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It’s weird. Masks have always been known to reduce transmission from a sick person. Keyword being reduce. But the anti mask people, especially on Twitter or Fac

It’s weird. Masks have always been known to reduce transmission from a sick person. Keyword being reduce. But the anti mask people, especially on Twitter or Facebook are like “see this study! Masks don’t work” and it’s like yes it wasn’t about preventing you from getting sick, it’s reducing a sick person from spreading. People can be sick and not realise it and spread it so it’s easier to get everyone to wear masks. Masks and Vaccines are 2 massively misunderstood things during the pandemic. When I was at school (New Zealand) we learned that vaccines help give the immune system the information to fight a virus. But people in America and Europe have this idea that vaccine is like a shield that prevents you from getting sick entirely and then claims vaccines don’t work…

thedrbrian 4y ago
When you hear the terms 100% effective and the president says if you get vaccinated you won’t get covid , you can see where the confusion comes from. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-07-21/ap-fact-check-biden-inflates-jobs-impact-from-his-policies https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-07-21/ap-... And then you get Whitty and his infamous 4000 deaths per day graph. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8908503/Was-lockdown-sold-LIE-Oxford-scientist-says-4-000-deaths-graph-NOT-used.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8908503/Was-lockdow...
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  :-| didn’t know Biden said all that. I’ve kinda stepped back from reading American politics for the last couple of years cos it’s so depressing.
autoexec 4y ago
> It’s weird. Masks have always been known to reduce transmission from a sick person. Keyword being reduce. But the anti mask people, especially on Twitter or Facebook are like “see this study! Masks don’t work” I never understood the "masks are useless" claims. I've seen it in lots of forms, sometimes covering all types of masks or sometimes just cloth ones. We've spent so long teaching people to cover their mouths when they cough specifically because it's been proven to help! We teach little kids to "Vampire Cough/Sneeze" for that very reason. Literally anything you put in front of your virus spewing face hole is going to do some good, but since N95 masks aren't 100% effective every single time it's not worth doing anything to protect the people around you? It really just seems like people looking for any excuse or justification to not be inconvenienced in any way for the benefit of the people around them. Like a very aggressive kind of selfishness I can't wrap my head around. Like people will hurt themselves to avoid doing anything that might help somebody else.
origin_path 4y ago
"It’s weird. Masks have always been known to reduce transmission from a sick person." No they have not. That's why you think it's weird - if you look at the state of mask science pre 2020, you will find a whole lot of nothing. There's no evidence masks have ever been able to stop respiratory disease. After 2020 the space was flooded with nonsensical studies claiming efficacy but they all have rather large and obvious problems e.g. CIs that include zero or even worse problems, but the reason scientists pretty universally pooh-poohd at masks at the start had nothing to do with shortages. That was a lie retconned into their claims later and wow, was it ever successful at confusing people. No, they said that because there was no actual scientific evidence to point to. There still isn't. "it’s like yes it wasn’t about preventing you from getting sick, it’s reducing a sick person from spreading" The idea of a magical one way mask is also completely unsupported by any scientific evidence and in fact by now strongly refuted by it, because there is lots of evidence masks have no effect on COVID. It was invented out of nothing to justify forcing everyone to wear masks even if the risk to them was minimal to none. "But people in America and Europe have this idea that vaccine is like a shield that prevents you from getting sick entirely and then claims vaccines don’t work" Yes I wonder why they think that, after all, they were only told the vaccine was a shield against getting sick and spreading it by the guy who runs Pfizer, the president of the USA, public health officials in every country, etc. People are so totally unreasonable, aren't they? But I see from a sibling comment you weren't aware of that, so why are you so confident about all the other things you think you know?
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  Yeah I remember sars and the outcome of that. Why do you think asia is much more prepared than the west? There’s a reason why China was buying up all the masks and such and shipping it all back in the early days. But seems like I’ve struck a nerve from someone who probably is anti mask anti vax.
  - origin_path 4y ago
    China wasn't "buying up" all the masks because most masks are made in China to begin with. I don't know why they think masks are so great. It isn't to do with science because otherwise people could point to the compelling and clear research evidence that masks work, and there wouldn't be so many counter-examples where masks had no effect.
faeriechangling 4y ago
Circa 2020, the evidence masks worked for medical professionals was pretty unambiguous, but the issue with masks is think about taking them on and off. You practcially touch your hand to your face every time. Because of this, it has always been less clear that John Q Public pulling their mask aside to talk on the phone or sips a cup of coffee with their reusable mask is doing themselves or anybody else any favours. I think though that it’s extremely obvious that it’s very likely the general public could take certain actions to make the efficacy of their mask use similar to that of medical professionals, but the interpretation of the data early on was simply “the general public shouldn’t use masks”. This was obviously nonsense, and I interpreted the data as meaning I should carefully use masks.

