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Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

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Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#11

Post by ISL »

glerk wrote: post #9
AnthonBerg wrote: post #3

We also did not have data on the types of masks being worn or on masking adherence rates in the two school districts It is known that this is an aerosolized pandemic. Airborne. Cloth and surgical masks do not work. Source – there are many to choose from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067362... The posted study on mandates has effectively no meaning. Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. This is fa…

This has been known since 2020. From the beginning, the public health message could have been "protect yourself using a N-95 mask", but for some reason they went with "protect others using a cloth/surgical mask". The only reasonable explanation I can find for this is that N-95 masks were in short supply at the time and they had to be saved for medical professionals. We needed a distraction to prevent the general publ…

I believe that you are entirely correct. One of the big lessons-learned is that the response should have been: "N95s work. They are very important. If you hoard them, healthcare professionals will die. Please donate your extras to your nearest hospital."

I saw firsthand, working with findthemasks.com, just how many people came to that conclusion on their own and rapidly aggregated and donated as many N95s as they could.

It is bonkers to me that we're not all wearing N95s by default until case-rates really come down, but I have accepted that our current state is the way of the world.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#12

Post by rayiner »

> Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature which suggests school-based mask mandates have limited to no impact on the case rates of COVID-19 among K-12 students.

I’m glad that public health officials are actually doing this research and publishing these conclusions. Maybe I’ve gotten cynical, but I was worried that there would be limited retrospection about positions taken during the pandemic given the political sensitivities.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#13

Post by badtoro »

throwoutway wrote: post #6
AnthonBerg wrote: post #3

We also did not have data on the types of masks being worn or on masking adherence rates in the two school districts It is known that this is an aerosolized pandemic. Airborne. Cloth and surgical masks do not work. Source – there are many to choose from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067362... The posted study on mandates has effectively no meaning. Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. This is fa…

> Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. Schools are not going to mandate this, and even if they do kids will wear them loose/wrong. So knowing that, where do school boards go from here?

No post body was provided.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#14

Post by philliphaydon »

Doesn’t seem like a very ground study. But living in Asia has taught me masks do work, and they work at school. My 3yo doesn’t get a cold when the 1 kid in the class is sneezing and coughing. The 1 case of covid didn’t spread in the school to Teachers or students.

But I get there’s a bunch of adults who can’t wear masks as well as a 3yo so in that case the adults are more likely to catch or spread covid with their inability to wear masks right.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#15

Post by MuchoMaas »

AnthonBerg wrote: post #3

We also did not have data on the types of masks being worn or on masking adherence rates in the two school districts It is known that this is an aerosolized pandemic. Airborne. Cloth and surgical masks do not work. Source – there are many to choose from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067362... The posted study on mandates has effectively no meaning. Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. This is fa…

Setting aside for a moment the fact that chronic, day-in-day-out long term use of N95s has never been studied for potential ill effects, why is it so difficult to discern any reduction in community transmission from Germany's N95 mandates?

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#16

Post by ceejayoz »

bsilvereagle wrote: post #10
glerk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been known since 2020. From the beginning, the public health message could have been "protect yourself using a N-95 mask", but for some reason they went with "protect others using a cloth/surgical mask". The only reasonable explanation I can find for this is that N-95 masks were in short supply at the time and they had to be saved for medical professionals. We needed a distraction to prevent the general publ…

> whether masks with holes orders of magnitude larger than the airborne virus particles they are supposed to stop are effective N95 masks work due to a dipole charge, not necessarily because of the mechanical filtration size. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7724761/

They've also got a substantially better seal around the edges.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#17

Post by ceejayoz »

MuchoMaas wrote: post #15
AnthonBerg wrote: post #3

We also did not have data on the types of masks being worn or on masking adherence rates in the two school districts It is known that this is an aerosolized pandemic. Airborne. Cloth and surgical masks do not work. Source – there are many to choose from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067362... The posted study on mandates has effectively no meaning. Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. This is fa…

Setting aside for a moment the fact that chronic, day-in-day-out long term use of N95s has never been studied for potential ill effects, why is it so difficult to discern any reduction in community transmission from Germany's N95 mandates?

> Setting aside for a moment the fact that chronic, day-in-day-out long term use of N95s has never been studied for potential ill effects...

There are professions that've been doing this for decades without any apparent negative impacts.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#18

Post by josephcsible »

philliphaydon wrote: post #14

Doesn’t seem like a very ground study. But living in Asia has taught me masks do work, and they work at school. My 3yo doesn’t get a cold when the 1 kid in the class is sneezing and coughing. The 1 case of covid didn’t spread in the school to Teachers or students. But I get there’s a bunch of adults who can’t wear masks as well as a 3yo so in that case the adults are more likely to catch or spread covid with their in…

Your one anecdote overturns this whole study?

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#19

Post by MuchoMaas »

philliphaydon wrote: post #14

Doesn’t seem like a very ground study. But living in Asia has taught me masks do work, and they work at school. My 3yo doesn’t get a cold when the 1 kid in the class is sneezing and coughing. The 1 case of covid didn’t spread in the school to Teachers or students. But I get there’s a bunch of adults who can’t wear masks as well as a 3yo so in that case the adults are more likely to catch or spread covid with their in…

That's nice. My kids' preschool in a blue state which mandated masks until spring of this year had constantly recurring COVID cases and exposures, including a Delta infection my kids brought home in October last year and passed to me.

Re: Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota

#20

Post by amluto »

throwoutway wrote: post #6
AnthonBerg wrote: post #3

We also did not have data on the types of masks being worn or on masking adherence rates in the two school districts It is known that this is an aerosolized pandemic. Airborne. Cloth and surgical masks do not work. Source – there are many to choose from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067362... The posted study on mandates has effectively no meaning. Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. This is fa…

> Closed FFP2/N95-style masks work. Schools are not going to mandate this, and even if they do kids will wear them loose/wrong. So knowing that, where do school boards go from here?

Now? Strongly encourage everyone to get vaccinated (to protect themselves, not others — the current vaccines don’t provide substantial protection to others any more). Encourage people who feel the need for extra personal protection to wear N95 masks and feel comfortable doing so. Encourage anyone who is sick to stay home (which was good sense before COVID anyway). Try to improve ventilation (which is also a good idea regardless of COVID). Encourage students to spend more time outside (again, a good idea regardless of COVID). And accept that outbreaks are going to happen.

There is, currently, no magic bullet available that will work in a school setting.

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