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Whats really funny and sad about it, many of the popular style masks people are wearing, do not even protect against Covid19!! Says it right on the box.
While I'm not one to take my mask off at places where it's required, I'm limiting my economic activity to absolutely necessary for daily living - i.e., nothing fun or recreational. I won't fly, I won't eat out, I won't see movies, or shop for pleasure. Not until those masks are G-O-N-E.
All of these "new normal" experiences are not the same, this is what I'm hearing from everyone.
I ate out recently, and must agree.
It is very difficult to socialize on a normal level without the benefit of facial expression.
Wearing masks for a prolonged period of time is not harmless, as the following evidence shows:
The WHO warns of various “side effects” such as difficulty breathing and skin rashes.
Tests conducted by the University Hospital of Leipzig in Germany have shown that face masks significantly reduce the resilience and performance of healthy persons.
A German psychological study with about 1000 participants found “severe psychosocial consequences” due to the introduction of mandatory face masks in Germany.
The Hamburg Environmental Institute warned against the inhalation of chlorine compounds in polyester masks as well as problems in connection with disposal.
The European rapid alert system RAPEX has already recalled 70 mask models because they did not meet EU quality standards and could lead to “serious risks”.
In China, two boys who had to wear a mask during sports classes fainted and died.
In the US, a car driver wearing an N95 (FFP2) mask fainted and died in an accident.
Conclusion
Cloth face masks in the general population might be effective, at least in some circumstances, but there is currently little to no evidence supporting this proposition. If the SARS-2 virus is indeed transmitted via aerosols, at least indoors, cloth masks are unlikely to be protective.
That's why I think this whole mask thing is a farce. Sure, they're great for close interactions, such at salons and medical personnel, but for places like outdoor restaurants, it's just silly. ....
Though not an outright farce, there's ample hyperbole.
Certainly there's merit in having some sort of security-checks before boarding a commercial airplane flight. But just as certainly, some portion (a large portion?) of the modern airport security ritual, is more theatrics than necessity.
Masks can matter - maybe a lot. But to wear masks for an entire day, to wear masks whenever leaving one's house, to wear masks as a ritualistic imperative of modern life.... at what point does prudent attending to health end, and health-theater begin?
Wearing masks for a prolonged period of time is not harmless, as the following evidence shows:
The WHO warns of various “side effects” such as difficulty breathing and skin rashes.
Tests conducted by the University Hospital of Leipzig in Germany have shown that face masks significantly reduce the resilience and performance of healthy persons.
A German psychological study with about 1000 participants found “severe psychosocial consequences” due to the introduction of mandatory face masks in Germany.
The Hamburg Environmental Institute warned against the inhalation of chlorine compounds in polyester masks as well as problems in connection with disposal.
The European rapid alert system RAPEX has already recalled 70 mask models because they did not meet EU quality standards and could lead to “serious risks”.
In China, two boys who had to wear a mask during sports classes fainted and died.
In the US, a car driver wearing an N95 (FFP2) mask fainted and died in an accident.
Conclusion
Cloth face masks in the general population might be effective, at least in some circumstances, but there is currently little to no evidence supporting this proposition. If the SARS-2 virus is indeed transmitted via aerosols, at least indoors, cloth masks are unlikely to be protective.
As someone who was HAZWOPER certified, trained staff in Hazmat, and wore masks for hours on end in high endurance activities, masks are not harmful, short or long term. Worst case, you get some skin irritation. I heard these same kind of arguments from workers who felt masks were uncomfortable and wanted an excuse not to wear them. If they were, the attrition rate of medical professionals, chemical workers, and sewage workers would have put us in dire straits long ago.
As to the original poster's question: Were you wearing a mask by mandate in 2018? They were mandated 100 years prior to that to prevent the spread of another pathogen.
As someone who was HAZWOPER certified, trained staff in Hazmat, and wore masks for hours on end in high endurance activities, masks are not harmful, short or long term. Worst case, you get some skin irritation. I heard these same kind of arguments from workers who felt masks were uncomfortable and wanted an excuse not to wear them. If they were, the attrition rate of medical professionals, chemical workers, and sewage workers would have put us in dire straits long ago.
As to the original poster's question: Were you wearing a mask by mandate in 2018? They were mandated 100 years prior to that to prevent the spread of another pathogen.
Your link was slightly incorrect. This is the right link. I like this guy a lot.
As to the original poster's question: Were you wearing a mask by mandate in 2018? They were mandated 100 years prior to that to prevent the spread of another pathogen.
In 1918, we had only one fast-spreading pathogen, the Spanish flu. In 2020, we have two: COVID-19, and social media. Thanks to the latter, any anecdote, rumor, or unlikely one-off - no matter how hasty - is canonized like a Catholic saint. You consequently have a large portion of the population convinced that everyone who gets this will lose their toes, get blood clots and strokes, have permanent heart and lung and brain damage, and all their children and grandchildren will be born with Kawasaki's. None of this squares with what we've known since April from serology surveys - that significant chunks of the populace have already had this (one out of every four people in NYC!) - which is a pretty strong litmus test that our ability to incorporate facts that should be reassuring has been compromised.
Couple this with the 24/7 news cycle keeping people glued to the screen with the latest death toll, or the latest hospitalization toll once that gets better, or the latest caseload total once that gets better, and you have a vicious cycle of fear without any off-ramp. A vaccine won't change that because no vaccine that's coming out in the next couple years is going to be 100% effective. In most people's minds, vaccine = virus goes away forever. I expect a brief jubilee when the first vaccine becomes available, but some time after that, the media will be back with sirens blaring about 37 new cases in Delaware and the country will be back to terrified mode. The realization that even with a vaccine we can't make this thing go extinct will startle a lot of people.
