Even If Masks Work In Theory, They Aren’t Working In Practice

Townhall.com ^ | September 21, 2020 | Scott Morefield

[SoCal Pubbie]

How about my common sense post?

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Here in Alberta, there are 16K reported cases, 14.7K recovered and 255 deaths. Their ages ranged from 27-105.

Of those deaths, only 8 had no comorbidities. 2/3 (170) were over the age of 80. Factoring in those aged 70-79, 57 died. 89% of all CCP-Coronavirus deaths were over the age of 70. While I do not know the ages of the 8 people with no comorbidities, I would suspect that they were all quite elderly when they passed away.

The average life expectancy in Alberta is 82 and the average age of CCP-Coronavirus deaths is 83. While I believe that the passing of anyone is sad, statistics would suggest that the CCP-Coronavirus is ‘thinning the herd’. (My stats come from the Alberta government website concerning the CCP-Coronavirus. https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-alberta-data.aspx)

[IrishBrigade]

‘Masks probably cut transmission risk by 90% for a 15-minute grocery store foray.’

you are aware, I’m sure, that unless someone within a few feet of you has a coughing or sneezing jag, or starts belting out a Broadway tune, (and then only if the ejector is himself infected to begin with), you are not going to become infected by walking amongst unmasked shoppers......

do people typically go on sneezing or coughing fits on your supermarket visits...?

[Tareli]

My 83-year-old mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s, hypertension and cardiac issues resides in a nursing home in Florida. The facility has been stringent in infection control, PPE, etc. and all the residents get tested for COVID regularly. My mother-in-law tested positive for COVID last month. They moved her to another facility for COVID-positive people and immediately started her on vitamins C, D and zinc. She never became ill, never had any symptoms and was transferred back to her nursing home as soon as her follow-up COVID test returned negative none the worse for wear.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Is this common sense?

Fauci: We’ll likely be wearing masks for most of 2021, even after a vaccine rolls out

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3886223/posts

[ConservativeInPA]

It’s my understanding that trying to stop it with a common mask is like shooting a BB through a chain link fence.

That's a good analogy.

[depressed in 06]

They got the masks backward, masks are worn to not get the virus. Nobody gives a sh!t whether you give the virus to someone else. You don’t want to get the virus.

[Outlaw76]

This graphic is complete BS.
In image 2, It completely ignores the actual direction of droplets. They go UP. Right past your eyes and over your head. The droplets will linger longer and at a higher level, than they would would without a mask. They don’t travel as far forward, but they last longer.

I have a theory that breathing out of your nose is better than through a mask. I plan to test it out later this week and release a video of the experiment.

Here’s my first test, several months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4zNYfMYg-c

[2aProtectsTheRest]

Couple things:

1) I’m against mandates from the government to wear masks. I’m generally against government using force or taxation to control peoples’ behavior, unless it truly is an imminent matter of life and death (e.g. police keeping people out of an active crime scene).

2) There were mask mandates in most major cities and plenty of photographic evidence of people wearing masks during Spanish Flu. And this is probably nearly as bad as Spanish Flu, pound for pound. We just have better tools now for treatment and prevention. When President Trump announces approval of a safe and effective vaccine, that will spell the end of all this COVID stuff, including the masks, shutdowns, social distancing, etc. That’s why he’s put so much effort into the vaccines.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

Respiratory droplets (pictured in the graphic) only stay in the air for a few seconds. Yes, some droplets will be forced more upwards, but they’ll still land quickly. You’re talking an extra couple of seconds in the air.

But that’s not the point. Wearing a properly made, properly worn mask reduces both the volume and the range of the droplets that enable SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Volume is a huge component of this. Reducing it is extremely helpful.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

Conspiracy nonsense.

Even if that were true, the virus doesn’t survive long without a liquid medium. By the time the masks were packed in boxes, those boxes packed onto a pallet, that pallet loaded onto a truck, then transferred to a container, then loaded on a ship, every SARS-CoV-2 virus would be long since destroyed. Viruses do not live in open air. Proteins denature in open air.

