Some of the loony members of this forum seem to think that everything is black or white but the reality is that everything in reality is a shade of grey. Yes basic surgical masks are too porous to provide much protection FROM the virus but they do minimize contagion being spread by the person wearing the basic surgical mask, so it protects others.
An N95 mask will provide two way protection but those white and blue masks that are given out by the government provide very limited protection for the wearer and some containment protection to the public should you have an active case of Covid-19 variant.
The government wants to limit the spread of the virus, they don't give a shit about you personally because that's your business, your right and your freedom. You are responsible for being a good citizen and minimizing the spread of the virus but if you want to take care of yourself as well as others then you should get a proper mask that provides two way protection.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Masks are dumb and people look stupid walking around in them. More so, wearing one while they walk through down the sidewalk by themselves or drive in their car alone.
Stupid sheep.
CourtJester
Level 7
Dec 25, 2021
1
There are fashion statement masks available for the 'too cool for school, kids'.
I have found that wearing a mask has reduced my asthma attacks/episodes almost entirely. No albuterol inhalor use since the pandemic/mask thing started. So they must be doing something. I use the NK-95.
@silverotter11 Then do it for you. Iām personally going to hold others accountable for not taking Claritin when my allergies flair up next spring.
@CourtJester Do you have asthma? My response was a serious one, if you have never been unable to breath due to an asthma attack you really have no idea how terrible it is.
Clariton does nothing for my asthma, I do take Montalukast but b4 the the mask wearing I still used the Albuterol now I have not needed it.
All masks will give some protection, because they all, in effect, increase the distance and the number of obstacles between two people who may exchange the virus, some better than others. But it is not really a question for doctors. How small particles like moisture droplets and viruses circulate and spread in the air, and how many of them are likely to be stopped by various filters with various degrees of sealing and baffling around their edges, is really a physics problem, which should be put to physicists and engineers. Who will probably tell you that the issues and problems with modeling it all, are far to complex to give even a close answer, and that your best choices would be simply to look at the statistics and see what happens in practice.
But the bottom line is, that masks are a virtually zero cost from of protection, and that even if you hung one in the air three feet away from an infected person, some of the viral particles are going to lodge on it, not enough to be important, but some.
How many, has to do with things like inverse square law and the static electrical charge of both the particles and the mask, plus the size/mass of particles, air temp, wind speed, humidity and a hundred other things. But since I suspect that most anti-vaxers/anti-maskers are too lazy to bother trying to understand any one of those, so it would be a waste of time talking about them anyway.
Fernapple
Level 9
Dec 25, 2021
2
Anti-vaxxers tend to be anti-science and at best pro-pseudo-science, some of them are just too cool for school.
Yes, and I am so tired of Biden and Harris lying to us. It's true. They are lying. They claim if you have been vaccinated and have the booster and wear a mask that you will be OK. Go on to your Christmas gathering and you will be safe, but it is a lie. Omicron is now the variant and most of us will get it sooner or later and it can kill you. Please stop lying. Tell us all to be afraid because it is coming and we can do nothing. Be responsible and tell the truth on this. Put fear into us! Make us all huddle together in a fearful panic.
OK. Maybe that is a step too far.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Dec 25, 2021
1
I agree with you that Omicron is a super spreader variant and I would say that all of us will get it in the same way that all of us will get the flu at some point. Being vaccinated will minimize the symptoms for most people so they will be, as you said, OK. This is a virus we are dealing with and it doesn't play by nice rule sets, so I would suggest that most politicians around the world are doing their best to calm people and be realistic at the same time. Some politicians have told us everything from drinking bleach to UV rays up the ass are a cure, those would be the Big Liars in the political world,
There is plenty of evidence out there. Whether or not you are smart enough to parse good information from bad is another story. This person obviously can't. Who knows if that person is even real or a surgeon, but that still doesn't mean anything. I've been working in hospitals for almost 2 decades and I've met numerous doctors that were FRIGHTENINGLY stupid.
ChestRockfield
Level 8
Dec 24, 2021
4
Just like Auto Mechanics, Carpenters, & Lawyers, they are all on the Bell Curve!
There are still surgeons who operate without going through the routine of being clean and diligently washing their hands, the science is clear on this point but it doesn't allow for the human ego or basic laziness.
@AnneWimsey Exactly. The median point is obviously different for different professions, but there's likely dumb everythings. Except maybe astrophysicists? I've only met one, and know of a few more, and can't really conceptualize how they could be stupid, but I'm probably wrong.
A knee replacement surgeon doesn't wear a mask to avoid catching their patient's bad knee.
RichCC
Level 8
Dec 24, 2021
6
Yes, but MTG says we do not close schools because of cancer. I wonder where she went to school?
@DenoPenno
Different diseases have different levels of transmissibility. COVID and Measles are a lot more contagious than cancer.
Diseases are subject to population statistics. They replicate when they can but they're not immortal. If enough cases(instances) die away before they can propagate, the virus will gradually approach extinction.
We can encourage that by discouraging the virus spreading. It's not a black and white choice and it won't happen instantly.
We should work towards the result we want. For me that means working to reduce the disease.
Life is full of choices. For me I think it is more productive to get training at a school -- training that I could use later in life to further my situation -- than to stay out of school and remain ignorant -- from what I consider to be a negligible fear of cancer.
@RichCC
Uuummmm, where/when have you seen stats that Cancer is"contagious"??????? The answer is: NEVER.
@AnneWimsey
Relatively speaking. Especially compared to more communicable diseases like COVID or measles.
Of course we all catch something eventually. The leading cause of death is life.
@AnneWimsey
Cervical Cancer from human papillomavirus for instance. [healio.com]
@denopenno obviously she didnt
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