thedrbrian 4y ago

When you hear the terms 100% effective and the president says if you get vaccinated you won’t get covid , you can see where the confusion comes from. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-07-21/ap-fact-check-biden-inflates-jobs-impact-from-his-policies https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-07-21/ap-... And then you get Whitty and his infamous 4000 deaths per day graph. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8908503/Was-lockdown-sold-LIE-Oxford-scientist-says-4-000-deaths-graph-NOT-used.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8908503/Was-lockdow...

philliphaydon 4y ago
:-| didn’t know Biden said all that. I’ve kinda stepped back from reading American politics for the last couple of years cos it’s so depressing.

autoexec 4y ago

> It’s weird. Masks have always been known to reduce transmission from a sick person. Keyword being reduce. But the anti mask people, especially on Twitter or Facebook are like “see this study! Masks don’t work” I never understood the "masks are useless" claims. I've seen it in lots of forms, sometimes covering all types of masks or sometimes just cloth ones. We've spent so long teaching people to cover their mouths when they cough specifically because it's been proven to help! We teach little kids to "Vampire Cough/Sneeze" for that very reason. Literally anything you put in front of your virus spewing face hole is going to do some good, but since N95 masks aren't 100% effective every single time it's not worth doing anything to protect the people around you? It really just seems like people looking for any excuse or justification to not be inconvenienced in any way for the benefit of the people around them. Like a very aggressive kind of selfishness I can't wrap my head around. Like people will hurt themselves to avoid doing anything that might help somebody else.

origin_path 4y ago

"It’s weird. Masks have always been known to reduce transmission from a sick person." No they have not. That's why you think it's weird - if you look at the state of mask science pre 2020, you will find a whole lot of nothing. There's no evidence masks have ever been able to stop respiratory disease. After 2020 the space was flooded with nonsensical studies claiming efficacy but they all have rather large and obvious problems e.g. CIs that include zero or even worse problems, but the reason scientists pretty universally pooh-poohd at masks at the start had nothing to do with shortages. That was a lie retconned into their claims later and wow, was it ever successful at confusing people. No, they said that because there was no actual scientific evidence to point to. There still isn't. "it’s like yes it wasn’t about preventing you from getting sick, it’s reducing a sick person from spreading" The idea of a magical one way mask is also completely unsupported by any scientific evidence and in fact by now strongly refuted by it, because there is lots of evidence masks have no effect on COVID. It was invented out of nothing to justify forcing everyone to wear masks even if the risk to them was minimal to none. "But people in America and Europe have this idea that vaccine is like a shield that prevents you from getting sick entirely and then claims vaccines don’t work" Yes I wonder why they think that, after all, they were only told the vaccine was a shield against getting sick and spreading it by the guy who runs Pfizer, the president of the USA, public health officials in every country, etc. People are so totally unreasonable, aren't they? But I see from a sibling comment you weren't aware of that, so why are you so confident about all the other things you think you know?

philliphaydon 4y ago
Yeah I remember sars and the outcome of that. Why do you think asia is much more prepared than the west? There’s a reason why China was buying up all the masks and such and shipping it all back in the early days. But seems like I’ve struck a nerve from someone who probably is anti mask anti vax.
- origin_path 4y ago
  China wasn't "buying up" all the masks because most masks are made in China to begin with. I don't know why they think masks are so great. It isn't to do with science because otherwise people could point to the compelling and clear research evidence that masks work, and there wouldn't be so many counter-examples where masks had no effect.

faeriechangling 4y ago

Circa 2020, the evidence masks worked for medical professionals was pretty unambiguous, but the issue with masks is think about taking them on and off. You practcially touch your hand to your face every time. Because of this, it has always been less clear that John Q Public pulling their mask aside to talk on the phone or sips a cup of coffee with their reusable mask is doing themselves or anybody else any favours. I think though that it’s extremely obvious that it’s very likely the general public could take certain actions to make the efficacy of their mask use similar to that of medical professionals, but the interpretation of the data early on was simply “the general public shouldn’t use masks”. This was obviously nonsense, and I interpreted the data as meaning I should carefully use masks.