Why should I wear a mask?

[GlennWest]

deleted

Edited July 1, 2020 by GlennWest

[Dutch_12078]

How do you know you are not asymptomatic and spreading the virus everywhere you go without a mask? Even a negative test is only valid at the moment the sample was taken...

[telcoman]

45 minutes ago, GR "Scott" Cundiff said:

Seeing lots of positive information on wearing a face shield rather than a mask.  Like this: https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2020/shields-compared-to-masks.html

Both are best, but since it is pretty well determined the main vector is respiratory droplets rather than surfaces, a face shield is probably pretty effective

Like this lady in Mexico

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

6 minutes ago, telcoman said:

Both are best, but since it is pretty well determined the main vector is respiratory droplets rather than surfaces, a face shield is probably pretty effective

Like this lady in Mexico

 

Man, we could have saved a few $$ and done this instead of buying some shields!

[telcoman]

1 minute ago, GR "Scott" Cundiff said:

 

Man, we could have saved a few $$ and done this instead of buying some shields!

Pretty ingenious I think and it probably works fine. Mexico is the biggest consumer of bottled water in the world so those containers are everywhere and cheap.

[DQDanny]

Dan Patrick,  Texas Lt. Governor, was just on Laura Ingrahm show.  He just stated that texas has 7, 177 ICU beds, & 1525 have covid patients in them.    I believe that's about 25% (don't have my calculator handy)..  The vast majority are sick people of other issues because they stayed away from hospitals the past 30 days he stated.     We learn more about this virus every day.  It's prudent to wear a mask in close proximity to other people,  for extended periods of time, or where a 6' distance can't be maintained.  It's become so politicized now days....it's an election year & nothing happens by accident.

[Ray,IN]

9 hours ago, GlennWest said:

This will keep you safe of you serious about it. P

Actually any mask with an exhalation valve is not the  best mask, as it will allow droplets and mist outside the mask. The whole purpose of wearing a mask is to contain all sputum from becoming airborne for others to inhale, it is not really meant to protect the wearer. Some large cities have banned masks with an exhalation valve.

I still have an Army gas mask, while it will protect me from almost anything, it will not prevent me from spreading this  SARS-CoV-2 virus should I ever become infected.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Ray,IN

[telcoman]

everything in the US seems to have become political these days. It is not helpful, and I think the fact the US has one of the worst records on this despite being the worlds most affluent country illustrates just how bad things are. If this had been the norm in WW2 we would all be speaking Japanese & German now. It really is distressing.

[GlennWest]

deleted

Edited July 1, 2020 by GlennWest

[Ray,IN]

1 minute ago, GlennWest said:

You put the filter you need on it.

 The exhalation valve does not have a filter. I used to teach CBR protection in the Army,  everything was designed to protect the wearer. Today  wearing a mask is to protect others.

[Barbaraok]

5 hours ago, GlennWest said:

I don't mean to upset anyone. Just i have worn respitors all my adult life and those things are nothing but nuisance masks

I've worn them doing spill clean up, etc., for years.  Hardly nuisance, when breathing in spill vapors could sear my lungs.   

Would you be ok with your surgical team not wearing masks during your operation?   

[Barbaraok]

36 minutes ago, GlennWest said:

You put the filter you need on it.

Most people will not be wearing half/full face industrial respirator.   They are wearing cloth masks or paper medical office masks.  

I am not sure why you are so against people doing such a small thing to help protect other people.  

[Kirk W]

13 hours ago, docj said:

I'm sorry to say this, but but I've begun to "discard" friends like this. I won't discard a friend purely over political beliefs, but if someone is willing to risk my health and the health of others because of their political views then I no longer have anything in common with them.

I know exactly what you are saying! I have been a political conservative all of my life but I am also 77 years old with a small amount of emphysema and my wife has medical issues too. It makes me so sad to see people trying to make such a major medical crisis into a political issue. 

[DJohns]

9 hours ago, dixonge said:

You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the purposes of mask wearing in a pandemic.

IT DOES NOT PROTECT YOU. It protects US. YOUR mask keeps YOUR exhalations/droplets/etc. from escaping into the air and infecting US.

