is large enough to overcome the additional safety of the helmet. I'm just trying to illustrate that sometimes there are non-obvious offsetting effects.