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Even If Masks Work In Theory, They Aren’t Working In Practice
Townhall.com ^ | September 21, 2020 | Scott Morefield

Posted on 09/21/2020 4:57:14 AM PDT by Kaslin

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To: Outlaw76

For studies that focus on mask effectiveness, please see my original comment’s study and the three studies I linked here: https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3886112/posts?page=60#60

As for Arkansas, your argument is not with masks; it’s with mask mandates. A mandate doesn’t make the problem disappear. If it did, we wouldn’t see any shootings in “gun-free school zones”. A mandate doesn’t reduce the risk of viral transmission. Most or all of the population wearing a properly made, properly worn mask the entire time they’re in a situation where it makes sense to do so (indoors in a public place, outside doesn’t matter since it doesn’t spread much at all there) reduces the risk of transmission.


61 posted on 09/21/2020 1:46:34 PM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest
Understanding the Risk to Healthcare Personnel

The face diapers people have been wearing are good only as cues to remember to keep your distance and your grubby paws out of your face.

BTW, our doc says the same.

And I'm bloody well not gonna run around in MOPP gear to avoid getting WuFlu. Right now more people in my neck of the woods are dying in MVAs and from lead poisoning than from WuFlu.

I have HAD IT with this crap.

62 posted on 09/21/2020 1:59:13 PM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

The total duration of mask mandates during the Spanish Flu pandemic was 4-6 weeks. We’re zooming past six months on our way to eighteen.

Why?


63 posted on 09/21/2020 2:28:05 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: mewzilla

Just 175 days (so far) to flatten the curve.


64 posted on 09/21/2020 2:33:04 PM PDT by who knows what evil? (Yehovah saved more animals than people on the ark...siameserescue.org)
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To: mewzilla

Not sure what the intention of posting that link was, but it does state repeatedly that mask wearing was found to be effective in reducing the risk of transmission with both Influenza and SARS-CoV-1. They even models how effective it would be to have various amounts of the population wearing masks and found there would even be some minimal benefit to just 10% of the population wearing only a surgical mask. Benefits improved dramatically as the ratio of masked persons increased and the quality of the masks (e.g. moving from surgical masks to N95 masks) improved.

Wearing a mask and keeping 6 feet of distance from those outside your household while in an indoor public environment represent a minimal burden to each of us while providing a benefit in the form of reducing the risk of transmission, which reduces the total number of cases, which reduces the reach of SARS-CoV-2, thus reducing the risk of it reaching individuals who will die from it.


65 posted on 09/21/2020 2:35:05 PM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Because we’re attempting to slow the transmission rate to reducing the risk of it reaching those who would suffer permanent injury or death from catching it until we can wrap up work on safe and effective vaccines and deploy them.

Wearing a mask while indoors in public places and maintaining >6 feet of distance between individuals from different households is a reasonable way to reduce the risk of transmission and slow the disease’s progress through the population. Shutdowns and lockdowns are completely unreasonable given the relative risk. It all ends once we have enough people inoculated, which is why President Trump has spent months pushing to streamline the process to get safe and effective vaccines into the hands of the American people.

Trust the president. He knows what he’s doing. And he’s about to turn this whole COVID mess right on top of the Democrats right before the election.


66 posted on 09/21/2020 2:38:38 PM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

It has been 3 months. They don’t work here.
I don’t want a study. I want real world results not bullshit studies that require a perfect setting.


67 posted on 09/21/2020 2:44:43 PM PDT by Outlaw76 (Free Men don't ask permission.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

Just now looking at the study — I should have done so before replying. Nothing has changed my mind yet.


68 posted on 09/21/2020 2:48:45 PM PDT by Outlaw76 (Free Men don't ask permission.)
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To: Outlaw76

The purpose of studies is to demonstrate what might not be immediately obvious. For example, fish oil is well studied, and we know it has benefits for joint health. Now if you start taking fish oil supplements, will all your joints suddenly work like you’re 15 years old again? No. In fact, your joints might show little or no improvement at all. What the study says is that if you give fish oil supplements to 50,000 people, the overall joint health of that population improves significantly and you see fewer joint injuries and better joint function. But WITHIN that population, specific INDIVIDUALS will see very different results.

The studies tell us there are benefits overall, even when mom or dad or Aunt Susan say they can’t tell a difference. Those benefits improve quality of life for many people and reduce healthcare costs associated with joint issues.

Same with the masks. What the studies can tell us is that if people actually wear good masks and wear them properly in situations where they’re useful, there’s an overall benefit. Now, if someone is walking around Walmart while infected, it’s still entirely possible they’re infecting others even if everyone is wearing a good mask properly. But what the studies say is that if they would have infected 10 people in that Walmart, they might only infect 6 if people are wearing masks (particularly the infected individual). So it made no difference to the 6 who still got infected, but the four who didn’t aren’t spreading it to others, and those people aren’t spreading it to others, and so on. It’s a cumulative effect. And some of those who would have gotten infected who now aren’t will (statistically speaking) be among those who would die or suffer permanent injury from a fight with COVID-19.

