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Those who are more vulnerable are watching as the world left us hanging dry. There was no reason to end mask mandates. None. Except a few loudmouths the entire
by _ugfj 3y ago
Those who are more vulnerable are watching as the world left us hanging dry.
There was no reason to end mask mandates. None. Except a few loudmouths the entire world have caved to.
We have seen how cheap DIY filter boxes are. There is no reason not to have one in every classroom and workplace. And yet.
I am desperate enough to experiment with a Cleanspace Halo, the smallest positive air pressure respirator there is to be able to go among people. If no one else is willing to provide clean air, I need to filter my own. It's bloody ridiculous but what can I do?
- ceejayoz 3y agoWhatever one thinks of general mask mandates, I think I'll always be baffled that we're ditching it in healthcare settings, especially places like ERs. I don't expect to ever go into an ER or pediatrician's office without one.
- hezralig 3y agoIt makes more sense if you view it as an extremely politically motivated decision to signal that we should stop thinking about COVID entirely.
- standardUser 3y agoYour theory sounds conspiratorial and lacking in evidence.
- hezralig 3y agoIronic considering your comment.
- mardifoufs 3y agoWhat was conspirational in his comment?
- hezralig 3y agoThe conspiracy of a conspiracy. ;)
- bugglebeetle 3y agoRead any newspaper for the past year and a half that has been ceaselessly pumping out “COVID is over” think pieces while life expectancy is declining, excess deaths remain high (whereas before the pandemic they were largely static for years and years), and disability claims rise. It takes effort to ignore how much the consent is being manufactured.
- Animats 3y agoYes. It's called "acceptable losses".[1] The idea that only deaths matter is part of this narrative. [1] https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-04-01/covid-acceptable-deaths https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-04-01/covid-accep...
- erentz 3y agoYeah we handled the mask issue so poorly. It very quickly stopped being about finding what is a reasonable policy to just a stupid culture war fight over all masks all the time vs any masks anytime are communist police state designed to make your child gay. Just dumb dumb dumb. Even in places that handled the pandemic fairly well like NZ their mask policies were kind of silly. My peeve that I will never stop being angry about is we knew from quite early on that COVID was airborne and surgical masks were not very effective. But public health authorities refused to communicate this to the public. They did not make an effort to make people aware or to issue N95/KN95 masks and update the policies to reflect more balance about which places it’s optimal to mask vs not. It was just left to individuals to work it out on their own.
- Animats 3y agoWhile N95 masks actually work, most of the cloth masks do very little. But there was a huge shortage of good masks for the first year, and WHO was terrified of fights over masks if they recommended N95. (The trick of N95 masks is that they have a charged electret layer in the middle. That will capture particles smaller than the holes in the mask. It's not like an HEPA filter, which is purely mechanical.)
- ericd 3y agoIt seems pretty clear that children learn a lot from seeing peoples’ facial expressions, so that’s one reason to end universal mask mandates. Our kids’ teachers strongly advised removing the school’s mask mandate when it came up for discussion, because of an uptick in speech issues and because some of their pedagogical methods relying on showing the kids the movements of their mouths. They’re running three beefy HEPA filters at all times in one room, this isn’t politically motivated or an attempt to ignore the problem.
- chx 3y agoSo then provide federal funding for HEPA filters and make exceptions in the mask mandate for those classrooms where those are present? Just a thought. Do something instead of playing Bush on that bloody ship under the banner Mission Accomplished by declaring the pandemic over?
- helij 3y agoCounterpoint: The only thing children learn from seeing faces is how to fake a smile. By wearing masks they can observe the whole body which is much harder to control. What I said is not based on science as far as I know.
- DeusExMachina 3y ago[flagged]
- chx 3y agoThat's an NYT opinion. The reality: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/12041/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/12041/
- DeusExMachina 3y agoThe source is cited literally in the first line of the article: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD... Unlike your study from November 2020, this one is from January 2023.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThe source says the interpretation is bullshit. https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses-review https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventio...
- chx 3y agoThere's a lot of dark money flowing into rewriting history to say that any response to COVID—which has killed >1 million Americans and disabled millions more—was an overreaction so the next pandemic won't disrupt businesses so much. That's what this op-ed is part of, nothing more, nothing less. That's why this really simple thing became so controversial. I mean, if a virus sticks to droplets then it's better to put less droplets into the air. Masks do that. Easy? Should be.
- DeusExMachina 3y agoDo you have any evidence for such claims or is it just another conspiracy theory? As for what mask do, if it was that easy, there wouldn't be the need of so many studies. But that is not even the claim here. The article says mask mandates make no difference. Even if we assume that masks work, people wear them wrongly, they reuse them instead of using clean ones, fidget with them and then touch other parts of their face. There are plenty of reasons why a mandate could not work.
- mhb 3y agoIf no one else is willing to provide clean air, I need to filter my own. It's bloody ridiculous but what can I do? Right. Isn't this the situation if you wear a mask? What does this have to do with other people?
- chx 3y agoMy mask protects you, your mask protects me. Three years in I still need to explain this??
- ericd 3y agoWear an N99?
- mwint 3y agoYou aren’t explaining it, you’re just repeating the same tired informationless phrase we were all subjected to for those ~2.75 years (after they stopped saying masks do nothing)
- chx 3y agoSigh, really, this entire thread is supremely depressing y'all just want us to die, right?
- Gud 3y agoNo, but many of us believe the worlds reaction to COVID-19 was extreme and totally unwarranted (and a bit scary too, considering how basic human freedoms went out the window in so many countries)
- chx 3y agoA million americans died and you think the reaction was extreme?? What we know worldwide is at least 18 million excess Covid deaths and at least 65 million people with Long Covid. The entire Western world has completely failed in its COVID-19 response. If you think this was extreme, you are being gaslit. Too little was done and way too late. Communication and leadership complete failed. There is a lot of money going into making you believe what you believe. Next time maybe there won't be lockdowns because of this campaign currently being wrought and then many more millions will die. Someone will win perhaps but guess who. Hint: it ain't you.
- dageshi 3y agoEven in countries that widely and overwhelmingly supported mask mandates pre-vaccine I don't think that support would extend to an indefinite mask mandate.