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Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

reuters.com

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Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#61

Post by juusto »

J-dawg wrote: post #54
hedgehog wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of evidence mask campaigns slow transmission. It's not fun but I see it as a minuscule sacrifice for me to wear a mask to the grocery store if it saves even one person a trip to the hospital. The sad reality is the grocery store _is_ a contaminated danger zone, and will be until we get this thing under control. The sliver of good news is that lowering the growth rate just slightly from above 1.0 to bel…

> There's plenty of evidence mask campaigns slow transmission By how much do they slow transmission? > It's not fun but I see it as a minuscule sacrifice for me to wear a mask to the grocery store if it saves even one person a trip to the hospital People go to hospital with flu every year. You or I might have unknowingly spread it around and caused someone to go to hospital before. Will you wear a mask every flu seas…

>Will you wear a mask every flu season, forever? It's worth it if it saves even one person a trip to the hospital, right?

Would it be so bad to wear a mask when flu season is around? Plenty of folks do in Asian countries to no inconvenience to their daily lives.

I do hope that going forward we will be more educated on the benefits of wearing a mask here in the west and we take the lesson to heart. I doubt it though.

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#62

Post by raziel2p »

pintxo wrote: post #60
raziel2p wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In comparison with conspiracy theories, populism, outrage culture, and people getting their news from facebook, I'm pretty sure this is a drop in the ocean when it comes to distrust of scientists. Also, let's assume the facts are that masks are 5-10% effective in protecting the wearer. The phrases "masks can protect you" or "masks have little effect in protecting you" are both true from a scientific point of view, ag…

You mean the first phrasing, not the latter, do you?

Yeah - thanks!

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#63

Post by raziel2p »

jacknews wrote: post #58
raziel2p wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find a source right now but I remember reading that people were more likely to wear a mask if they think it protects themselves rather than those around you, so there's some humanitarian value in pushing that narrative even if it's not technically true.

A more honest narrative is to shame people not wearing masks as selfish irresponsible dunces.

I agree that would be honest, but I also think it's less effective.

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#64

Post by pjc50 »

J-dawg wrote: post #33

I guess I could say I'm "mask skeptical" even though I do wear one to conform to social pressure. I wish the conversation would move on from "do masks work?" to "do they work well enough to be worth the cost?" Because I think the costs are being significantly underestimated. We are social creatures. All of the joy has been taken out of routine daily activities. Putting on a mask at the supermarket entrance as if you'…

> most of the infections are happening in mask-free places such as between family members in the home

Yes, and certain workplaces. But that's the distribution you'd expect if masks had a positive effect.

(I would really like good league tables on where all the transmission is happening, including workplaces, schools, and universities, but that seems to be beyond the capacity of the UK state).

The cost of not wearing masks is transmitting the disease, which, even if you and the person you transmit it to, do not experience symptoms, prolongs the pain. If we had 100% effective transmission prevention this would all be over by now. In some countries it is. The sooner people improve their anti-transmission behaviour the sooner they can stop doing it and we can all go back to the pub.

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#65

Post by pjc50 »

J-dawg wrote: post #53
happytoexplain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the people who are obviously just complaining about masks for ideological/"Karen" reasons, I have to say I've been totally caught off guard during this pandemic by the existence of people like you (not in a critical way). I can relate to it feeling a little awkward at first wearing a mask in public in a culture that doesn't usually do that, but, despite being a social person and sympathizing with the social…

This might make you even more surprised about my existence, but I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the "ideological" types. Let me put it another way: why weren't you wearing a mask during flu season every year? Or, given that Covid will probably exist in some form for many years to come (even with a vaccine), when will you stop wearing one? Because you could make a case for mandatory mask wearing at all times, foreve…

This isn't and can't be a completely individual decision, though, any more than driving on the left is. It has to be coordinated, formally or informally.

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#66

Post by [deleted] »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #6

I thought that it was accepted that the main benefit was in protecting other people. I wear a mask and a transparent face shield together. I believe that this combination offers me some protection and a lot of protection for people near me, so it seems like an obvious thing to do. BTW, I find cloth masks not so comfortable, but the plastic face shield is no real additional discomfort at all.

[deleted]

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#68

Post by MagnumOpus »

pjc50 wrote: post #64
J-dawg wrote: post #33

I guess I could say I'm "mask skeptical" even though I do wear one to conform to social pressure. I wish the conversation would move on from "do masks work?" to "do they work well enough to be worth the cost?" Because I think the costs are being significantly underestimated. We are social creatures. All of the joy has been taken out of routine daily activities. Putting on a mask at the supermarket entrance as if you'…

> most of the infections are happening in mask-free places such as between family members in the home Yes, and certain workplaces. But that's the distribution you'd expect if masks had a positive effect. (I would really like good league tables on where all the transmission is happening, including workplaces, schools, and universities, but that seems to be beyond the capacity of the UK state). The cost of not wearing…

> I would really like good league tables on where all the transmission is happening, including workplaces, schools, and universities, but that seems to be beyond the capacity of the UK state

PHE has that league table, as widely reported in the press. E.g.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-supermarkets-most-common...

Upshot: a huge amount of infections happen in schools where kids and teachers don't wear masks.

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#69

Post by hedgehog »

J-dawg wrote: post #54
hedgehog wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of evidence mask campaigns slow transmission. It's not fun but I see it as a minuscule sacrifice for me to wear a mask to the grocery store if it saves even one person a trip to the hospital. The sad reality is the grocery store _is_ a contaminated danger zone, and will be until we get this thing under control. The sliver of good news is that lowering the growth rate just slightly from above 1.0 to bel…

> There's plenty of evidence mask campaigns slow transmission By how much do they slow transmission? > It's not fun but I see it as a minuscule sacrifice for me to wear a mask to the grocery store if it saves even one person a trip to the hospital People go to hospital with flu every year. You or I might have unknowingly spread it around and caused someone to go to hospital before. Will you wear a mask every flu seas…

Mask for crowded places and public transit to reduce flu? Sure. But that's not a remotely comparable situation for a few reasons: 1) seasonal flu has available vaccines, 2) seasonal flu kills orders of magnitude fewer people, 3) seasonal flu is much less contagious, 4) seasonal flu does not appear to have nearly the level of long-lasting incapacitation.

Re: Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer

#70

Post by rntksi »

J-dawg wrote: post #53
happytoexplain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the people who are obviously just complaining about masks for ideological/"Karen" reasons, I have to say I've been totally caught off guard during this pandemic by the existence of people like you (not in a critical way). I can relate to it feeling a little awkward at first wearing a mask in public in a culture that doesn't usually do that, but, despite being a social person and sympathizing with the social…

This might make you even more surprised about my existence, but I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the "ideological" types. Let me put it another way: why weren't you wearing a mask during flu season every year? Or, given that Covid will probably exist in some form for many years to come (even with a vaccine), when will you stop wearing one? Because you could make a case for mandatory mask wearing at all times, foreve…

As an aside, I don't understand this (living in Asian country). We've moved past that stage of thinking whether we should or not. If I feel like sneezing or have a fever some day, I'll have a mask on. It's customary here especially when riding public transport. That way I don't sneeze on others.
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