3 ms·
Here’s my suspicion, based on observation but no statistical evidence: 1. Most masks for children fit extremely poorly. I doubt they do much filtration of inco
by amluto 3y ago
Here’s my suspicion, based on observation but no statistical evidence:
1. Most masks for children fit extremely poorly. I doubt they do much filtration of incoming air. Maybe they’re useful for source control, especially for pathogens that spread through large droplets (i.e. maybe not Covid).
2. They do have one major obvious effect: when worn even remotely correctly, they keep kid fingers and hands away from kid mouths and noses.
So I expect them to be quite useful at protecting kids from pathogens that are contracted by collecting the pathogens on one’s hands and sticking them in one’s mouth or rubbing one’s nose. And they may also have a strong source control effect for pathogens that come from kid mouths or noses, get on kid hands, and spread onto surfaces.
These are not descriptions of Covid! But there are a lot of diseases that kids get frequently that aren’t Covid. I bet they substantially reduce transmission by the fecal-oral route, for example. And they may help quite a bit against the kinds of viruses that kids actually get from outdoor playground, especially if the kids wash or sanitize their hands after playing.
- helge9210 3y agoAssuming you are right, how is it beneficial to the child?
- amluto 3y agoGetting sick less often? Maybe avoiding norovirus or some cold viruses? Maybe avoiding the flu (on quick search, influenza’s transmission mechanism is not entirely clear, but the flu can be very nasty in small children)? One might reasonably debate whether it’s beneficial to a small child, and how much, to get sick less often. And one might reasonably debate the tradeoff between that benefit and the down sides of wearing a mask (e.g. more difficult communication). And one might extremely reasonably debate whether any of this would or could justify requiring other people’s children to wear masks.