The key take-away here is that wearing masks and social distancing are not magic and do not halt all infections. They simply reduce risk. They do so with minimal cost in terms of time, effort, or financial expense. But they’re only really useful when enough people are doing it properly. That means wearing a mask that’s actually effective (not a mesh mask, or a bandana, or something with holes cut in it, or a mask worn around the chin, etc.) and wearing it properly while indoors in public places. It isn’t going to help if only 10% of the people are actually following through with that consistently. Educating is a big part of that, and that’s sadly been as much a failure so far as most other public education run by the government.


69 posted on 09/21/2020 3:15:45 PM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

‘Wearing a mask while indoors in public places and maintaining >6 feet of distance between individuals from different households is a reasonable way to reduce the risk of transmission...’

is it your belief that unmasked people passing each other in a public place without stopping are going to pass infection between them...? based merely on normal, non exaggerated inhalations from the nostrils...?

if so, then why does the covid test require a thrust into the nasal passage to capture enough material to formulate a diagnosis? for that matter, if this is such a virulent pathogen, why do we need to be tested to determine whether we have it nor not...?


70 posted on 09/21/2020 3:52:12 PM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: Kaslin
I have no idea where this guy gets his "information", but this article is full of untruths.

Masks work. This has been documented in numerous scientific papers. They do not have to work perfectly, they only need to decrease disease transmission. The goal is to achieve 60% protection, which is equivalent to herd immunity. The fact that new case numbers have been steadily dropping since their peak in mid-July is a good indicator that measures such as mandatory mask use and social distancing work.

This could be why in place after place that has instituted mandatory masking, from California to Israel to Peru to Columbia to India to countless others, the virus continues to spread unabated and seemingly even faster than in non-masked places, only finishing when it runs its course at 15 to 25 percent seroprevalence.

Where does this even come from? There is no place in the world where there is 15 to 25 percent seroprevalence of Covid-19. Fewer than 0.4% of the world population has ever caught Covid-19. Even if the seroprevalence were that high, it would still be far below the number needed to achieve herd immunity. The measure of how contagious Covid-19 is, or R-nought (R0), is 2.5 (each infected person infects, on average, 2.5 other people). The formula to determine the level of herd immunity or protection that must be achieved in the population is 1-1/R0 (x 100 to make a percent). Since R0 is 2.5, the level of protection must be 1-1/2.5, or 0.6 (60%). In no case has Covid-19 "run its course" anywhere. It has been controlled by strict social distancing, masking requirements, etc., but never by just letting it spread uncontrolled.

This kind of misinformation helps the virus to spread, because people who believe it is no big deal don't take proper precautions. Covid is a killer. Even though the death rate has been dropping, it is still close to 3%--that is, one out of every thirty who catch it will die. It truly is not something we can just allow to circulate unopposed.

71 posted on 09/21/2020 8:56:25 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

I thought we were slowing the transmission rate so as not to overwhelm the system. You know, fifteen days to flatten the curve? Six months ago?


72 posted on 09/21/2020 11:08:40 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: Vermont Lt
If you don’t believe they work, then wear the same one.

I have one; a blue one upon which I have drawn Dracula teeth.

So far; any particles 'trapped' in it have not clogged it enough to make it impermeable.

73 posted on 09/22/2020 5:29:20 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Vermont Lt


One of these days; a few thousand Richard Dreyfuss types are going to remove their masks...


74 posted on 09/22/2020 5:30:35 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: A Formerly Proud Canadian

Sorry kid; but that mask ain't gonna save you from the vacuum!

75 posted on 09/22/2020 5:35:28 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Outlaw76
I wonder...

Does the virus also exit the body thru the other orifice?

76 posted on 09/22/2020 5:37:30 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Outlaw76
...you are creating a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty right next to your mouth.

Huh?

All that 'stuff' was already inside my body!

How does being now on the outside tend to make it worse?

77 posted on 09/22/2020 5:40:52 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

At my local Walmart; the door sign says you can wear a homemade mask/face covering.

SURELY this tells us something!


78 posted on 09/22/2020 5:42:23 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

CHOICE (abortion) has been with us for over 40 years.

This is NOT about ‘protecting lives’!!!


79 posted on 09/22/2020 5:43:57 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest
Because we’re attempting to slow the transmission rate to reducing the risk of it reaching those who would suffer permanent injury or death from catching it until we can wrap up work on safe and effective vaccines and deploy them.

No

no

NO!!!!

It's to keep our medical facilities from being overwhelmed by the number of victims!!!

80 posted on 09/22/2020 5:46:02 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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