
Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to Covid-19 Social Policy - walterbell
https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/masks-dont-work-covid-a-review-of-science-relevant-to-covide-19-social-policy
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kasey_junk
This is a particularly insidious form of advocacy because it mimics the
writing of a scientific article while presenting a political opinion.

I stopped checking after the 4th linked journal article. All 4 had their
results were misrepresented in the article. Not one suggested that masks
didn’t work. 2 showed they did work, 1 showed there wasn’t much difference
between N95 respirators and surgical masks and 1 was a small sample size
result that showed family spread amongst 2 families, 1 who wore masks outside
and one who didn’t.

Further they were a mix of respiratory illnesses mentioned. Colds, flues and
SARS were all mixed and matched.

Thats before we get into the dubious claim that there was a 100% infection
rate if any aerosolized droplets got through the mask.

~~~
hilbert42
_" This is a particularly insidious form of advocacy because it mimics the
writing of a scientific article while presenting a political opinion."_

 _" Not one suggested that masks didn’t work. 2 showed they did work."_

You're right, if I hadn't been reading the research papers on the matter over
the past few weeks I reckon I'd likely be fooled (at least in some parts).

Dr Rancourt points out that: _" The main transmission path is long-residence-
time aerosol particles (< 2.5 μm), which are too fine to be blocked, and the
minimum-infective dose is smaller than one aerosol particle."_

What he fails to mention is how N95/P2 masks actually work. From my reading,
these masks are made by stretching the plastic sheet until they start to part
and form into string-like strands/fibers with gaps between them. He's right,
the gaps are wider than 2.5 μm (somewhere around 5 μm) but the hidden factor
is that the stretching of the plastic causes electrostatic charges to
permanently form on the plastic through deformation somewhat akin to the way
the charge is formed on an electret microphone and it is these charges that
attract the aerosol particles which then collect on the plastic strands.

It seems Dr Rancourt's search of the literature was insufficiently deep (seems
it's another instance of a non-expert in the field stepping above his
station).

The most disconcerting aspect of Rancourt's report is the statement that it
only takes one virion particle to infect a human. It was my understanding that
the figure was considerably higher than this. If his quoted figure is correct
then N95 mask won't work as they're only about 95% effective.

Until we get more definitive information on this I'll continue to wear my N95
masks in public.

------
D13Fd
Applying this article's standards:

Seat belts don't work, because they don't prevent all fatalities.

Don't use a safety rope while climbing, because your anchors can break and you
can still fall.

Safety glasses don't work, because foreign debris can still enter through the
sides.

Don't wear a life jacket, because you can still die in cold water.

Don't get your teeth cleaned, because it doesn't prevent every instance of
tooth decay.

This is ridiculous. If wearing masks reduces transmission rates by 10%, it's
still easily worth it. The cost of masks is tiny compared to the enormous
costs of reduced economic activity (not to mention infection-related
healthcare).

------
jjgreen
"This paper was originally published at Rancourt's account on
ResearchGate.net. As of June 5, 2020, this paper was removed from his profile
by its administrators"

[http://activistteacher.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-
censorship...](http://activistteacher.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-censorship-
at-researchgate-things.html)

------
DanielleMolloy
A few german cities could reduce the number of new infections to 0 early in
the pandemic after making masks (including community masks) mandatory. The
university town Jena in particular was frequently cited for its pro-mask
campaign. I thought they had written a paper about their results, with
statistically corrected comparisons to cities of similar size; but can’t find
it. Those studies indicating that masks might not work were known in the
public and political discourse at that time (e.g. they were discussed in the
coronavirus update podcast). The city governments went for the policy anyway.

Japan and South Korea are also still doing much better than nations where
masks are not commonly seen...

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amykhar
Neither the author nor the publication seem credible sources for information
on this topic. The author is a Physics professor who was fired for giving all
of his students A+ in a course after coming under fire for putting a course
description in the catalog to get students to enroll, and then teaching
something completely different in the course. (They called it academic
squatting)

------
pridkett
I’m writing this with the caveat that it takes an order of magnitude more
effort to refute bull than to produce it.

The way I understand the current mask guidelines is that your mask isn’t there
to help you, but to help other people. I clicked through a few of the studies
and they looked at the effectiveness of masks in preventing the wearer from
getting infected in uncontrolled situations, not the effectiveness in
preventing the wearer from spreading it to other people.

------
huffmsa
But this doesn't hold up in the real world.

Particularly since viral load matters wrt severity of infection for COVID-19.

Do you want to get shot with 100 count bird shot or 70 count with a shorter
effective distance? An individual pellet probably won't do much harm, but
multiple pellets damaging the same organ will cause non-linear increases in
damage and severity of outcome.

