6 ms·

"A huge percentage (maybe 30-45%)? of people that I see wearing masks seem to be putting them around their chins or wearing them over their mouth but with nostr

by timr 7y ago

"A huge percentage (maybe 30-45%)? of people that I see wearing masks seem to be putting them around their chins or wearing them over their mouth but with nostrils exposed or hanging around their neck. Or I see people pulling them down and only pulling them back up when they walk by someone or go into a store (most stores have signs on the entrance requiring masks but state that improvised is OK). It's incredibly frustrating seeing people wearing PPE incorrectly and/or treating it as optional outside of stores." This fixation on masks is puzzling to me. The evidence for their effectiveness is weak (particularly for non-medical masks) at best, and people have turned "social distancing plus masks" into "masks plus social distancing", which is exactly what public health experts were trying to avoid. As you've noticed, a huge percentage of people don't know how to wear masks or don't care to know. Even if they do know and care, it's incredibly inconvenient and difficult to wear a mask properly, so people generally don't. Moreover, as you've also noted, people are consuming medical equipment that really should be reserved for professionals. It's exactly what researchers said would happen when the mandatory mask idea was floated, and it's why the CDC didn't recommend masks in the first place (and why the WHO still doesn't). More and more research is calling out mask laws as a questionable idea: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-masks-on-or-off/ https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-masks-on-or-off/ https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/19526/Face%20masks%20caution%20in%20policy_v1_2020-04-22%20%28with%20disclaimers%29.pdf https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/19526/Face%... https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577?ijkey=24b32ab6276a64e914df709d11f3cc9129863e83&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577?ijkey=24b32ab627... https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049528v1?ijkey=892024a57f4c2fe7bf8c55eee61a3fc8b5882be0&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049528v... https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/data-do-not-back-cloth-masks-limit-covid-19-experts-say https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/data-do-... https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1422 https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1422 And yet, every day, I see comments judging people for not wearing them, not wearing them properly, etc. Again, there's little evidence for doing it, they're misused/misworn in practice, and they seem to lead to a false sense of security. Why are we doing this, again?

josephorjoe 7y ago
primarily to reduce the likelihood of infectious people infecting other people. This is not complicated. Every Single Avoided Infection Reduces The Pandemic. Whataboutism is irrelevant. The virus simply does not care about logic. It only cares about math. If I'm infectious and wear a mask and avoid infecting you, then you and everyone you would have infected do not get the disease (from me). If I'm part of 5% of people who are actively trying to avoid spreading the infection, then it probably does not matter much and the virus spreads and spreads and spreads. If I'm part of 90% of people who are actively trying to avoid spreading the infection, then it matters a great deal and the virus vanishes. That is why we are doing this.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  > Every Single Avoided Infection Reduces The Pandemic. No, you're trying to apply logic with incorrect data. Corona is so contagious that nothing short of a Level 4 biohazard facility can stop it, if that. > That is why we are doing this. No, it's just feel-good corona theater. We need herd immunity sooner than later. Let's get to 80% ASAP!
  - Johnjonjoan 7y ago
    Are you implying the nations who have reduced infections to manageable levels have made their entire countries biosafety level 4? How long do you think herd immunity will last because its up for debate. What should we tell the families of the 0.08 - 0.8% of the world population who died when it turns out to not be long? Even if herd immunity lasts forever, if we get a vaccine months later many died for no reason.
    - closeparen 7y ago
      We don’t really have attribution on masks vs. contact tracing.
      - Johnjonjoan 7y ago

by timr 7y ago

josephorjoe 7y ago

primarily to reduce the likelihood of infectious people infecting other people. This is not complicated. Every Single Avoided Infection Reduces The Pandemic. Whataboutism is irrelevant. The virus simply does not care about logic. It only cares about math. If I'm infectious and wear a mask and avoid infecting you, then you and everyone you would have infected do not get the disease (from me). If I'm part of 5% of people who are actively trying to avoid spreading the infection, then it probably does not matter much and the virus spreads and spreads and spreads. If I'm part of 90% of people who are actively trying to avoid spreading the infection, then it matters a great deal and the virus vanishes. That is why we are doing this.

redis_mlc 7y ago
> Every Single Avoided Infection Reduces The Pandemic. No, you're trying to apply logic with incorrect data. Corona is so contagious that nothing short of a Level 4 biohazard facility can stop it, if that. > That is why we are doing this. No, it's just feel-good corona theater. We need herd immunity sooner than later. Let's get to 80% ASAP!
- Johnjonjoan 7y ago
  Are you implying the nations who have reduced infections to manageable levels have made their entire countries biosafety level 4? How long do you think herd immunity will last because its up for debate. What should we tell the families of the 0.08 - 0.8% of the world population who died when it turns out to not be long? Even if herd immunity lasts forever, if we get a vaccine months later many died for no reason.
  - closeparen 7y ago
    We don’t really have attribution on masks vs. contact tracing.
    - Johnjonjoan 7y ago