‘Effectiveness Unproven’: Dutch Lawmaker Advises Against Wearing Masks

Breitbart ^ | 30 Jul 2020 | SIMON KENT

[Hojczyk]

The Minister for Medical Care Tamara van Ark made the decision after a review by the country’s National Institute for Health (RIVM).

Instead the official advice is for better adherence to social distancing rules after a surge in coronavirus cases over the past seven days, Van Ark said at a press conference in The Hague, Reuters reports.

“Because from a medical perspective there is no proven effectiveness of masks, the Cabinet has decided that there will be no national obligation for wearing non-medical masks” Van Ark said.

RIVM chief Jaap van Dissel cited studies that show masks help slow the spread of disease but remained unconvinced they will do anything to counter coronavirus outbreak in the Netherlands.

He argued wearing masks incorrectly, together with worse adherence to social distancing rules, could increase the risk of transmitting the disease.

“So we think that if you’re going to use masks (in a public setting) … then you must give good training for it,” he said.

The decision followed a meeting of health and government officials after new coronavirus cases in the country rose to 1,329 in the past week, an increase of more than a third. The case level has since flattened out.

As Breitbart News reported, the Dutch have taken a different path in their reaction to the global pandemic almost from the first moment it was discovered.

Shops have remained open and families cycle along in the sunny summer weather in the Netherlands, which has opted for what it calls an “intelligent lockdown” to meet the coronavirus threat.

In contrast to most other European countries where people were ordered to remain housebound for months at a time, the Dutch authorities merely advised people to stay home if possible and to keep 1.5 metres (five feet) of social distance.

[nwrep]

[Bernard]

Maybe there are no Dutch Karens to spoil family bike ride. What is the Dutch word for Karen, anyway?

[joshua c]

One of the frontline doctors said N95 are ineffective against viruses. Use N99 or N100. More effective but not 100%

[CharleysPride]

The Dutch argument is not the same as the one the “frontline doctors” are making.

The Dutch advise is based on that use of masks without effective training will make people less careful about hygiene and social distancing, exposing people through a false sense of security.

The “frontiline” witch doctors are just throwing out a bunch of garbage theories, I don’t have time to sift through their nonsense.

I’ll wait for the translation from Sigourney Weaver.

[bennowens]

Let’s look at the science, not another uninformed opinion.

[eyeamok]

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

New England Journal of Medicine.

[Svartalfiar]

One of the frontline doctors said N95 are ineffective against viruses. Use N99 or N100. More effective but not 100%

It depends on the mask. An N95 rated surgical mask (the blue/white ones everyone has) is about 98% effective, 95% is the guarantee. But, they only filter about 30-40% of your breath. The rest of the airflow is escaping around the edges of your mask. The only thing they're really effective for is preventing droplet transmission from coughs or sneezing.

If you get the round white dust masks from the hardware store, those have a somewhat better seal to your face and are therefore much more effective at overall airflow filtration.

But, don't forget that they're not rated 100% - so even with a good face seal, there's still hundreds or thousands of virus particles that get through if you're infected or if you're in an infected environment.

Finally, even if they do filter out 100% of airborne particles, you still need to properly remove/dispose of the mask - reusing them for days/weeks, tossing them in the regular trash, touching the outside of them AT ALL, all of that undoes whatever good the filter did.