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Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

directorsblog.nih.gov

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Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#51

Post by nradov »

ezekg wrote: post #43
mindslight wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are striking differences in infection rates between countries. If you think masks are not effective, then go find out what is effective and argue for the merits of that instead of just lazily spreading FUD about currently accepted best practices. (At some point we need to start viewing these types of comments as likely coming from Anti-American disinformation farms.)

Sweden. No lockdowns, no mask edicts, real herd-immunity.

There is no real evidence of a significant herd immunity effect in Sweden yet. Swedish government policy has consistently focused on sustainable pandemic control measures based on the assumption that the virus will be with us for a long time to come. Their low death rate over the past 3 months is probably mostly a result of effective measures to protect the elderly. And the harvesting effect: many of the frailest people already died during the first wave.

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#52

Post by ezekg »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #35
ezekg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other ways. I encourage you to research The Great Barrington Declaration.

Why someone would trust a libertarian think tank when it comes to epidemiology is beyond me. You'd like to know: what do the Koch brothers do? We know that they say, but do they take their own medicine?

Do you dismiss everything that disagrees with your political ideology?

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#53

Post by ezekg »

mindslight wrote: post #48
ezekg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden. No lockdowns, no mask edicts, real herd-immunity.

A quick search says that Sweden still has a growing number of new covid cases. So no, it does not look like they have achieved herd immunity.

Herd immunity will likely never equal zero cases... the point is to prioritize herd immunity in the low-risk populace for the sake of the high-risk.

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#54

Post by theplague42 »

mathgorges wrote: post #41
bot41 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a good point which is worth discussing. From an opposite point of view Czech Republic mandated masks early on which seemed to work. Now they are in a bad state which is being blamed on relaxing the restrictions they had in place.

This is interesting. Hypothesis: Wearing a mask is a physical reminder that we're in a pandemic, which helps folks remember to do other things which reduce their risk (avoid touching things unnecessarily, wash hands more often, staying at home unless necessary, etc)

There was a Japanese study about this awhile back and that was the general conclusion; that the signaling is important regardless of any "real" effect. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3536629/

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#55

Post by theplague42 »

wbronitsky wrote: post #38
norwegianwhale wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, don't make personal attacks in HN. This is explicitly stated in the code of conduct, and it's generally expected in the software community.

This is rich. This throwaway account is going around posting short dismissals that don't add to the discussion, which is against site guidelines because it causes problems with reasonable discussions, and then uses these guidelines to try and protect themselves after injecting flamebait, which also happens against the site guidelines for the exact same reasons. It would be impossible for the poster to not be aware of…

Yeah the rich irony of HackerNews...

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#56

Post by quicklime »

nradov wrote: post #27
dheera wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I leave the bay area to go somewhere hiking, the towns I pass through are full of both (a) Trump flags and (b) people not wearing masks. Two weeks ago, employees at local bakeries near Mt. Shasta weren't wearing masks in the kitchen. Even the employees at Taco Bell Drive Thru near Mt. Shasta weren't wearing masks (they had their masks off their nose). Complained via Taco Bell website and got no response. T…

For most people, regular consumption of Taco Bell is probably a worse health risk than COVID-19. Obesity and hypertension are known killers on their own, and also increase the risk of a bad COVID-19 outcome.

But their consumption of Taco Bell is their own individual problem - their obesity and hypertension can't harm me or others. COVID-19 is different.

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#57

Post by theplague42 »

ezekg wrote: post #52
HarryHirsch wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why someone would trust a libertarian think tank when it comes to epidemiology is beyond me. You'd like to know: what do the Koch brothers do? We know that they say, but do they take their own medicine?

Do you dismiss everything that disagrees with your political ideology?

Surely you understand the meaning of "follow the money."

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#58

Post by nradov »

herp23 wrote: post #45
nradov wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely if I wear the sacred garment and perform the correct cleansing rituals the coronavirus will reward my piety by sparing my life.

This is a nonsensical comparison to wearing a mask and washing your hands during a global pandemic.

Perhaps my point was too subtle but this appears to be the emergence of a new form of secular "ritual purification" among a subset of the population, and it's only loosely tied to real science. Mask wearing can certainly be helpful for reducing the risk of contagion in some limited close contact situations but it's also become a form of virtue signaling. I see people wearing masks while driving alone or walking outside with no one else nearby, which is just silly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_purification

It gives one some insight into how certain religious rituals might have started. They give people the illusion of control.

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#59

Post by [deleted] »

ezekg wrote: post #46
theplague42 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess anything that is fined or outlaws is eventually "enforced by violence" but it's still a silly argument. If a store asks you to leave, and you don't, and the store calls the police to arrest you, you aren't being arrested for not wearing a mask. You're being arrested for not leaving when asked.

Do you really think the businesses are enforcing masks for the sake of public health? I encourage you to ask them -- 9 times out of 10 they will say they are fearful of the government fining them and shutting down their business. Trust me, I ask them every time they ask me to leave and it's always the same answer. If they resist the government, it will eventually result in violence.

[deleted]

Re: Masks could save 130k American lives from COVID19 by March

#60

Post by robjan »

ransom1538 wrote: post #30

If you are going to wear a mask get a p100 [0]. Removes 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter or larger. The lame part is covid is: 0.06 microns to .14 microns [1]. In theory though covid will be attached to a larger particle. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/disp_part... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/11/fac...

The masks are to protect people from you, not the other way around. Many N9x masks have valves which partially defeat the purpose of mask wearing.
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