(At that point, expect the media's daily COVID death/hospitalization/caseload updates to be replaced with daily updates of how many Americans haven't taken the vaccine yet. Our sociological need for a villain will be filled with media case studies of anti-vaxxers, who are dumb, but who will be factually irrelevant because they'll be just a sliver of the country and since the vaccine isn't going to be 100% effective, even if every single one of them took it at once it still wouldn't make the virus go away. Regardless, expect the media to hold them up as the only obstacle standing between us and the end of the virus. We'll simply be unable to live our lives without having a scapegoat to hate, especially if Trump loses in November.)
What does all this mean for masking mandates? Well, maybe they won't be around forever... but the epistemological context of 2020 is different from the epistemological context of 1918, in a much worse way. We're all under the thumb of social media and the 24/7 news cycle. Consequently, our risk tolerance is lower, our irrationality is higher, and our propensity to accept rumors as fact is through the roof. So, the "off-ramps" of 2020 are different from the "off-ramps" of 1918. Maybe we really do get to a state where we can accept living with the risk of the virus (which is low for most people and is going to be made lower).
But my gut feeling is that if you're planning to live in any city or in any place with substantial population density in the next 5 years, learn to love the mask - not just when you're going indoors to shop, but every moment you step outside.
It should be obvious by now that few in American culture feel any need to "protect others". We are an increasingly selfish society where individual freedoms are all that count.
Even back in the '60's the saying was "Your rights end where mine begin" - so there was a recognition of freedoms within reason and the need to consider others. That has gone out the window - more extremism and polarization. We simply can't count on people to do what is "right".
It should be obvious by now that few in American culture feel any need to "protect others". We are an increasingly selfish society where individual freedoms are all that count.
I don't regard this as being reprehensible or even regrettable. Humans are selfish. We attend to the needs of others, mostly when those others can be reasonably counted, to attend to our own needs, in turn. To voluntarily curtail our freedoms, for the abstract and incalculable benefits of others, is unnatural.
Too often, we are exhorted to be selfless, responsible, dutiful. Too often, these exhortations are facile, empty, or outright duplicitous. Leaders tell us to ask what we can do for our country. That sounds lofty and ennobling, and perhaps it is. But how does said country reciprocate? Ought we to make sacrifices selflessly, for abstractions?
Today, we are asked to make sacrifices in the present, with tangible and demonstrable things. We are asked to do so, for amorphous and ambiguous ends. What exactly is the cumulative damage from the virus? Well, that's unknowable, right? So we are told: do knowable and definite things now, for unknowable and indefinite things in the future. Doesn't that sounds like an irresponsible gamble?
Selflessness and altruism are commendable virtues. But in the real world, with real people, there has to be a definitive personal benefit. There can - and should! - be delay of gratification, and a husbanding of resources and potential. But without a definitive end, we're being asked to gamble: surrender a definite thing now, and do so cheerfully and willingly. Receive - maybe - something in the future... or perhaps nothing at all.
First one – A review of other people's reports. Related to influenza (not COVID) – Pre-symptomatic transmission of flu is already so very low as to make it tough to demonstrate an advantage for face coverings.
Second one - Also flu. Not relevant.
Third one - States this clearly: "We do not asses face cover wearing as an independent control measure because of heterogeneity in how the wearing of face coverings in the community was encouraged or mandated and in what contexts.”
Fourth one: "Commentary" - from April 1 - states: "Wearing a cloth mask or face covering could be better than doing nothing, but we simply don’t know at this point."
Fifth one: Already clarified by the author - he says WEAR YOUR MASK.
Sixth one: About self-protection, but: "conceded that such masks do prevent the wearer from spreading droplets by coughing."
Seventh one: Entirely about self-protection of health care workers.
None of these links show that the masks don’t help. I wear my mask to reduce the real estate covered by my OWN virusy drops whenever I cough, laugh, breath, hiccup or gaffaw - and nothing more. This theory is backed up by, well, gravity and physics - so you'll have to show how those things don't work first. Try blowing a candle out with your cloth mask on. It's not a miracle, people. It's just one tool to prevent my bad breath from reaching as far as it might have.
PLEASE keep reading though:
Most people are not sick right now - maybe 1 in 300. At least half of them have symptoms - and so are sitting home, mainly. That leaves 1 in 600 that might be a silent spreader. It's estimated 20% of those are really spreaders, so more like 1 in 3000 seriously matter. That single ONE - that person will infect dozens of others - and that is the main reason we still have a COVID problem.
In one sense you are all correct. It mostly does nothing. Because mostly - no one is sick, and of those that are, few spread it. But since we cannot know which one of the 3000 people this applies to - the only prudent action is to tell everyone to wear one. This is why - even if most people wear one - you may not see a benefit locally, because the one guy that needs to - didn't. And - it explains why - if a few folks don't wear it from time to time - probably doesn't matter - because even if you're the One Guy - it was only for a few days.
Odds are long that you, personally, are the one person the mask is saving me from, but - If you must choose to not participate - fine - but no one needs to hear you whine. If I want to talk you into wearing it - then that's my work, and serves a purpose, for me. But for you to talk me out of wearing it - serves no purpose whatsoever. What's in it for you? Nothing.
STOP THE SPREAD - or BE THE SPREAD. Your choice.
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