3 ms·
The linked article seems to back it up: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06067-8 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06067-
by cbsks 6y ago
The linked article seems to back it up: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06067-8 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06067-8
> In a more recent report from a different cruise ship outbreak, all passengers were issued surgical masks and all staff provided N95 masks after the initial case of COVID-19 on the ship was detected. In this closed setting with masking, where 128 of 217 passengers and staff eventually tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via RT-PCR, the majority of infected patients on the ship (81%) remained asymptomatic, compared with 18% in the cruise ship outbreak without masking.
> A report from a pediatric hemodialysis unit in Indiana, where all patients and staff were masked, demonstrated that staff rapidly developed antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 after exposure to a single symptomatic patient with COVID-19. In the setting of masking, however, none of the new infections was symptomatic. And in a recent outbreak in a seafood processing plant in Oregon where all workers were issued masks each day at work, the rate of asymptomatic infection among the 124 infected was 95%. An outbreak in a Tyson chicken plant in Arkansas with masking also showed a 95% asymptomatic rate of infection.
- rosywoozlechan 6y agoIt makes intuitive sense that a face covering would reduce the viral load one is exposed to. I've heard of other studies that have shown that the degree of virus exposure affects outcomes. Those involved exposure time and exposure distance to symptomatic patients with COVID-19. If a face covering reduces the viral load you get exposed to, seems like it would have the same effect as getting a lower dose exposure due to being a greater distance away or because of a reduced exposure time with a contagious individual. I hope more research supports the benefits of masks as it sounds like good news.
- 2muchcoffeeman 6y agoThe viral load thing came up in some podcast I was listening too. So experiments were done with the flu Or cold virus and a smaller load resulted in a less severe infection. They obviously can’t repeat the experiment with COVID. They suspect the same thing happens but they aren’t sure. Oh the off chance it really is true, I’m wearing a mask!
- istorical 6y agowould be great if someone can find them, but pretty sure there was a study done during the SARS 1 outbreak in the Canadian hospital that attempted to demonstrate that physical proximity to severe cases (and highly symptomatic individuals?) was correlated to viral load and further correlated to severity of illness. At least I saw people early on in Novel Coronavirus days of Jan/Feb speculating about the meaning of said study.
- exolymph 6y ago> It makes intuitive sense that a face covering would reduce the viral load one is exposed to. I've been astounded and dismayed by people's ability to reason themselves out of this obvious conclusion.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y agoHow similar were the strains on the two cruise ships?
- chrisco255 6y agoThat cruise ship didn't issue masks until after the outbreak had occurred: "The first recorded fever on board the ship was a febrile passenger on day 8. Isolation protocols were immediately commenced, with all passengers confined to cabins and surgical masks issued to all. Full personal protective equipment was used for any contact with any febrile patients, and N95 masks were worn for any contact with passengers in their cabins. The crew still performed duties, including meal services to the cabin doors three times a day, but rooms were not serviced. Expedition staff helped with crew duties at meal service." So passengers were already infected when that 81% figure was computed. https://thorax.bmj.com/content/75/8/693 https://thorax.bmj.com/content/75/8/693 In a village in Tuscany, over 3000 people were actively tested and 50-75% were asymptomatic: https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1165 https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1165 And among NYC labor and delivery patients, 88 percent were asymptomatic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/20/we-tested-all-our-patients-covid-19-found-lots-asymptomatic-cases/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/20/we-tested-... This number is not at all unusual in the general population, regardless of mask wearing.
- sukilot 6y agoThe comments on the WaPo article are very high quality but show that we have no idea what's going on because the reporting of scientific data is uselessly vague in the critical details.
- rsynnott 6y agoThat doesn’t really support the idea that they protect the wearer, though, does it? They’re both cases where everyone was masked.
- s1artibartfast 6y agoI think the hypothesis could be correct, but as presented, those observations are very poor data. For example, we would want to see if these few examples generalize to other cases, or are they just outliers.