4 ms·
We need to get to this point: (number of people vaccinated) * (vaccine effectiveness) > (herd immunity threshold) At this point, the R0 drops below 1 and the
by rossng 6y ago
We need to get to this point:
(number of people vaccinated) * (vaccine effectiveness) > (herd immunity threshold)
At this point, the R0 drops below 1 and the pandemic dies out by itself.
However, if everyone keeps wearing masks, it looks more like this:
(number of people vaccinated) * (vaccine effectiveness) + (mask effectiveness) * (number of people vaccinated) * (1 - vaccine effectiveness) > 1
This makes it easier to get R0 below 1 with fewer societal restrictions. Given that it's trivial for most people to wear masks, this seems like an obvious choice.
- throwawaysea 6y agoWhy isn’t the answer just “those who are afraid of the virus can stay inside indefinitely” and no one else has to wear masks if they don’t want to? I don’t think it is “trivial” to wear masks - it makes breathing harder, it affects mental health (by not seeing people’s emotions), it makes communication harder for those with certain disabilities, and it makes every activity less enjoyable. After all if we really think there is no negative impact from wearing masks why not permanently require it all the time including at home? So then this comes down to a fuzzy tradeoff, which seems more like a values or politics based determination than a mathematical or scientific one.