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It's clear at this point that masks are not the panacea. Countries with mask mandates still have a big spread. Masks should be a complement to social distancing

by Kiro 6y ago

It's clear at this point that masks are not the panacea. Countries with mask mandates still have a big spread. Masks should be a complement to social distancing and other more effective measures.

beervirus 6y ago
They're not a panacea, but they do help. And they're way less burdensome than lockdowns.
mywacaday 6y ago
They may not be the panacea but they reduce cases significantly. Look at Japan which had a strong culture of wearing masks even before COVID. https://georank.org/covid/japan/united-states https://georank.org/covid/japan/united-states
- ghaff 6y ago
  >Japan which had a strong culture of wearing masks Which is only sorta true in the sense that people who are sick often wear them and they're not almost unheard of like in the West. But pre-pandemic, go out on a crowded street in Tokyo and you probably wouldn't see more than a few masks if you saw any.
  - fomine3 6y ago
    IIRC 10-30% of people wear mask in winter before covid.
- Kiro 6y ago
  The numbers in Japan are most likely severely underreported. It's extremely hard to get tested. You pretty much need to have been in contact with someone confirmed infected or hospitalized to get a test. It's a catch-22. But even with the confirmed cases the trend in Japan is worrying, especially compared to other countries in Asia. They're setting new records every day: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20201201_36/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20201201_36/ With that said, I absolutely think the mask culture in Japan has dampened the surge a lot. In countries without this people just do the bare minimum to be compliant, so we have all these chin-wearers and nose-flashers. We're simply hopeless at wearing masks even with the strictest of mask mandates. So even if masks could reduce the spread significantly we're not likely to see the effect of that here.

by Kiro 6y ago

It's clear at this point that masks are not the panacea. Countries with mask mandates still have a big spread. Masks should be a complement to social distancing and other more effective measures.

beervirus 6y ago

They're not a panacea, but they do help. And they're way less burdensome than lockdowns.

mywacaday 6y ago

They may not be the panacea but they reduce cases significantly. Look at Japan which had a strong culture of wearing masks even before COVID. https://georank.org/covid/japan/united-states https://georank.org/covid/japan/united-states

ghaff 6y ago
>Japan which had a strong culture of wearing masks Which is only sorta true in the sense that people who are sick often wear them and they're not almost unheard of like in the West. But pre-pandemic, go out on a crowded street in Tokyo and you probably wouldn't see more than a few masks if you saw any.
- fomine3 6y ago
  IIRC 10-30% of people wear mask in winter before covid.
Kiro 6y ago
The numbers in Japan are most likely severely underreported. It's extremely hard to get tested. You pretty much need to have been in contact with someone confirmed infected or hospitalized to get a test. It's a catch-22. But even with the confirmed cases the trend in Japan is worrying, especially compared to other countries in Asia. They're setting new records every day: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20201201_36/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20201201_36/ With that said, I absolutely think the mask culture in Japan has dampened the surge a lot. In countries without this people just do the bare minimum to be compliant, so we have all these chin-wearers and nose-flashers. We're simply hopeless at wearing masks even with the strictest of mask mandates. So even if masks could reduce the spread significantly we're not likely to see the effect of that here.