Posted on 03/17/2020 7:45:21 PM PDT by rintintin
When news of a mysterious viral pneumonia linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, China, reached the outside world in early January, one of my first reactions was to order a modest supply of masks. Just a few weeks later, there wasn’t a mask to be bought in stores, or online for a reasonable price — just widespread price gouging. Many health experts, no doubt motivated by the sensible and urgent aim of preserving the remaining masks for health care workers, started telling people that they didn’t need masks or that they wouldn’t know how to wear them.
As the pandemic rages on, there will be many difficult messages for the public. Unfortunately, the top-down conversation around masks has become a case study in how not to communicate with the public, especially now that the traditional gatekeepers like media and health authorities have much less control. The message became counterproductive and may have encouraged even more hoarding because it seemed as though authorities were shaping the message around managing the scarcity rather than confronting the reality of the situation.
First, many health experts, including the surgeon general of the United States, told the public simultaneously that masks weren’t necessary for protecting the general public and that health care workers needed the dwindling supply. This contradiction confuses an ordinary listener. How do these masks magically protect the wearers only and only if they work in a particular field?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Granted, one who wears a cloth mask should avoid touching it other than grasping the straps to take it off, put it in a bag, etc., while changing into a clean one. And one needs to always get plenty of oxygen, so the mask should allow easy breathing with consideration for the amount of exertion of the wearer.
I’ve been pointing that out to some Lefties, that Obama’s CDC had 7 years under Obama to get ready for this event, then 3 more under Trump, and we’re woefully unprepared.
The masks don’t do a thing for you or anyone else unless you’re fitted for them. The fit has to be exact or pathogens can get out around the edges. Futhermore, the mask isn’t meant to protect the wearer from the patient but the patient from the wearer, because who is in a weakened, susceptible condition, the patient or the doctor?
Now for really deadly pathogens, like ebola, the doctor has to be protected too and will wear a full protective suit, almost but not quite a moonsuit, over any mask, etc., he or she is wearing underneath. Or so says my better half.
One night, after just going to bed there, I hear a great commotion.
One of the Chinese pilots was sick, had thrown up, and then passed out.
EMT, fire, and police in hazmat attended to him and hauled him off. The next afternoon, I asked the receptionist about the outcome. She said he didn't have SARS, and must have just had a stomach bug. I breathed a big sigh of relief!
To this day, from personal experience, I'm convinced it was probably the huge beef ribs they served at the buffet!
Most people have masks at home. It is common here to wear a mask in public if you have a cold as to not to spread it to others. There is a shortage here because most people only kept a couple on hand for colds and flu. Purchases are limited to 2 masks per week per person. ( fortunately I saw this coming back in January and picked up a box of 100 )
true, they stop YOU (the person wearing the mask) from transmitting what YOU have to others. But they do NOTHING to stop YOU from getting the Virus from others.
Not confusing. They lied, pure and simple. Now maybe it was their policy that it was more important for doctors and nurses to have them than you and I, but then they should be honest instead of pretending that we are complete idiots. One of the spokesmen even said that wearing the wrong mask could be worse than wearing no mask at all. Yeah, right.
But that little bit of lying convinced me to buy more food just in case things get really bad. Those cans of corn, peas and beans will still be good even if all this passes in a couple of months. The 25 pound bag of rice I bought because there were only three left at Sam's Club might get a little boring though. But don't buy the wrong can of peas because that could be worse than having no food at all.< /s>
They do nothing? Or do they reduce the odds of transmission to some non-zero amount? I wear gloves when changing my mower blade not because they guarantee I won't slice a finger off but because they make injury much less likely.
[true, they stop YOU (the person wearing the mask) from transmitting what YOU have to others. But they do NOTHING to stop YOU from getting the Virus from others.]
Then why do healthy nurses, doctors, and other personnel need them?
https://www.businessinsider.com/types-of-masks-used-for-coronavirus-outbreak-n95-surgical-2020-3
there’s a link to the different types of masks and what they are good and not good for.
Most of the masks you see are the disposable surgical type and are basically useless to prevent getting infected, but can help with not infecting others.
“Ordinary masks from Walmart do not protect the wearer, but it does protect others from those who are wearing a mask.”
Exactly why I wear them around my parents. They are staying home and I am doing their shopping.
In the general public, it’s the sick people who needed the masks, not the healthy ones who aren’t spreading the sickness.
Healthcare workers deal with sick people who aren’t wearing masks.
This isn’t Common Core, it’s pretty easy to understand.
At the supermarket this morning: About 1/4 of shoppers were wearing masks.
Luckily, I’ve long kept a small supply of masks at home, all purchased years ago. I didn’t wear one, though.
Might be true in normal times, but during a pandemic, it behooves a healthy person to protect themself. You go to the grocery store to get food for your family, you may be just as at risk as a doctor because you don’t know whether the person coughing behind you has allergies or coronavirus.
[[Read down. Based on studies, the article says practically any mask is better than none]]
Exactly- logic says that when a person walks through a ‘sneeze cloud’ of virus germs= most of those germs are gonna land on the mask, not go directly into the person’s mouth and nose- While a few particles will make their way in through the cracks, they are likely to land on the face- If one wears a mask, doesn’t fiddle with it constantly, takes it off immediately when out of crowded space, washes face immediately with hand sanitizer or even soap and water- swabs out the nose, and keeps their hands away from their eyes- the chances of being infected are it would seem way way lower than having no mask at all
it’s funny that when i go to health centers the medical staff are wearing these supposed non effective masks- guess they just like the smell of their own breath- lol-
It just seems like common sense that a mask filters out almost all of the virus particles- just gotta use caution when wearing it, and taking it off- keep hands off of face except for when washing afterwards-
[[We are not the idiots you presume. We can clearly see that *Masks don’t help* does not mesh with *We have to give them to the health care workers cause they need them*.
It takes only a modicum of logic and intelligence to figure out, that if the masks don’t work they are not going to do the healthcare workers any good either. ]]
Yep- well said-
It is a wet market where all animals are alive until sold, then killed and butchered on the spot. Very filthy conditions.
in China the healthcare providers wore hazmat suits in the streets and in hospitals.
So why not in America?
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