~~~
walterbell
Do you mean viral load _after_ being infected, or viral load in a hypothetical
asymptomatic person who is showing no symptoms, not quarantined, and the
primary threat vector being mitigated by masks? Are there studies on viral
load in pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic individuals with Covid-19 or other
viruses?

~~~
huffmsa
The data for the reduction in viral load came from and Italian experiment with
symptomatic patients. A simple surgical mask caught 30% of viral particles
when they coughed vs no mask.

There might be some level of virus that your body can handle without even
developing antibodies / becoming symptomatic, but beyond that threshold, you
actually get sick.

Anecdotally, we have this for asymptomatic spreaders and potential casualties.

> 2 infected hairstylists

> Masks worn by everyone

> 0 of 140 clients infected

[https://www.livescience.com/hair-stylists-infected-
covid19-f...](https://www.livescience.com/hair-stylists-infected-covid19-face-
masks.html)

------
tangjurine
What do people think about the article suggesting that R0 is influenced by
humidity? Is it time to add giant humidifiers everywhere?

~~~
walterbell
[https://news.yahoo.com/sunlight-destroys-coronavirus-
quickly...](https://news.yahoo.com/sunlight-destroys-coronavirus-quickly-says-
us-agency-231844605.html)

 _> ... experiment that was carried out at the National Biodefense Analysis
and Countermeasures Center in Maryland. It showed that the virus's half-life
-- the time taken for it to reduce to half its amount -- was 18 hours when the
temperature was 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (21 to 24 degrees Celsius) with 20
percent humidity on a non-porous surface. This includes things like door
handles and stainless steel. But the half-life dropped to six hours when
humidity rose to 80 percent -- and to just two minutes when sunlight was added
to the equation. When the virus was aerosolized -- meaning suspended in the
air -- the half-life was one hour when the temperature was 70 to 75 degrees
with 20 percent humidity. In the presence of sunlight, this dropped to just
one and a half minutes. Bryan concluded that summer-like conditions "will
create an environment (where) transmission can be decreased."_

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pfortuny
Ridiculous. What does “not work” even mean?

If you block 90% of a surface, that area is blocked. Of course, not all of it.

I mean: photons are even smaller, and they happen to be blocked. Yes, this is
not a good example but it is not totally wrong.

------
JMTQp8lwXL
Ah yes, I too get my scientific news from sites called "River Cities Reader"
that publicly solicit donations at the end of articles. Clearly, an
institution we should trust when it comes to applying the scientific method.

~~~
walterbell
Fortunately, the hyperlink was invented to mitigate issues of transitive
trust. The following institutions are cited by this article. Thanks to
technology that is merely decades old, a single click is sufficient to consult
these primary sources:

    
    
      American Journal of Infection Control
      Epidemiology and Infection
      Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses
      CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association)
      Clinical Infectious Diseases
      JAMA (published since 1883)
      JEBM (Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine)

~~~
pridkett
I can also cite papers in various journals. However, it only matters if the
citations are relevant. In this case the author is largely citing papers that
show how wearing masks can prevent the wearer from becoming infected, not
preventing other people from becoming infected.

~~~
walterbell
Do you know of studies on the effectiveness of masks on prevention of other
people from becoming infected?

