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It's Time to Face Facts, America: Masks Work

eman623

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I posted a month ago how I tried to buy some masks but there were none to be had. Other posters told me to not bother and one even suggested that masks made you less safe. At the time, I let it go, but kept looking and eventually found some.

Guess what. Masks work. Of course they work. It's just common sense. Say I meet you on the street and one of us has the virus and the other does not. We are both wearing masks. The chances of it spreading to the other person are GREATLY reduced. We should all have been wearing masks from the start.

Telling healthy people that they should not wear masks would be fine if you could always tell when you were healthy. But that's not how Covid-19 works. People can be asymptomatic but still contagious and spreading it for days.

I get that the leaders wanted to stop panic buying and keep the masks available for medical workers. But I don't like being lied to. People will die because of that lie.

And no, it doesn't need to be an N95 mask. A regular mask isn't perfect but it's better than nothing. A bandana wrapped around your face is better than nothing.

Start wearing masks.

It's Time to Face Facts, America: Masks Work
Official advice has been confusing, but the science isn't hard to grok. Everyone should cover up.

WHEN YOU LOOK at photos of Americans during the 1918 influenza pandemic, one feature stands out above all else: masks. Fabric, usually white gauze, covers nearly every face. Across the country, public health experts recommended universal mask wearing, and some cities ordered residents to wear them under penalty of fine or imprisonment. The Red Cross made thousands of cloth masks and distributed them for free. Newspapers published instructions for sewing masks at home. “Make any kind of a mask … and use it immediately and at all times,” the Boston commissioner of health pleaded. “Even a handkerchief held in place over the face is better than nothing.”

After the 1918 pandemic, the prophylactic use of masks among the general public largely fell out of favor in America and much of the West. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has almost never advised healthy people to wear masks in public to prevent influenza or other respiratory diseases. In the past few months, with medical supplies dangerously diminished, the CDC, US surgeon general Jerome Adams, and the World Health Organization have urged people not to buy masks, paradoxically claiming that masks are both essential for the safety of health care workers and incapable of protecting the public from Covid-19. (WIRED's editorial staff, like the CDC, suggests that healthy people not wear masks.)

Recently, some experts have disputed this contradictory advice. They propose that widespread use of masks is one of the many reasons why China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have controlled outbreaks of coronavirus much more effectively than the US and Europe. “Of course masks work,” sociologist Zeynep Tufekci wrote in a New York Times editorial. “Their use has always been advised as part of the standard response to being around infected people.” Public health expert Shan Soe-Lin and epidemiologist Robert Hecht made a similar argument in the Boston Globe: “We need to change our perception that masks are only for sick people and that it’s weird or shameful to wear one … If more people donned masks it would become a social norm as well as a public health good.” Last week, George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that America and Europe are making a "big mistake" by not telling the public to wear masks during the ongoing pandemic.

It is unequivocally true that masks must be prioritized for health care workers in any country suffering from a shortage of personal protective equipment. But the conflicting claims and guidelines regarding their use raise three questions of the utmost urgency: Do masks work? Should everyone wear them? And if there aren’t enough medical-grade masks for the general public, is it possible to make a viable substitute at home? Decades of scientific research, lessons from past pandemics, and common sense suggest the answer to all of these questions is yes.

More here:
It'''s Time to Face Facts, America: Masks Work | WIRED
 
If you can't buy 'em, make 'em

 
First of all, "we always did it this way" is never a good argument, for the exact same reason that it is very stupid to try to support a position you've taken by saying "people are saying it". The number of people who do a thing and the length of time they do it for is no indication that the thing actually works. It only shows, perhaps, that doing things that was isn't likely to kill you. It doesn't show that it in fact makes you safer.

Second, even if "masks work" is an accurate position, the question isn't simply whether they work. It's who should get them when the supply is limited. Unlike TP, there aren't manufacturers and supply chains set up to supply the entire country/world. And in a situation like that, you want to make sure health care providers have the masks first and foremost. Because if they get wiped out, nobody gets care. So maybe you don't get COVID, but other people end up not getting the care they need when they need it, and die.
 
It's an opinion piece from Wired magazine. I'm not sure I would take it seriously.


All the experts I've come across say that the only useful thing about masks is that it reminds the wearer not to touch their face. If you go to scratch your nose, you hit the mask instead of your nose.

Medical people need them because they are in close contact with infected people all day long. We don't want to buy up all the masks that medical people need.

For you an me, we aren't in close contact with infected people for hours at a time.
 
Halloween masks are somewhat effective and I heard Trump said "at least they're something."
 
Halloween masks are somewhat effective and I heard Trump said "at least they're something."
It would kind of depend on what it was used for, it it kept a young kid from touching their face, better than nothing.
Packed with a paper towel, to keep someone who is already sick from spreading it around, still better than nothing.
Of no use to a health care worker, but that is not the only role for masks.
 
Halloween masks are somewhat effective and I heard Trump said "at least they're something."

[Goes to touch face unnecessarily for the eight thousandth time, touches Kylo Ren mask instead]

Not today, Covid19.
 
