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The case against masks at school

theatlantic.com

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Re: The case against masks at school

#361

Post by tmnvix »

lemmsjid wrote: post #207
throwaway22032 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the fundamental issue with coronavirus mitigation measures. There are circumstances in which "drop everything" makes sense - if coronavirus were ten times more fatal, we'd do it naturally. But in general, looking at life from a perspective of "what is the minimum possible quality of life we can have" is depressing and fundamentally incompatible with the human spirit. I tend to think that people who operate in…

Perhaps instead I might be following Covid guidelines for the following reasons: so I don't pass the infection onto those who are indeed vulnerable; so I don't overtax an already overtaxed healthcare system and healthcare workers. Part of the ineffable human spirit, IMHO, is altruism: which in this case can manifest as taking on a set of mild day to day inconveniences in order to help others be happier and safer. I d…

> so I don't pass the infection onto those who are indeed vulnerable; so I don't overtax an already overtaxed healthcare system and healthcare workers

This seems reasonable and is a common point of view. It does make me curious though. Did you get a yearly flu shot prior to Covid? If not, has Covid changed your mind about this?

Re: The case against masks at school

#362

Post by kareemm »

nradov wrote: post #321
TameAntelope wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many children are there in the US? I'll let you pick the number you'd like to multiply by 0.00002, to get the number of children you're okay with killing.

It's easy to act morally superior and make cheap emotional arguments for when you're not the one who has to make hard decisions. All lives have value, but no life has infinite value. You can't seriously expect the majority to endure perpetual mandates and restrictions just to provide some limited, temporary protection to a small minority who are vulnerable due to risk factors like obesity. https://reason.com/2022/01/…

> You can't seriously expect the majority to endure perpetual mandates and restrictions just to provide some limited, temporary protection to a small minority who are vulnerable due to risk factors like obesity.

Who is saying the mandates and restrictions are perpetual?

Re: The case against masks at school

#363

Post by dygd »

downrightmike wrote: post #281
ngngngng wrote: post #275

Funny to watch the Atlantic change directions on COVID over the last few months. I go back and forth on masks. In general I find them to be a minor inconvenience, although I believe they're more inconvenient for me than most because I'm blind and no matter what I do they always fog up my glasses. But while masks themselves are mildly inconvenient, harsh mask mandates and restrictions become much more of an annoyance…

bandaid over the nose and mask should stop your fogging. You can also use a little saliva on the lenses like they do in scuba diving. I usually just move the glasses a little further down my nose and that does like 95% of the solution.

Something else that works really well is the anti fog dry cloth/wipes. They're cheap and get rid of fogging completely.

Re: The case against masks at school

#364

Post by AlexandrB »

ngngngng wrote: post #275

Funny to watch the Atlantic change directions on COVID over the last few months. I go back and forth on masks. In general I find them to be a minor inconvenience, although I believe they're more inconvenient for me than most because I'm blind and no matter what I do they always fog up my glasses. But while masks themselves are mildly inconvenient, harsh mask mandates and restrictions become much more of an annoyance…

> In general I find them to be a minor inconvenience, although I believe they're more inconvenient for me than most because I'm blind and no matter what I do they always fog up my glasses.

I have this problem too with every surgical-style mask. However, at least some N95 masks fit me well enough that air doesn't escape around my nose and my glasses stay fog-free.

Re: The case against masks at school

#365

Post by Georgelemental »

Hokusai wrote: post #337
psyc wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wearing masks whenever possible doesn't bother me in the slightest. I've been loving it that COVID has normalized wearing a mask in public because I'd like to do it all the time for the rest of my life without being judged for it. But I don't want anybody mandating it. I've been trying to work out in my own mind why I switched to being more, uh, 'deontologist' if you will, several years ago. I'm just starting to almo…

> Americans debating every day whether strongly authoritarian and invasive measures are OK, if they save lives. In Europe seatbelts are mandatory, and it is forbidden to smoke in most places. I think that these are reasonable measures. I think, for the exact same reasons, that mask mandates are reasonable. In public transport is mandatory to wear at least a t-shirt, as skin to skin contact gets unhealthy fast. And re…

The US is not as different as you think. Seat belts are mandatory in 49/50 states, restrictions on smoking are common, restaurant employees generally need to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, "no shirt no shoes no service" is the general rule, nudity in public places is generally against the law. I don't know where you are getting your impression of US laws from, but it's just wrong.

Re: The case against masks at school

#366

Post by rkk3 »

taylodl wrote: post #304

General observation from reading the comments - the folks on HN must not have many friends working in medicine for if they had they'd realize those friends are swamped and burned-out. They'd also know that pretty much the only condition we're treating nowadays is Covid. Surgeries are continuing to be postponed - including surgeries that can lead to worse problems down the road such as removing cancerous tumors. And i…

What does this have to do with masking young children, many who are vaccinated, in schools? Are you implying that they are a source of the spread and causing medical professionals to be burnt out? and that therefore we should ignore that both the teacher and student wearing a mask might be detrimental for ESL & Language development ?

Re: The case against masks at school

#367

Post by FourHand451 »

jrockway wrote: post #352
smhenderson wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe belts are mandatory I'm having a hard time understanding this one... Are you literally saying that belts that hold people's pants up are mandatory?

I've been to Europe and never wore a belt, so they must mean something else.

Count your blessings, my friend.

Re: The case against masks at school

#368

Post by TameAntelope »

jdminhbg wrote: post #313
TameAntelope wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the Covid mortality risk for children is already with masks, compared to without masks for the flu. Also, there are considerations other than specifically a child's death that are relevant here, like who that child can spread it to and what negative longterm effects surviving COVID-19 carry, neither of which are as pronounced or unknown as with the flu. But you knew that already, didn't you?

> Because the Covid mortality risk for children is already with masks, compared to without masks for the flu This is false, which we know because we can measure the fatality rates for children in unmasked locales, and they do not differ from those in masked locales.

Too many confounding variables, those measurements are useless.

Re: The case against masks at school

#369

Post by jmkb »

ngngngng wrote: post #285
downrightmike wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bandaid over the nose and mask should stop your fogging. You can also use a little saliva on the lenses like they do in scuba diving. I usually just move the glasses a little further down my nose and that does like 95% of the solution.

I haven't tried saliva. Usually I just end up with my mask way up my nose and my glasses moved down my nose. That works fine short term but I have to hold my head like a pompous asshole and that's tiring.

The 3M "Aura" N95s have a generous and durable nose pad that's basically eliminated this problem for me. They do get extremely humid on the inside though; I have to carry two and swap them every hour.

Re: The case against masks at school

#370

Post by vikingerik »

autoexec wrote: post #314
champagnois wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never mind the fact that they are not rated to filter viruses.

It doesn't matter. Putting literally anything in front of your virus spewing face hole is going to help to some degree. It's not as if the crook of our arms are rated to filter viruses, but that hasn't stopped health organizations all over the world from recommending the vampire cough for years. It's true that a mask alone isn't enough to guarantee anyone's safety and while community spread is high sending kids into…

Your face hole is not virus spewing if you aren't sick.
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