5 ms·

>Masks don't provide 100% protection, So 1% protection ? >but nothing does. However, masks are important, because they enable people to safely perform essenti

by matz1 6y ago

>Masks don't provide 100% protection, So 1% protection ? >but nothing does. However, masks are important, because they enable people to safely perform essential activities like grocery shopping, and most jobs. fortunately that the chance of getting sick from covid from doing those activities without mask are very very low. infection is not useful metric because only small percentage actually cause sickness. Masks: The Science & The Myths : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RaBLKKXJt4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RaBLKKXJt4

yibg 6y ago
how much protection would be enough for you to wear one? 50%? 75%? Hell, even 1% is higher than 0 and really, what's the harm? Yea most people don't get very sick, except for the 300k that are dead just in the US.
- worker767424 6y ago
  > and really, what's the harm? If people think a mask offers them more protection than it really does, they might engage in riskier behavior. When I see people out walking around the neighborhood with masks on, I really wonder what they're trying to accomplish. You're not going to get covid walking outdoors passing within 6 feet of someone for 5 seconds. These days, my theory is more people get infected at home than out in public.
  - yibg 6y ago
    Judgement is important of course. I wear masks around people but not when I’m driving or outdoors by myself. I think for a lot of people, it’s just easier not to put it on and take it off. For me for instance if I’m out hiking I just put it on and leave it on. Where as my partner will remove it when there is no one around and put it back on when someone is coming close by. I see the same thing with people driving short distances. People getting infected at home may be a large vector, but the virus got in the home some how in the first place. It’s just easier to spread from that point onwards once it’s in.
  - EB-Barrington 6y ago
    New York State recently reported that 74% of infections spread between Sept and Nov 2000 took place during household social gatherings (based upon contact tracing data).
    - worker767424 6y ago
      > household social gatherings Also known as pods and bubbles.
- WhiskeyVictor 6y ago
  2020 is coming to a close. In a couple of weeks we will have the final tally for the year. This is good because we can then compare it to other years in total. I suggest you check the all cause excess mortality figure. It's already been projected to be essentially the same. This is a really good metric to evaluate the threat level. Here's a nice graph of deaths per month per millon for a nearly 200 year perspective: https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/#foobox-1/3/sweden-monthly-deaths-1851.jpg https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/#foobox-1/3/sweden-mo...
  - slaw 6y ago
    There will be some mortality excess in 2020. 'The observed temporary excess mortality likely arises because people in vulnerable groups die weeks or months earlier than they would otherwise, due to the timing and severity of the unusual external event.' https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v1.full https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v...
  - yibg 6y ago
    I’m all for data driven decisions. We just need to be more careful to dig into the details of the data. A simple excess mortality figure may not be relevant. Both covid and the lockdowns could have caused increased or decreased mortalities in other areas. Eg if there was zero excess mortality, that alone doesn’t prove much either way.
  - worker767424 6y ago
    I wonder if we would have noticed this before modern hospitals and record keeping. I suspect it would have spread much slower, maybe over a decade. In a village of 1,000, there might be 5 deaths that would have been written off as a bad flu, or whatever people used to call getting sick like that.
zucked 6y ago
Are you insinuating that any improvement is not worth pursuing? Let's look at this a different way: I have COVID and I'm contagious. I don't know that, of course, so I go to the grocery store. The same grocery store you're shopping it. We cross paths in the cereal aisle. Would you rather me be wearing a mask?
- matz1 6y ago
  >Are you insinuating that any improvement is not worth pursuing That is not what I insinuating at all. >Would you rather me be wearing a mask If you are sick, you should rest at home, just like with any other illness. I wouldn't care whether you wear mask or not.
  - mynameisvlad 6y ago
    > If you are sick, you should rest at home, just like with any other illness. That's not what was asked. Covid has an up to two week asymptomatic period, there's a high chance that someone around you when you go out is infected and doesn't know. Would you rather them be wearing a mask or not?
    - matz1 6y ago
      >Would you rather them be wearing a mask or not? I already answer it : >I wouldn't care whether you wear mask or not Its up to them, make no difference to me, I have no reason and no interest to require them to wear mask.
    - Shared404 6y ago
      It's not worth your time. Trust me. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25388263 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25388263
- boatsie 6y ago
  As callous as it sounds, I don’t think doing things for “any improvement” means it is worth doing. Everything has a cost/benefit ratio. Are you going to wear a mask for the rest of your life in public and private (your household matters too) because you could catch the flu or someone could catch it from you? Are you going to stay out of motor vehicles because they could injure you or someone else? People have become so extreme in their views that every single life matters that they forget how our 2019 way of life still had significant risk that nobody batted an eye at.

