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

Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

oceansasia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 177 posts

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#31

Post by yibg »

WhiskeyVictor wrote: post #28
neaanopri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masks work. If everyone is wearing a mask, there are at least two masks between you and an infected person. Masks don't provide 100% protection, but nothing does. However, masks are important, because they enable people to safely perform essential activities like grocery shopping, and most jobs. We don't need to stop _every single transmission_, all that we need to do is make sure that each infected person doesn't in…

The data tells a different story. https://rationalground.com/post-thanksgiving-mask-charts-sti...

Isn't mask compliance an important metric here that's not shown? Having a mandate doesn't really do much if people don't actually comply with it.

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#32

Post by Cpoll »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #24
th0ma5 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think about this a lot, our footprint as seen by future anthropologists.

I've thought about it a little. If everything is digital and in deprecated formats then there could be a sort of "dark ages"... even without some kind of end of world scenario to wipe out the evidence. We could simply just forget how to access it. Eg: in yr 3030 will we still know how to open pdfs ,flash files, or say PS4 games?

We have a lot of documentation and clues, so it shouldn't be that bad. There are decades of rants about the shortcomings of the pdf format, at least :)

Those formats are also more logical(ish) than human language, so reverse engineering them should be possible in some cases.

Also, there will be plenty of 'rosetta stones' around: media that exists in both an obsolete format and a more recent, better understood one.

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#33

Post by maerF0x0 »

Cpoll wrote: post #32
maerF0x0 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about it a little. If everything is digital and in deprecated formats then there could be a sort of "dark ages"... even without some kind of end of world scenario to wipe out the evidence. We could simply just forget how to access it. Eg: in yr 3030 will we still know how to open pdfs ,flash files, or say PS4 games?

We have a lot of documentation and clues, so it shouldn't be that bad. There are decades of rants about the shortcomings of the pdf format, at least :) Those formats are also more logical(ish) than human language, so reverse engineering them should be possible in some cases. Also, there will be plenty of 'rosetta stones' around: media that exists in both an obsolete format and a more recent, better understood one.

Very interesting points. Thanks for giving me food for thought

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#34

Post by yibg »

matz1 wrote: post #30
neaanopri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masks work. If everyone is wearing a mask, there are at least two masks between you and an infected person. Masks don't provide 100% protection, but nothing does. However, masks are important, because they enable people to safely perform essential activities like grocery shopping, and most jobs. We don't need to stop _every single transmission_, all that we need to do is make sure that each infected person doesn't in…

>Masks don't provide 100% protection, So 1% protection ? >but nothing does. However, masks are important, because they enable people to safely perform essential activities like grocery shopping, and most jobs. fortunately that the chance of getting sick from covid from doing those activities without mask are very very low. infection is not useful metric because only small percentage actually cause sickness. Masks: Th…

how much protection would be enough for you to wear one? 50%? 75%? Hell, even 1% is higher than 0 and really, what's the harm?

Yea most people don't get very sick, except for the 300k that are dead just in the US.

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#35

Post by gruez »

syshum wrote: post #19
textech wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently surgical masks are better than the cloth masks. https://healthnewshub.org/cloth-mask-vs-surgical-mask-vs-n95...

The Duke study this article is highlighting has been refuted due to poor testing methodology.

Source?

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#36

Post by hh3k0 »

th0ma5 wrote: post #9
thedudeabides5 wrote: post #7

Imagine the archeologists in the year 100,000, sorting through rock samples and going "oh look, there's the mask pollution from the great 2020 pandemic"

I think about this a lot, our footprint as seen by future anthropologists.

Bold of you to assume that future anthropologists will do anything other than fighting in World Water War II.

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#38

Post by dheera »

probably_wrong wrote: post #8

Whenever I go outside and see >50% people wearing disposable masks I wonder... Why? Did they only find out about the pandemic right now and it caught them off-guard? I have had reusable masks since April. I assumed everyone was doing the same, but everytime I go outside I prove myself wrong. I don't get it.

Simple reasons:

- The cloth masks don't form a tight seal and leave two gaping holes on either side of my nose.

- The cloth masks don't have as fine a filter mesh and aren't as effective at filtering tiny particles.

That said, I don't go out that often, and my trips are limited in time, so I reuse a disposable N95/KN95 mask until I've worn it for as much as a total of 30-100 hours before I dispose of it. I also use reusable everything else wherever I can in my life, I just haven't found any actually good reusable masks that would pass e.g. NIOSH tests.

Re: Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

#40

Post by spurgu »

WhiskeyVictor wrote: post #28
neaanopri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masks work. If everyone is wearing a mask, there are at least two masks between you and an infected person. Masks don't provide 100% protection, but nothing does. However, masks are important, because they enable people to safely perform essential activities like grocery shopping, and most jobs. We don't need to stop _every single transmission_, all that we need to do is make sure that each infected person doesn't in…

The data tells a different story. https://rationalground.com/post-thanksgiving-mask-charts-sti...

What isn't shown in this graph is how the numbers would look without mask mandates.
Post reply on HN