Get it?

You are right on but people need to educate themselves so they would understand the reason to wear mask. Yesterday I saw a mother and two kids. Two kids wearing mask but not the mother. Tells you she is not informed as why to wear mask. That same mother would freak out if I took her kids in my car without a car seat. I guess it is ok for the government to mandate car seats but not ok to mandate mask!

Edited July 1, 2020 by DJohns
add

[JimK]

After all this time it is amazing how little we know about Covid.  There is a myth that Covid is only a major concern for those who are elderly or who have some sort of pre-existing condition.  It is clear that younger people are less likely to die.  Some of the statistics have been warped because of the nature of nursing homes.  First most are not actually geared towards "nursing" and they have limited trained medical staff, if any.  They did not have procedures or PPE to protect their workers or the elderly.  One infected, even asymptomatic, employee could infect dozens of patients on a single day.  There were plenty of deaths because of these tight living spaces.  Fifty elderly died in a Vets home a mile from my house.  Plenty of people of all ages have died including those in their 50s and 40s and sometimes younger.  

There also seems to be some confusion about pre-existing conditions.  Almost every older adult will have something that qualifies.  According to the CDC recommendations the worrisome pre-existing conditions include close to 50% of the entire adult population.  So when you hear that someone with a pre-existing condition died don't think they were severely ill and about to die anyway.  Regardless of age you might also be in that category. 

There is another really important consideration.  In my area of NY we had a lot of first responders die from Covid even though they were otherwise healthy and often of middle age or younger.  It seems that getting a big initial dose of Covid virus means the infection can because severe rapidly and the risk of death goes way up.  Maybe a mask and other precautions are not 100% but they can protect just by lowering the amount of initial exposure.

No one wants to see this pandemic go on and on and eventually infect millions of Americans and potential kill a couple million or more.  China showed that with severe measures they could control and virtually eliminate the virus within a few weeks.    

Edited July 1, 2020 by JimK

[telcoman]

1 hour ago, JimK said:

After all this time it is amazing how little we know about Covid.  There is a myth that Covid is only a major concern for those who are elderly or who have some sort of pre-existing condition.  It is clear that younger people are less likely to die.  Some of the statistics have been warped because of the nature of nursing homes.  First most are not actually geared towards "nursing" and they have limited trained medical staff, if any.  They did not have procedures or PPE to protect their workers or the elderly.  One infected, even asymptomatic, employee could infect dozens of patients on a single day.  There were plenty of deaths because of these tight living spaces.  Fifty elderly died in a Vets home a mile from my house.  Plenty of people of all ages have died including those in their 50s and 40s and sometimes younger.  

There also seems to be some confusion about pre-existing conditions.  Almost every older adult will have something that qualifies.  According to the CDC recommendations the worrisome pre-existing conditions include close to 50% of the entire adult population.  So when you hear that someone with a pre-existing condition died don't think they were severely ill and about to die anyway.  Regardless of age you might also be in that category. 

There is another really important consideration.  In my area of NY we had a lot of first responders die from Covid even though they were otherwise healthy and often of middle age or younger.  It seems that getting a big initial dose of Covid virus means the infection can because severe rapidly and the risk of death goes way up.  Maybe a mask and other precautions are not 100% but they can protect just by lowering the amount of initial exposure.

No one wants to see this pandemic go on and on and eventually infect millions of Americans and potential kill a couple million or more.  China showed that with severe measures they could control and virtually eliminate the virus within a few weeks.    

Nursing homes also got hit hard here in Canada. The big thing that has made the difference here is that the message from the top has been both firm and consistent and the population has co-operated for the most part. That has enabled us to keep our economic hit at a lower level. Some provinces like BC did not even have to totally lock down. I find it hard to believe when I see commentators on networks like Fox (yes we have that on our cable in Canada) saying that an expert like Dr Faucci is lying to people. That is criminal, IMO.

Edited July 1, 2020 by telcoman

[docj]

1 minute ago, telcoman said:

I find it hard to believe when I see commentators on networks like Fox (yes we have that on our cable in Canada) saying that an expert like Dr Faucci is lying to people.