by matz1 6y ago

yibg 6y ago

how much protection would be enough for you to wear one? 50%? 75%? Hell, even 1% is higher than 0 and really, what's the harm? Yea most people don't get very sick, except for the 300k that are dead just in the US.

worker767424 6y ago
> and really, what's the harm? If people think a mask offers them more protection than it really does, they might engage in riskier behavior. When I see people out walking around the neighborhood with masks on, I really wonder what they're trying to accomplish. You're not going to get covid walking outdoors passing within 6 feet of someone for 5 seconds. These days, my theory is more people get infected at home than out in public.
- yibg 6y ago
  Judgement is important of course. I wear masks around people but not when I’m driving or outdoors by myself. I think for a lot of people, it’s just easier not to put it on and take it off. For me for instance if I’m out hiking I just put it on and leave it on. Where as my partner will remove it when there is no one around and put it back on when someone is coming close by. I see the same thing with people driving short distances. People getting infected at home may be a large vector, but the virus got in the home some how in the first place. It’s just easier to spread from that point onwards once it’s in.
- EB-Barrington 6y ago
  New York State recently reported that 74% of infections spread between Sept and Nov 2000 took place during household social gatherings (based upon contact tracing data).
  - worker767424 6y ago
    > household social gatherings Also known as pods and bubbles.
WhiskeyVictor 6y ago
2020 is coming to a close. In a couple of weeks we will have the final tally for the year. This is good because we can then compare it to other years in total. I suggest you check the all cause excess mortality figure. It's already been projected to be essentially the same. This is a really good metric to evaluate the threat level. Here's a nice graph of deaths per month per millon for a nearly 200 year perspective: https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/#foobox-1/3/sweden-monthly-deaths-1851.jpg https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/#foobox-1/3/sweden-mo...
- slaw 6y ago
  There will be some mortality excess in 2020. 'The observed temporary excess mortality likely arises because people in vulnerable groups die weeks or months earlier than they would otherwise, due to the timing and severity of the unusual external event.' https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v1.full https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v...
- yibg 6y ago
  I’m all for data driven decisions. We just need to be more careful to dig into the details of the data. A simple excess mortality figure may not be relevant. Both covid and the lockdowns could have caused increased or decreased mortalities in other areas. Eg if there was zero excess mortality, that alone doesn’t prove much either way.
- worker767424 6y ago
  I wonder if we would have noticed this before modern hospitals and record keeping. I suspect it would have spread much slower, maybe over a decade. In a village of 1,000, there might be 5 deaths that would have been written off as a bad flu, or whatever people used to call getting sick like that.

zucked 6y ago

Are you insinuating that any improvement is not worth pursuing? Let's look at this a different way: I have COVID and I'm contagious. I don't know that, of course, so I go to the grocery store. The same grocery store you're shopping it. We cross paths in the cereal aisle. Would you rather me be wearing a mask?

matz1 6y ago
>Are you insinuating that any improvement is not worth pursuing That is not what I insinuating at all. >Would you rather me be wearing a mask If you are sick, you should rest at home, just like with any other illness. I wouldn't care whether you wear mask or not.
- mynameisvlad 6y ago
  > If you are sick, you should rest at home, just like with any other illness. That's not what was asked. Covid has an up to two week asymptomatic period, there's a high chance that someone around you when you go out is infected and doesn't know. Would you rather them be wearing a mask or not?
  - matz1 6y ago
    >Would you rather them be wearing a mask or not? I already answer it : >I wouldn't care whether you wear mask or not Its up to them, make no difference to me, I have no reason and no interest to require them to wear mask.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    It's not worth your time. Trust me. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25388263 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25388263
boatsie 6y ago
As callous as it sounds, I don’t think doing things for “any improvement” means it is worth doing. Everything has a cost/benefit ratio. Are you going to wear a mask for the rest of your life in public and private (your household matters too) because you could catch the flu or someone could catch it from you? Are you going to stay out of motor vehicles because they could injure you or someone else? People have become so extreme in their views that every single life matters that they forget how our 2019 way of life still had significant risk that nobody batted an eye at.