Posted on 07/18/2020 1:53:14 PM PDT by karpov
Face masks are emerging as one of the most powerful weapons to fight the novel coronavirus, with growing evidence that facial coverings help prevent transmission—even if an infected wearer is in close contact with others.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he believes the pandemic could be brought under control over the next four to eight weeks if “we could get everybody to wear a mask right now.” His comments, made Tuesday with the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed an editorial he and others wrote there emphasizing “ample evidence” of asymptomatic spread and highlighting new studies showing how masks help reduce transmission.
The research Dr. Redfield cited included a newly published study suggesting that universal use of surgical masks helped reduce rates of confirmed Covid-19 infections among health-care workers at the Mass General Brigham health-care system in Massachusetts.
His comments are the clearest message yet from the CDC, amid fierce debate over facial coverings, fueled initially by shifting messages from federal and global officials about their necessity and then by those espousing individual liberties.
Researchers from around the world have found wearing even a basic cloth face covering is more effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19 than wearing nothing at all. And many are now examining the possibility that masks might offer some personal protection from the virus, despite initial thinking that they mostly protect others.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
We couldn’t get the pandemic “brought under control” with everything shut down and people sheltering in place 2-3 months ago. Why do they think something LESS isolating will do the trick?
People touch things, which are touched by others, who then touch an infectious part of their body. THAT is the main vector of transmission.
The pandemic will end Nov 8th.
For exhalations they keep our nasty halitosis stuck in the mask. Oh and prevent spewing far and wide any contaminants you may be carrying. For inhalation, mr CV-19 will get on through. Short of consistently wearing your scuba tank and mask, the bandanas and hygenic masks don’t to squat when sucking in air.
I’ll be digging out my paintball mask. Almost Darth Vader-ish.
Why are cases surging after mask mandates??
The virus has about a 2 week incubation period. The surge in cases dates from before the mask mandates. Gee, I wonder what was happening 2 weeks ago that involved large groups of people congregating in densely populated urban areas?
I’ll wear a mask when faggies are quarantined against having deviant sex.
Jama is the biggest political throw away there is. Other than extreme leftists I don’t know anyone that gives it any credibility
That’s some mighty fanciful data analysis right there.
It would help the masker cause if Fascisti and his posse of public health bureaucrats hadn’t assured us for weeks they were unnecessary. Yeah, what they tell us is “science.”
No one can rationally argue that no one wearing a mask is getting covid. Clearly mask wearer are getting covid anyway.
>>Obviously people wearing masks are getting covid anyway. Probably though hands and eyes.
<<
Wearing masks does not protect the wearing from others (well, very much). It DOES protect others from those with COVID-19. I wear my mask in public as sign of respect for others. Someone not wearing a mask in a store or what have you is telling everyone to f off and die (maybe literally).
Unless and until we have visible mood rings that tell us whether a person is infected (many get it without signs), the only proper thing to do is insist everyone wear masks to keep them from spreading it TO OTHERS.
Even this moment, no matter how good you feel, you could very well have it. And even if you get tested and it is negative, you could get it 10 minutes later from some self-important yahoo in Home Depot who thinks he is more important than you (or worse, start spouting off about “his Constitutional rights which is, of course, rubbish”).
From this article....
"We identified 3 phases during the study period: a prentervention period before implementation of universal masking of HCWs (March 1-24, 2020); a transition period until implementation of universal masking of patients (March 25–April 5, 2020) plus an additional lag period to allow for manifestations of symptoms (April 6-10, 2020), as previously defined5; and an intervention period (April 11-30, 2020). Positivity rates included the first positive test result for all HCWs in the numerator and HCWs who never tested positive plus those who tested positive that day in the denominator. For each HCW, any tests subsequent to their first positive test result were excluded. Using weighted nonlinear regression, we fit the best curve for the preintervention and intervention periods (based on R2 value). The number of daily tests was used as the weight such that days with more tests had more weight in determining the curve. The overall slope of each period was calculated using linear regression to estimate the mean trend, regardless of curve shape. The change in overall slope between the preintervention and intervention periods was compared to determine any statistically significant change in mean trend, using a 2-sided α = .05. The analysis was conducted using R version 4.0 (R Foundation).
Results
Of 9850 tested HCWs, 1271 (12.9%) had positive results for SARS-CoV-2 (median age, 39 years; 73% female; 7.4% physicians or trainees, 26.5% nurses or physician assistants, 17.8% technologists or nursing support, and 48.3% other). During the preintervention period, the SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate increased exponentially from 0% to 21.32%, with a weighted mean increase of 1.16% per day and a case doubling time of 3.6 days (95% CI, 3.0-4.5 days). During the intervention period, the positivity rate decreased linearly from 14.65% to 11.46%, with a weighted mean decline of 0.49% per day and a net slope change of 1.65% (95% CI, 1.13%-2.15%; P < .001) more decline per day compared with the preintervention period (Figure).
End of excerpt....
Some of you numbers gurus can correct me, but the positivity rate decrease was VERY negligible.
Also, I never knew there was period where masks among healthcare workers treating COVID Patients was optional. As soon as patients showed up, the demand for masks went nuclear. In a matter of 1 week, not two months.
Hi.
Ever been to Ft. Detrick in MD?
I have.
Question: would any sane person walk into a BL4 lab just wearing a N95 mask?
No? I thought so.
5.56mm
“I wonder if it make sense when outside.”
Really? That puzzles you?
You don’t really need one outside unless it’s a crowded are and you can’t keep a reasonable distance.
If masks work, then we are the supposed upticks in cases in areas with mandatory masks?
Cases are surging because lots of people decided to act like asshats and party at crowded beaches, bars, and make believe we don’t have a pandemic happening.
Wrong.
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