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I wish every Freeper could have MOPP or what we called NBC training when I taught it.

Then they would have a smattering of knowledge of PPE.

Of course the masks being worn by most folks do almost nothing to protect the wearer.

They do a reasonably good job of protecting everyone else form the wearer.

Even when hiking or doing other outdoor activities, when coming within 6 feet of others outside your family group that lives together, one should put on a mask, then remove it when away from others.

Being in a car either alone or with family members and wearing a mask is absurd.

If there is a person outside your close family group in the car though, you should have masks on.

It's insane that this has been politicized in the USA and some other countries.

Masks have been used for many years in other countries to reduce the spread of illnesses.

Have some fun with it.

There are Trump and MAGA masks available as well as many other interesting themes

Masks are the same but different as other PPE we wear.

Ear protection when shooting firearms, steel toed shoes, goggles and safety glasses, Kevlar chaps when using a chainsaw, helmet when riding a motorcycle or snowmobile, etc.

Even when hiking or doing other outdoor activities, when coming within 6 feet of others outside your family group that lives together, one should put on a mask, then remove it when away from others.

The problem with this statement is that 90% of transmissions are between family members or people that you are in an enclosed space with. I was the senior officer on a big city hazmat team for many years. The masks that people are wearing and the way that they are using them make them less than useless in the current situation. In that way they are not like other PPE (personal protective equipment) which actually do provide protection from whatever hazard they were intended for.

Being in a car either alone or with family members and wearing a mask is absurd.

Not always.

If you are on the way to the store from home, it is wholly silly, as you say.

If you have been in a contaminated area, taking the mask off and not treating it and you as contaminated in the car may well make a difference - assuming you were wearing it right to begin with.

I wear a mask that says “PLACEBO.” I wore it every day in Disney World in August and got favorable comments each time. Sometimes I mix it up by wearing my Trump Train mask. No kitties or rainbows for me. I’d rather wear a mask to point out how useless they are.

Yeah, well, I wish FReeepers who had MOPP training actually paid ATTENTION,knew what they were talking about, understood viruses, were educated in the multitude of studies that have shown over 40 years of science that masks don’t stop airborne viruses, and weren’t giant bootlicking vaginas, but we can’t all get what we want, right?

They do a reasonably good job of protecting everyone else form the wearer.

You're assuming right there that a huge portion of the populace is infected with anything. I'll ignore the lack of efficacy of masks for this. Likewise, I'll ignore all the issues with the numbers, such as false positives, fake positives, double-positives, and so on. And we can operate under the assumption that you don;t work directly with known infected.

Let's take the current "hotspot" of Dallas County as an example. They currently have a cumulative 83M confirmed "cases" (positive tests). Out of 2.6MM people, so over the past ten-ish months, barely 3.2% of the population has gotten a positive test at some point. For the past month, there's been about 6400 positive tests, around 1600/week. About 3200 people who actively have the virus currently. Only 160 were hospitalized in the past two weeks, so you know they aren't out and about. 3040 people. So even if all positive but asymptomatic infected are walking about the hotspot of Dallas, you only have 3M out of 2.6MM who might be contagious. 0.115%. While the majority are likely staying home and self-quarantining, Even if 20% of them aren't, that means you have a 0.023% chance of randomly encountering one of them. One in 60M. If each day you see 30 people at the grocery store, and then 20 at the restaurant, it'll take you about 1200 days before you encounter that many people.

But, let's say there's NINE times that number of asymptomatic infected, who haven't been tested (plus the one definite infected makes ten infected, easier to work with). You still have to encounter 6M people before you probably ran into one person infected. Six thousand is a lot of people to happen by, especially because we're ignoring that most people you see are the same people day over day.

And, then you're not even guaranteed to catch it in chance encounters, CDC/others seem to think it requires a bit of time/interaction to actually take and hold, so it's even way more less likely. So really, what is everyone's masks protecting you from?

All that said, it sure would be nice if more people were familiar with NBC basics and decon procedures. Even ignoring MOPP levels, just the mask is completely compromised by almost every person out there wearing one.

“Even when hiking or doing other outdoor activities, when coming within 6 feet of others outside your family group that lives together, one should put on a mask, then remove it when away from others.”

Glad I never took a MOPP class from you. You are an idiot. There is ZERO data to support your claim.

Let me put it this way. I know three couples where one person caught it and the other did not, even though they lived as man & wife the entire time. The virus is NOT that easy to catch.

And masks? They catch SNOT. So don’t let anyone sneeze on you when walking past them outdoors.

And when you handle a mask? You increase your chances of catching something.