[Mom MD]

really. and where is the data to back up your 90% reduction? Masks do nothing if the sort

[Mom MD]

Your picture fails to show the particles leaking around the sides top and bottom of the mask. And this is an airborne virus as well. masks do redirect the particles down where everyone can put their paws on them and spread the freely. They do not reduce disease transmission

In addition no study has shown sufficient viral particles in respiratory exhalation in asymptomatic individuals to be infectious anyways. The magic talismen do not work. the states with the strictest masking guidelines have some if the highest rates of disease. Kind of like gun laws stopping gang shootings.....

[Jane Long]

The whole ‘servers...or ANYONE wearing masks, in a restaurant’ idea is the most absurd.

Just as the mask requirements are, too.

[who knows what evil?]

Corona fascism...I LIKE it!

[2aProtectsTheRest]

The study I linked to goes into detail about all of that. That's why I linked the study instead of only providing the graphic: because they give a lot more information than what's in that singular graphic. Here's another graphic from the same study at the same link:

Fomite transmission is still purely theoretical. No documented cases of fomite transmission that I'm aware of and the CDC doesn't list fomites as a primary transmission vector for SARS-CoV-2. Yes, people improperly touch their masks to put them on and remove them, but that's an education issue; not a problem with the masks themselves.

"the states with the strictest masking guidelines have some if the highest rates of disease."

That's a comment on the effectiveness of government mandates; not masks. A state can mandate whatever they'd like. If people ignore the mandate or practice malicious compliance (advocated here all the time with talk of mesh masks, cutting holes in masks, etc.) Again, not a problem with the masks. A properly made, properly worn mask reduces the volume and the range of the droplets that are the primary source of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

[Mom MD]

But does not stop transmission. In addition there is no proof evidence asymptomatic people have enough virus in respiratory secretion to spread it at all. combine that with the way the public wears masks and all you are doing is annoying people for no good reason

[GOPJ]

Most food servers don’t understand the concept... as this piece pointed out.

The easy path - - IF you want restaurant food - and you’re older or at high risk - get it ‘to go’, take it home, dump the food out of the container directly onto a plate and microwave your dinner while you’re washing your hands. Viruses hate microwaves.

[Outlaw76]

Okay, I hate typing this part because it doesn't come off as nice...
Please show me the data that shows that masks work. -— I mean that whole heartedly. I'm tired of hearing people say they work only to have everything I know and everything I see contradict that statement.

I live in Arkansas.
On July 20, the first day of mask mandate, we had 699 cases.
Two weeks later (when the cases should have started dropping) we had 787 cases
On September 19th, 2 months later, we have 803 cases.

IF masks worked 50% of the time and only 50% of the people wore masks, the number of cases would have dropped by somewhere between 10% and 25% right?

The reality is more like 90-99% wore masks during that time and the numbers didn't drop by 10 to 25% -— and they really should have dropped by more.

Masks don't work.

I've heard ‘It's common sense’ - but it isn't. The data disproves the efficacy of wearing masks to combat Covid 19.

On the other side of ‘common sense’ - if you aren't changing your mask routinely (at least every 90 minutes), you are creating a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty right next to your mouth.

BTW - did you even watch the video?

[2aProtectsTheRest]

"But does not stop transmission."

By that reasoning, we shouldn't have bothered vaccinating against Smallpox because the vaccine isn't 100% effective in every individual. Ergo, if it isn't perfect, don't bother.

From an epidemiological standpoint, a reduction in the risk of transmission has value. When you're talking about a disease that causes deaths, a reduction in transmission risk equates to a reduction in the death rate. Study after study provides ample evidence that there is a tangible benefit to mask wearing and that benefit is a reduction in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Your statements fly in the face of the evidence before us. It flies in the face of what President Trump is telling us and what his CDC is saying.

All this does is slow transmission rates so we buy more time for a safe and effective vaccine to boost inoculation rates beyond the herd immunity threshold without a load of preventable deaths. CDC has us ~250,000 excess deaths this year and we're likely only about 15-16% of the way to the HIT (~10% infected, R0 of 2.5, HIT of 60%). Reducing the rate of transmission with simple measures that don't kill the economy save lives and make sense. I disagree on principle with mandates, but we shouldn't need a mandate to put on a mask in the limited circumstances where it makes sense to do so. Namely, while in an indoor public place.

I certainly agree there are far too many people wearing poorly made masks and/or wearing masks incorrectly, but that's a separate issue. If everyone wore a properly made, properly worn mask in indoor public places, transmission rates would be reduced.