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Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

nih.gov

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Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#51

Post by netsharc »

TheBlight wrote: post #43
pbourke wrote: post #35

It seems like wearing a mask in some environments (public transit, crowded shops, etc) might be a good practice going forward. I wonder if it will be normalized? Will you stand out if you choose to wear a mask to the mall 5 years from now?

Don't take this as a personal attack, but when I see people regularly wearing masks 5 years from now I'll certainly bias against engaging with them. I'll assume they don't understand risk and prioritize fear and emotion over reason. I won't be mean to them (nor disrespectful at all) but I will keep my distance socially (yes, somewhat ironically.)

2018, someone has a bad flu, still wants to get groceries or go to the doctor.

In Japan: they'd be worried about infecting others so they would wear a mask.

In USA: Even if they cared about other and could buy a mask, they'd be worried about the weird looks, so they don't wear a mask.

Hopefully in 2026, assuming Covid is solved by then, people wearing masks in the US won't be looked weirdly, or even if people like you do, the sick people would think "Why should I give a shit what you think.".

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#52

Post by TheBlight »

ctur wrote: post #46
TheBlight wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't take this as a personal attack, but when I see people regularly wearing masks 5 years from now I'll certainly bias against engaging with them. I'll assume they don't understand risk and prioritize fear and emotion over reason. I won't be mean to them (nor disrespectful at all) but I will keep my distance socially (yes, somewhat ironically.)

Do you feel the same way about seatbelts? If people choose to be safer by wearing masks, judging them is pretty extreme. This kind of attitude is what made the early days of the pandemic a mess.

This is a silly false equivalence but I'll engage with it because it seems annoyingly popular. The evidence of efficacy of seatbelt usage in crash scenarios is abundantly clear. The same isn't true for wearing a cloth/surgical mask in public during a pandemic featuring an airborne virus. I'm aware there are hand-wavy meta-studies and extrapolated surveys on the issue (but 1 RCT from Denmark which showed no statistical significance between control and experimental groups. See https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/m20-6817) but common sense and being able to evaluate statistics of mask mandated regions vs. not indicates to me their findings are dubious at best. Even n95s are not likely useful against an airborne virus if not properly fitted and regularly replaced.

What wearing the mask does show me is that a person is extremely susceptible to propaganda and likely has conformist tendencies. This isn't necessarily true in all cases but I think it will be for the majority of them. This sort of person is dangerous to bring in to your social circle because they can easily be manipulated into being an instrument of the state. I don't want to have to police my own thoughts and opinions in front of my friends and in an increasing totalitarian "cancel culture" environment this risk becomes increasingly more substantial and existential.

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#53

Post by TheBlight »

che_shirecat wrote: post #44
TheBlight wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't take this as a personal attack, but when I see people regularly wearing masks 5 years from now I'll certainly bias against engaging with them. I'll assume they don't understand risk and prioritize fear and emotion over reason. I won't be mean to them (nor disrespectful at all) but I will keep my distance socially (yes, somewhat ironically.)

From a strictly rational perspective, wearing a mask in public transit is always the correct decision, you are statistically less likely to contract airbourne diseases with a mask on. You're free to attach emotional significance to the act of wearing a mask, but maybe it has the desired effect - I personally would rather not interact socially with anyone on public transit, so maybe we are both the better for it.

>you are statistically less likely to contract airbourne diseases with a mask on.

What are you basing this assessment on? Are all masks equal? Does training in mask application matter? For what duration are different types of masks effective?

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#54

Post by throwaway189262 »

TheBlight wrote: post #43
pbourke wrote: post #35

It seems like wearing a mask in some environments (public transit, crowded shops, etc) might be a good practice going forward. I wonder if it will be normalized? Will you stand out if you choose to wear a mask to the mall 5 years from now?

Don't take this as a personal attack, but when I see people regularly wearing masks 5 years from now I'll certainly bias against engaging with them. I'll assume they don't understand risk and prioritize fear and emotion over reason. I won't be mean to them (nor disrespectful at all) but I will keep my distance socially (yes, somewhat ironically.)

In some (mostly Asian) countries you're expected to wear a mask if you go out when you're sick. Contrast that to freedomland where it's normal to have people hacking like crazy just about everywhere.

It's required to wear a mask 100% of the time in some medical professions. This is usually so you don't get vulnerable people sick, not to protect yourself. Medicine is highly evidence based. If masks didn't work these rules wouldn't exist.

