
Widespread mask wearing could prevent second waves of COVID-19, study says - AndrewBissell
https://ottawacitizen.com/pmn/health-pmn/widespread-mask-wearing-could-prevent-covid-19-second-waves-study/wcm/ad849de3-1dd7-4290-ba66-16ff9e09b99d/
======
stx
I must admit I was wrong when I thought that people could handle wearing masks
properly. I took my first trip out in months this weekend to visit family at
their house in the mountains. We stayed away from people the whole time and
only went out to get groceries. When driving through the town (its a small
Colorado tourist town with one strip of shops) only about 50 percent of people
had masks on at all. Of those with masks most had them around their chin or
not covering their nose. I know that its not as simple to get a perfect air
tight fit with n95/p100 but I am not talking about that. People literally just
had them hanging on their chin while in large crowds. This was during the day
and after dusk. I also noticed a person at the store pull their mask down to
talk or sneeze which is the time when its most important to be covered.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Viruses are a part of life. Those 50% have accepted this and moved on.

~~~
ugexe
How do those type of people explain safe sex? I hope it’s not the “sheep”
defense...

~~~
Fjolsvith
Why weren't officials demanding everyone wear condoms all the time during the
HIV scare?

~~~
ugexe
Because someone choosing to have unsafe sex and getting aids isn’t going to
give their e.g. grandma aids. They are choosing to risk themselves, which is
not the same as risking others that have not chosen to partake in the risky
behavior. This may be hard to reconcile for those who think the world revolves
around them.

------
blackrock
The irritating thing is seeing people walk around a grocery store, talking on
their cell phones, with their masks off.

~~~
danlugo92
Don't let it irritate you man. People have collectively decided they don't
care. Accept what you can't change.

~~~
Jemm
I can accept dying of a virus but dying from another person's stupidity is not
acceptable.

------
neilwilson
Widespread banning of individual owned vehicles would prevent far more deaths
and amongst younger people too. Millions saved. Millions more “life years”
saved. Pollution reduced.

The science is also very clear on that.

Is that what we want though?

~~~
hatenberg
I mean. Vehicles do provide mobility at the downside of pollution in a world
designed for vehicle mobility. Its a non trivial and expensive change.

Masks protect for cents a day from a deadly disease leaving many people with
damage for life, crippling medical bills at the downside of what exactly? Many
professions wear them day in and day out.

People have forgot that government means making choices we may not want but
have to,

~~~
jakeogh
dupe from a month ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23473335](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23473335)

(junk study; assumes the masks are effective and then makes predictions based
on that assumption
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23477485](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23477485))

RE: Forgot? That's backwards. The government operates only with the consent of
the people. It's why we have juries.

For how long are you ok with the fake masks that say right on the box not
designed for viruses? Forever? Pretending a it's going to just go away is
getting old. Roughly 1/3 of common cold viruses are corona-class.

We all know the typical hand wave explanation about droplets. Sneezing or
coughing are the only significant producers of large particles that the fake
masks catch, and I haven't seen a person sneeze or cough in public in a oddly
long time.

CDC Influenza and pneumonia deaths by influenza season and age: United States,
2008–2015: [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/influenza-and-
pn...](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/influenza-and-pneumonia-
deaths-2008-2015.pdf) (these are not estimates, see the footnote)

    
    
      2015-2016
      Flu: 7,961
      Pneumonia: 131,858 
      All: 1,769,940
    

Mask psychology: [https://stpauls.vxcommunity.com/Issue/Us-Experiment-On-
Infan...](https://stpauls.vxcommunity.com/Issue/Us-Experiment-On-Infants-
Withholding-Affection/13213)

Deliberate problems:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGAlQbWCi6Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGAlQbWCi6Y)

Covid-19 death vs COVID-19+ death:
[http://v6y.net/1541e03e6cfd1442590bc7b5476f88c30a29a0d881bdb...](http://v6y.net/1541e03e6cfd1442590bc7b5476f88c30a29a0d881bdb943bb48c3cfb6cdf527.mp4)

Excess deaths are the only real measure:
[https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm)

~~~
hatenberg
Or we observe reality of every Asian and European country with mandatory masks
crushing the curve after introduction.

But hey, a 30 cents a day intervention is clearly too much to ask of Americans

~~~
neilwilson
Where in these places has normality been resumed? When can we go back to
seeing smiles?

Have you considered the long term social cost of reducing interaction between
people? Or is that the plan?

There is no end goal here. Just a bunch of short term reactions that are based
upon fear and propaganda not hard data. Why so much social change for a virus
where the median age of death is over 80, and the majority of the population
under 40 are not impacted at all.

There have been an estimated 31.5 million deaths this year so far on
Worldometer. 1.5% of those were Covid. How many of that 1.5% would have made
the end of the year? It's time to get some perspective and control those
amygdalas.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Why so much social change for a virus where the median age of death is over
> 80

The “social change” is why the media age of death is so high; the elderly are
the least able to withstand the supportive measures necessary to survive
serious COVID-19 illness, and it is the “social change” that has kept the
number of simultaneous cases down to the level where those who need it are
likely to get the proper supportive care.

Without that, the median age of death would drop considerably, as well as the
number of deaths skyrocketing.

Of course, just because death is both the most serious adverse outcome and the
one for which statistics are easiest to compile doesn't mean it's all we
should care about.

> How many of that 1.5% would have made the end of the year?

The vast majority of those in the developed world. Sure, in the US the median
age of death may be a little over 80, but life expectancy at age 80 is 9 years
for women, 7 for men.

