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I'm still surprised there is so much misinformation about this. There are two categories of masks. The first category only prevent you from spreading the diseas

I'm still surprised there is so much misinformation about this. There are two categories of masks. The first category only prevent you from spreading the disease. These include paper surgical masks, cloth masks and those blue disposable paper masks. These are only made to prevent you from spreading droplets in the air from your moth and nose. If someone with covid isn't wearing a mask this category won't do anything prevent you from catching it. The second category are masks such as N95, P95, N99, P100, etc. Things like disposable painter masks or reusable masks with replaceable filters. These are meant to filter out particulate in the air and they do reduce the likelihood of you getting the disease. To call your mask P95 it must be certified by NIOSH and tested to meet the given rating, ie P95 must filter out 95 percent of particulate and be resistant to oil. In the beginning the US and CDC were not recommending using masks. I believe the main reason for this was, not that they didn't believe it was effective, but that they were worried about a shortage for health care professionals.

bearjaws 6y ago
And there was a real shortage, several health systems that I work with had their staff reusing the "blue paper" masks for several days at a time.
space_fountain 6y ago
In addition to what other commenters are saying just like vaccines masks only really work on a population level and even there they don't work as well as vaccines. The figures I've seen claim something in the range of a 20 to 40 percent reduction in risk of catching from an infectious person. That isn't anything like what I'd call protection
BurningFrog 6y ago
> I believe the main reason for this was, not that they didn't believe it was effective, but that they were worried about a shortage for health care professionals. Yeah, but instead of saying that they lied and said masks don't work. I wonder how much of the current anti-mask sentiments arise from these lies.
- dhimes 6y ago
  Not really, at least not Fauci. What he said was they wouldn't work for most Americans. What he was implying is that most Americans wouldn't bother to learn to wear them properly. I think he was right. If your glasses are fogging, RainX isn't your answer. Make the damn mask fit better.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Anthony Fauci quoted below with his primary motivations: "I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm's way every day to take care of sick people," Fauci told O'Donnell. "When it became clear that we could get the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don't know they're infected, that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks," he said. "And also, it soon became clear that we had enough protective equipment and that cloth masks and homemade masks were as good as masks that you would buy from surgical supply stores," Fauci added. "So in the context of when we were not strongly recommending it, it was the correct thing."
    - dhimes 6y ago
      Yes- he's negotiating a difficult position. At the time there was a big concern that people wouldn't wear the masks properly. "It takes training" was the implication.
      - DanBC 6y ago
        Combined with a lack of evidence that masks work, and some evidence that masks don't work.
        dhimes 6y ago
        I think the evidence is that people don't wear masks properly- so in that sense they don't work. And that's what Fauci was indicating at the beginning.
icelancer 6y ago
>> In the beginning the US and CDC were not recommending using masks. I believe the main reason for this was, not that they didn't believe it was effective, but that they were worried about a shortage for health care professionals. This happened anyway. Telling noble lies to the population just increases populism and makes people distrust the government even more. Which is paying off wonderfully right about now.
coryfklein 6y ago
> this category won't do anything prevent you from catching it. Are you saying there have been studies showing approximately 0% reduced risk of infection from wearing a paper or cloth mask? I'd have assumed that these masks are much less effective than an N95, but I haven't seen any data showing they have no effect.
- zucker42 6y ago
  There are no studies that I know of that show that cloth masks provide protection for the wearer. The consensus now seems to be that they are effective at decreasing the likelihood that a sick person spreads it to a healthy person if sick people wear them. Related: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/31/ssc-journal-club-macintyre-on-cloth-masks/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/31/ssc-journal-club-macin...
  - coryfklein 6y ago
    Absence of evidence something something something

bearjaws 6y ago

And there was a real shortage, several health systems that I work with had their staff reusing the "blue paper" masks for several days at a time.

space_fountain 6y ago

In addition to what other commenters are saying just like vaccines masks only really work on a population level and even there they don't work as well as vaccines. The figures I've seen claim something in the range of a 20 to 40 percent reduction in risk of catching from an infectious person. That isn't anything like what I'd call protection

BurningFrog 6y ago

> I believe the main reason for this was, not that they didn't believe it was effective, but that they were worried about a shortage for health care professionals. Yeah, but instead of saying that they lied and said masks don't work. I wonder how much of the current anti-mask sentiments arise from these lies.

dhimes 6y ago
Not really, at least not Fauci. What he said was they wouldn't work for most Americans. What he was implying is that most Americans wouldn't bother to learn to wear them properly. I think he was right. If your glasses are fogging, RainX isn't your answer. Make the damn mask fit better.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Anthony Fauci quoted below with his primary motivations: "I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm's way every day to take care of sick people," Fauci told O'Donnell. "When it became clear that we could get the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don't know they're infected, that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks," he said. "And also, it soon became clear that we had enough protective equipment and that cloth masks and homemade masks were as good as masks that you would buy from surgical supply stores," Fauci added. "So in the context of when we were not strongly recommending it, it was the correct thing."
  - dhimes 6y ago
    Yes- he's negotiating a difficult position. At the time there was a big concern that people wouldn't wear the masks properly. "It takes training" was the implication.
    - DanBC 6y ago
      Combined with a lack of evidence that masks work, and some evidence that masks don't work.
      - dhimes 6y ago
        I think the evidence is that people don't wear masks properly- so in that sense they don't work. And that's what Fauci was indicating at the beginning.

icelancer 6y ago

>> In the beginning the US and CDC were not recommending using masks. I believe the main reason for this was, not that they didn't believe it was effective, but that they were worried about a shortage for health care professionals. This happened anyway. Telling noble lies to the population just increases populism and makes people distrust the government even more. Which is paying off wonderfully right about now.

coryfklein 6y ago

> this category won't do anything prevent you from catching it. Are you saying there have been studies showing approximately 0% reduced risk of infection from wearing a paper or cloth mask? I'd have assumed that these masks are much less effective than an N95, but I haven't seen any data showing they have no effect.

zucker42 6y ago
There are no studies that I know of that show that cloth masks provide protection for the wearer. The consensus now seems to be that they are effective at decreasing the likelihood that a sick person spreads it to a healthy person if sick people wear them. Related: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/31/ssc-journal-club-macintyre-on-cloth-masks/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/31/ssc-journal-club-macin...
- coryfklein 6y ago
  Absence of evidence something something something