Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

science.sciencemag.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 387 posts

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#201

Post by Consultant32452 »

sschueller wrote: post #17

N95/FFP2 seem to be very effective. I wish the media and government would have spent more time in educating people in things like how N95 masks work and that it isn't like a coffee filter. Even thought the pores are larger than a virus the masks are statically charged causes smaller things to get trapped. Many people don't know this but probably had an interaction with static electricity sometime in school and would…

You are being very generous in assuming the people in charge want you to be educated. It seems to me they wanted you to run around with a (relatively) useless cloth mask so they could horde the most effective masks for themselves.

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#202

Post by awb »

vondur wrote: post #88

I don't know. We had some of the highest mask wearing percentages in the country here in Southern California, yet some of the highest infection rates in the world. Something isn't adding up here. I'm guessing if everyone had N95 masks, we would have seen lower numbers however. I don't think the average cloth masks that people are wearing are very effective.

I wonder how much super spreaders affect outbreaks.

Let’s say LA had 50 super spreaders vs. 25 in SF. I’d expect LA to have more than 2x the cases because of the exponential spread of the virus.

And I think the idea behind masks was not that they’re a cure, but a 2nd best option if the best option of social distancing isn’t possible.

And even if they’re 30% effective, the idea is to get R (the number of subsequent people an infected person goes on to infect) to go down. Because a 30% reduction in transmission has a huge effect over time, even if it’s not perfect.

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#204

Post by nfvme »

takeda wrote: post #34
splitrocket wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virus particles do not travel naked in the air, instead they are colloidally suspended in liquid, both droplets and aerosols. So, if your filter catches the droplets and aerosols, which are much larger in size than the actual virus, the filter works.

Realization that somebody's droplets are getting into your mouth and nose makes one want to wear mask even after pandemic is over :)

You a poor excuse for a human being.

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#205

Post by nfvme »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #39

This entire study seems to be centered around a theoretical, mathematical model, and I didn't see any attempt to actually validate that model. Basically, the authors seem to assume that the virus behaves according to their formulas, and show that under their assumptions, face masks work, but don't actually prove that their assumptions match reality - or did I miss something?

You must be a science denier! Burn the witch!

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#206

Post by mhb »

DanBC wrote: post #110
mhb wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people need to know how they work. They just need to know that those are what doctors wear and that they are very, very effective. And much better than a mask you make from ad hoc materials. Once N95 masks became readily available and cheap, it was (and is) mysterious why people weren't being told to wear them to protect themselves instead of wearing whatever was at hand to sort of protect themselves an…

> Once N95 masks became readily available and cheap, it was (and is) mysterious why people weren't being told to wear them Because they're difficult to wear. There are a bunch of photos on social media of HCPs who've got bruised faces after correctly wearing N95 / FPP3 for a day or two.

Tens of thousands of doctors manage to wear them every day without injury. So color me skeptical in finding social media testimony less than persuasive that a real issue exists with the proper use of masks.

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#207

Post by nfvme »

AshWolfy wrote: post #196
gonational wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting; the same kind of erroneous supposition modeling MO is used to pretend that humans are "cooking the planet" (or is it an ice age? I guess it depends on the decade...).

this is wrong, unrelated, and clear flamebaiting

This entire thread is flamebaiting, and might I add, COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC!

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#208

Post by nfvme »

ihsw wrote: post #114
slver wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bless your soul, but what I've learned from the way we handled the pandemic worldwide (and are still handling it) is that information that's readily available and should in theory reach everyone, flows ridiculously slowly, even among specialists and political figures, it's easily corrupted and distorted, and a loud ignorant minority counts as much in the public discourse, as the voices of millions of reasonable peopl…

I can't help but look at some peoples' rejection of public health guidance in the US as "not a bug/won't fix." The relevant authorities (including traditional mainstream media) injected politics into the public discourse, which destroyed trust in what should be a normal public health process. Not only that but the relevant leaders of agencies decided to try manage the supply of masks through "steering" the public by…

Shutting down people's businesses, threatening them with non-approved vaccines, instituting curfews, limiting free speech - whose politics were injected?

All of you will rue the day you embraced covid marxism.

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#209

Post by [deleted] »

jonplackett wrote: post #140
rsj_hn wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed this is the money paragraph: "The effectiveness of masks, however, is still under debate. Compared to N95/FFP2 respirators which have very low particle penetration rates (around ~5%), surgical and similar masks exhibit higher and more variable penetration rates (around ~30-70%) (2, 3). Given the large number of particles emitted upon respiration and especially upon sneezing or coughing (4), the number of respi…

I really don’t get why this is still considered a conundrum Lots of places have R hovering around 1. If it goes to 1.1 everything goes to shit, if it drops to 0.9. Everything will be fine. So even if masks reduce spread by a tiny amount, even 10% better. That could easily swing you below 1 and save the day.

[deleted]

Re: Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

#210

Post by andreygrehov »

boplicity wrote: post #178
andreygrehov wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> observational data show that regions or facilities with a higher percentage of the population wearing masks have better control of the coronavirus disease Which is also not entirely true. There are quite a lot of regions (data from worldometer, statista) that have a better control of the virus despite people not giving a crap about face masks. For instance, Florida has 1600 deaths/M vs 3000 deaths/M in New Jersey.…

I don't understand this myth about Florida. It has fared very badly in the pandemic. You're three times as likely to have died in Florida from COVID, as opposed to in Canada. It sits in the middle of the States, in terms of death rates, which overall have been among the worst in the world. Compare your example to an area where people really take masking serious, such as Hong Kong, and then maybe you'll have a valid c…

It's not a myth. I'm looking at statistics right now. A myth is that Florida has fared very badly (most likely a politically inspired myth). Compared to other states, it hasn't. It's indeed in the middle, meaning that Florida does better than half the states of the USA. It's on par with California numbers, but I've never heard anyone (in the media) slamming very badly on Cali.

I honestly don't believe that a mask can make such a MASSIVE difference when it comes to Hong Kong vs USA numbers. I don't have the answer, but it's something else, something foundationally different that makes them less prone to catching the virus. Genetics? No idea. I mean, c'mon, I can smell literally everything around me when I'm wearing a mask, but it protects from a virus? I'm not an expert by any means, but something tells me it's a joke.

Post reply on HN