It would kind of depend on what it was used for, it it kept a young kid from touching their face, better than nothing.
Packed with a paper towel, to keep someone who is already sick from spreading it around, still better than nothing.
Of no use to a health care worker, but that is not the only role for masks.

It's to stop flying and floating globulets from landing on your face or ejecting from yours. And it promotes hygiene by preventing touching one's face. I recommend a Wookie mask, but everyone has their preference.
 
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It's an opinion piece from Wired magazine. I'm not sure I would take it seriously.

All the experts I've come across say that the only useful thing about masks is that it reminds the wearer not to touch their face. If you go to scratch your nose, you hit the mask instead of your nose.

Medical people need them because they are in close contact with infected people all day long. We don't want to buy up all the masks that medical people need.

For you an me, we aren't in close contact with infected people for hours at a time.

It's a well-source op-ed and points out that in the countries where the curve has flattened (China, Korea), everyone is wearing masks. Must be just coincidence I guess.
 
I looked for masks at stores, but couldn't find any. Then I remembered a 3 pack of thick, heavy duty, fine particulate masks I bought about 9 years ago. I found the pack, and fortunately I had kept all 3, despite using 2 of them when doing A LOT of spackling and sanding on every square inch of all 4 walls in a bedroom, to smooth out LOTS of dents, holes etc.

I gave away the unused one to the client who I'd done the work for back then, and I've been using the other 2 masks for 4 days now, every time I get near other people. I also had a new box of 50 pairs of nitrile gloves, which I wear along with the masks.
 
I'm using cotton bandannas, mostly to keep myself from touching my face, but also to minimize spittle going in either direction.

It's nowhere near an N95 mask, but it's better than nothing at all.
 
I have to stop myself from pointing and laughing at people who wear masks when I go outside.
 
I have to stop myself from pointing and laughing at people who wear masks when I go outside.

He who laughs last....
 
Initially, the MSM and government line was certain everyone needs a mask - like in every country in the world - until it was determined there were not available masks - and then they put on the medical experts declaring masks are worthless.

Wasn't it brilliant how day after day after day people were assured there is no reason whatsoever to stock up more than 2 weeks, because it wouldn't last longer. Wasn't that a brilliant manipulative lie?

But who dare question the 24/7 unanimous voice of the gods of the MSM, regardless if the next day they all contradict the exact opposite the the next day also with absolute certainty - so then those words are the from the gods.
 
I wore a mask to the grocery store today. Then I figured, WTH, and I robbed the place too.
 
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I posted a month ago how I tried to buy some masks but there were none to be had. Other posters told me to not bother and one even suggested that masks made you less safe. At the time, I let it go, but kept looking and eventually found some.

Guess what. Masks work. Of course they work. It's just common sense. Say I meet you on the street and one of us has the virus and the other does not. We are both wearing masks. The chances of it spreading to the other person are GREATLY reduced. We should all have been wearing masks from the start.

Telling healthy people that they should not wear masks would be fine if you could always tell when you were healthy. But that's not how Covid-19 works. People can be asymptomatic but still contagious and spreading it for days.

I get that the leaders wanted to stop panic buying and keep the masks available for medical workers. But I don't like being lied to. People will die because of that lie.

And no, it doesn't need to be an N95 mask. A regular mask isn't perfect but it's better than nothing. A bandana wrapped around your face is better than nothing.

Start wearing masks.

Masks DO NOT WORK. Viral particles are small enough to pass through cloth, and they can enter your body through your eyes. Normal surgical masks are not designed as protection from viruses and are only marginally effective if used in combination with a strict hygiene regime. The only ones which offer effective protection are the N95 full face respirator types, with chemical filtration, and you won't be getting one of those. You can still become infected or pass your infection on even with a mask.
The best method to protect yourself is still to stay home and avoid all physical contact.

When and how to use masks
 
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I have to stop myself from pointing and laughing at people who wear masks when I go outside.

Please stop stopping yourself.
 
Initially, the MSM and government line was certain everyone needs a mask - like in every country in the world - until it was determined there were not available masks - and then they put on the medical experts declaring masks are worthless.

Wasn't it brilliant how day after day after day people were assured there is no reason whatsoever to stock up more than 2 weeks, because it wouldn't last longer. Wasn't that a brilliant manipulative lie?

But who dare question the 24/7 unanimous voice of the gods of the MSM, regardless if the next day they all contradict the exact opposite the the next day also with absolute certainty - so then those words are the from the gods.

Can you please stop posting opinionated crap? The MSM whom you revile are simply repeating what they have been told by your government, which in turn is passing on what the experts are advising.
 
Chief surgeon of the United States: "I Say this very seriously - do not buy masks!"

Their production of masks is not enough, deliver from China take a long time. Freshly printed bucks will not replace the mask. So, what to do? Declare that masks are not effective!
 
Chief surgeon of the United States: "I Say this very seriously - do not buy masks!"

Their production of masks is not enough, deliver from China take a long time. Freshly printed bucks will not replace the mask. So, what to do? Declare that masks are not effective!

Masks are not effective at protecting against viral particles which are small enough to pass through cloth, around the sides of poorly fitting surgical masks and through the eyes. They MAY have an effect in preventing an already infected person passing the virus on through coughing and sneezing.
 
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