How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

Post by DanBC » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 4:00 PM UTC

tekkk wrote: post #186

hristov wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with use of masks in the US is that we do not have enough masks and we need them all for health care workers. If there aren't enough masks for health care workers, doctors and nurses will stop coming to work people won't be able to get medical attention the death rate will sky rocket because of lack of simple medical procedures, there will be panic in the streets, etc. For this reason our media seems to b…

You are confusing "masks" as "surgical masks" aka. N95. He is meaning just the regular masks with no filtering whatsoever, that are very easy to manufacture. Hell you can even make them yourself. The N95 however, are quite difficult to build and require specialized machines to manufacture the filtering part, somebody linked a good article to it a couple days ago. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/16/8…

Post by cyphar » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 4:01 PM UTC

KarlKemp wrote: post #100

cyphar wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a coordinated (dare I say "propaganda") campaign by US and other government officials in order to try to avoid mask shortages[1]. A noble goal, sure -- but the net result is that people are now misinformed about the efficacy of masks. The evidence very much shows that wearing masks can reduce community transmission rates of SARS-like viruses -- up to 70% even with just plain surgical masks[2]. And even if yo…

Scott Alexander has a good post on this, and he convinced me of a “good faith” explanation for the recommendations against (or, more accurately, “not in favor of”) face masks: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/23/face-masks-much-more-t...

Post by bagacrap » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

koonsolo wrote: post #209

mcsb4 wrote: post #21

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus. In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just again…

Sure, but it needs to be a 'proper' mask. Yesterday I was in a shop and saw 2 different people with a scarf over their mouth. You would think this is no problem, but they both had to keep this scarf up with their hands... . Seems like the most effective way to spread and receive germs. Govermnent needs to be clear what the protocol is.

Post by bagacrap » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #6

So have Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia (440 million people). They've all had fewer cases than Luxembourg so far. I've yet to see a good explanation for it, other than maybe the premise about seasonal temps and humidity (northern vs southern hemisphere). There's no evidence they're massively lying about their numbers (which would show up in the form of a demolished hospital system and thousands dead of pneumo…

Post by sct202 » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 4:14 PM UTC

iso1631 wrote: post #155

learnstats2 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistics is not the only purpose of testing! If physical distancing is successful in reducing the reproduction number (R0), you will then want to track, trace and isolate every case to prevent further outbreaks when you relax the rules. That means a lot of testing.

OP said "better understanding of the virus' properties, like the distribution of symptoms, severities, and mortality rate" Random and self-selecting testing doesn't seem to offer much in that. Imagine going to a Nics game and asking everyone there who they support, chances are you'll get a lot of Nics fans. How does that give you a better indication of mortality rate or severity if you have no idea how many people ac…