Most of those wearing masks aren't doing it out of "fear and emotion", they're doing it to protect others. We all know that cloth style masks everyone is wearing offer the wearer almost no protection. The value is primarily in the protection they provide to others by blocking aerosols when you breathe and talk.

I get the feeling you follow some news sources that erroneously claim people wear masks to calm their fear and emotions

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#55

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #47
switch007 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even that benefit isn't enough for many people to wear masks unless absolutely required (e.g. inside shops). It's been unusually cold the past few weeks in the UK and I've seen less and less mask usage on busy streets and even shop queues.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in NYC I've been finding I have to take my mask off outside or I literally can't see, because that's how much my glasses fog up. Like, I walked straight into a pole one night. After that, I decided that the increased risk of getting COVID was lower than the risk of getting hit by a car. I do know it's not this bad for everyone, and I have tried different methods to mitigate it—anti-…

I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see neither the lights nor cars.

Mask laws were instituted to get people to cover both nose and mouth, but it is interesting to see different levels of observance across Europe. In small-town Poland, for example, I see a lot of people not covering their nose, while in Romania I saw that people were very diligent about covering their whole face, and I have laughed to watch Albanian news and see that a lot of people in the street just have the mask over their chin with neither mouth nor nose covered.

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#56

Post by throwaway189262 »

TheBlight wrote: post #53
che_shirecat wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a strictly rational perspective, wearing a mask in public transit is always the correct decision, you are statistically less likely to contract airbourne diseases with a mask on. You're free to attach emotional significance to the act of wearing a mask, but maybe it has the desired effect - I personally would rather not interact socially with anyone on public transit, so maybe we are both the better for it.

>you are statistically less likely to contract airbourne diseases with a mask on. What are you basing this assessment on? Are all masks equal? Does training in mask application matter? For what duration are different types of masks effective?

Google is good for this. N95 and higher is effective. Mask application matters but they're effective without 100% seal. I don't think they get less effective with time, just harder to breathe through.

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#57

Post by Wowfunhappy »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #55
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in NYC I've been finding I have to take my mask off outside or I literally can't see, because that's how much my glasses fog up. Like, I walked straight into a pole one night. After that, I decided that the increased risk of getting COVID was lower than the risk of getting hit by a car. I do know it's not this bad for everyone, and I have tried different methods to mitigate it—anti-…

I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see neither the lights nor cars. Mask laws were instituted to get people to cover both nose and mouth, but it is interesting to see different levels of observance across Europe. In small-town Pol…

> I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see neither the lights nor cars.

So it's not just me! But, if you're not actively talking (ie, your mouth is closed), is wearing a mask below your nose any better than just taking it off? I figure at that point, I might as well put it in my back pocket.

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#58

Post by TheBlight »

throwaway189262 wrote: post #54
TheBlight wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't take this as a personal attack, but when I see people regularly wearing masks 5 years from now I'll certainly bias against engaging with them. I'll assume they don't understand risk and prioritize fear and emotion over reason. I won't be mean to them (nor disrespectful at all) but I will keep my distance socially (yes, somewhat ironically.)

In some (mostly Asian) countries you're expected to wear a mask if you go out when you're sick. Contrast that to freedomland where it's normal to have people hacking like crazy just about everywhere. It's required to wear a mask 100% of the time in some medical professions. This is usually so you don't get vulnerable people sick, not to protect yourself. Medicine is highly evidence based. If masks didn't work these r…

Using terms like "Freedomland" expose your biases fairly clearly and make it easy for me to safely ignore you.

But you might be surprised to learn that even as recently as 2016 the use of masks in surgical settings wasn't understood to be backed by very strong science: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480558/

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#59

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #57
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see neither the lights nor cars. Mask laws were instituted to get people to cover both nose and mouth, but it is interesting to see different levels of observance across Europe. In small-town Pol…

> I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see neither the lights nor cars. So it's not just me! But, if you're not actively talking (ie, your mouth is closed), is wearing a mask below your nose any better than just taking it off? I fig…

I couldn't take it off entirely, because in the countries I have been this winter masks are required outdoors by law, and taking it off could lead to fines if police saw me.

Re: Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of Covid-19

#60

Post by yborg »

luxuryballs wrote: post #5

I propose that when handled by the average citizen they also increase the risk of bacterial pneumonia as you filter your warm moist breath through a bacteria catcher/cultivator.

Totally disagree with this thesis but disagree with the downvotes as well. I think it's important to understand the mentality of the anti- crowd.
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