Yesterday we had a US Senator, Rand Paul, question why "experts" should be allowed to tell us what to do!   Science, itself, has now become something which people choose to "believe in" or not! 😰

[TXiceman]

1 minute ago, docj said:

Yesterday we had a US Senator, Rand Paul, question why "experts" should be allowed to tell us what to do!   Science, itself, has now become something which people choose to "believe in" or not! 😰

As a retired engineer, my life has been based on science.   Not opinions, not lies, but facts from science.

People that do not believe in science need to all join the Flat Earth Society and leave the rest of the sane people alone.

Ken

[telcoman]

I wonder it they had this problem during the black plague?

[JimK]

I saw the video of Rand and Fauci.  Amazing.  Fauci did not get to his position by being a good doctor with scientific knowledge.  He is politically astute.  He is still trying to put out some sort of message and facts and at the same time survive with a President who wants to believe Covid should be swept under the carpet and we should get back to normal.  

It seems clear we are headed for tough times, which have just started.  We are still looking at a couple of million deaths unless there is a very effective vaccine available within a few months.  

[JimK]

8 minutes ago, telcoman said:

I wonder it they had this problem during the black plague?

There was not much knowledge of infection at the time.  

We do not what happened with the Spanish flu.  There were 3 waves of infection with the middle wave being worse for deaths.  A total of about 50 million died worldwide with an equivalent of about 2 million deaths in the US, adjusted for the current population.  People took precautions but it continued to spread.  My grandfather was living in an isolated part of the Southwest.  Regardless, he died.  Fortunately the 3rd wave helped save a lot of lives.  The virus finally mutated into a less severe disease.

[telcoman]

6 minutes ago, JimK said:

There was not much knowledge of infection at the time.  

We do not what happened with the Spanish flu.  There were 3 waves of infection with the middle wave being worse for deaths.  A total of about 50 million died worldwide with an equivalent of about 2 million deaths in the US, adjusted for the current population.  People took precautions but it continued to spread.  My grandfather was living in an isolated part of the Southwest.  Regardless, he died.  Fortunately the 3rd wave helped save a lot of lives.  The virus finally mutated into a less severe disease.

There were idiots back then as well

[Barbaraok]

5 minutes ago, JimK said:

There was not much knowledge of infection at the time.  

We do not what happened with the Spanish flu.  There were 3 waves of infection with the middle wave being worse for deaths.  A total of about 50 million died worldwide with an equivalent of about 2 million deaths in the US, adjusted for the current population.  People took precautions but it continued to spread.  My grandfather was living in an isolated part of the Southwest.  Regardless, he died.  Fortunately the 3rd wave helped save a lot of lives.  The virus finally mutated into a less severe disease.

Actually the H1N1 virus is still with us and a new mutation has been found in pigs in China.   With the 'Spanish Flu' (which probably originated in the midwest of the USA, it was a case of the spread throughout areas of the world that had not seen the virus before and by the 3rd wave, there were enough people with different levels of immunity that it no longer found new hosts to infect.   It is always in the background and every generation sees a reoccurrence of the virus when 'fresh' victims appear.   The H1N1 vaccine has proven to be somewhat affective and if it doesn't prevent the disease then helps to lessen the effects on people.    Hopefully everyone will get their flu vaccines in August/September and by practicing physical distancing and wearing masks, maybe we could have a very light flu season this year.   

[Barbaraok]

3 minutes ago, telcoman said:

There were idiots back then as well

Why people love to be ignorant is beyond me.

[durangodon]

It was scientists who said 600 years ago that the earth was flat.

It was scientists who 200 years ago said that we should cut our arteries and bleed out the sickness.

It was scientists who said in January of this year that Covid 19 wasn't transmitted from human to human.

It was scientists who said in March of this year that wearing a mask provided no protection, even though scientists all wore masks.

It will be scientists 200 years from now who will look back and laugh at what scientists are saying today.

But, it's the best we've got.  To me, it's just common sense that if this is an airborne disease, wearing a face covering will slow down it's transmission.  What's the big deal?  Wear a mask, it won't hurt anything.