UK: What if everyone had masked up? Analysis of app data has the answer: "Respirators would have dropped the rate of COVID transmission by an estimated factor of 9, compared with 0.6 for surgical masks. A factor of 9 is enough to put SARS-COV-2 into exponential decay! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
To check. This means N95 masks? "Respirator" sounds like a piece of medical equipment, not a mask?
Mask are medical devices designed to prevent the surgeon to spit into the sound during surgery - you call them blue baggies, regulated under FDA / GDPR. Respirators are designed for aerosol prevention and regulated under NIOSH or FFP2/FFP3
As result the virus would have been highly suppressed for as long as respirator use continued buying us time to find a solution to eliminate it Well we decided that we prefer throwing children under the bus and adults in front of trains
Den Gedanken hatte ich schon so oft. Was, wenn wir weiter alle (!) Maske getragen hätten, als manche sie fröhlich weggeschmissen haben. Was, wenn das weltweit geschehen wäre. Was, wenn? 😞
Wir können *heute* damit anfangen und die zukünftigen COVID Opfer retten
Brauchst du mir nicht sagen 😷
At that rate it might well have been wiped out completely.
And not just COVID! There is ample evidence that it would have significantly damaged - if not eradicated - other related airborne viruses and bacterial problems, e.g. flu hospitalisations AND deaths dropped significantly when masks were worn.
True
We eradicated a strain of the flu, B/Yamagata.
That's one of the very few positive impacts of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic
that, and working from home.
Good. One down, a few hundred to go ....
Every patient and every doc in my offices mask up.
Glad to hear that. I work in a hospital, and the only ones that wear masks are me and a guy that works in the cafeteria (surgery excepted). Never been sick at least since 2019.
Thank you for setting a good example
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Using anything less than an n95 maybe a kn94[fit tested] on an Airborne virus Is like using dishwashing gloves to work with 33,000 volt power lines..
Except: we were there, & saw "mask mandates - cases down" & "no mandate - cases up" with zero mandates as to what kind of mask. & Anecdotal cases of "hairdresser had COVID, but masked, & no customers contracted it."
Def not so great as protection, but as source control, when everyone is doing it? Def way better than a kick in the teeth. Not useless at all.
Absolutely useless for elimination purpose and that's what the article cited above is about
Bingo.
You are thinking one-way masking. When everyone is masking, KN94s bring down circulation substantially. www.mpg.de/17916867/cor...
You may want to reread what I said again. I explicitly included kn94s when fit tested....
Mild unless with a pre-existing condition. 😜
It really wasn't hard and a small sacrifice to save someone's loved one. Unfortunately, the selfish & loud seem to make everyone else's health decisions for them so here we are.
i never understood men who for brakes a century wore (and some still wear) ties (😂😂) mutated to such pussies ...
Family who say that they love me dearly, do not want to mask, and do not want to see me in a mask. Make it make sense.
pushpin 📌
But mask mandates were tyranny🙄
THIS! This is why it's so maddening when people say "you can't mask forever" when it is provably their fault for stopping precautions too early
Respirator precautions never existed
the irony is that back in the early 2000s the US gov investigated providing 3M Auras for every citizen in case of a biological attack.... so they knew what worked and what didn't already. During the swine flu scare the french gov stockpiled respirators, which they destroyed right before SARS2....
Yep
True. Wish they did.
Germany required FFP2 at some point in public transportation. But too many riots from people who claimed that Covid was just a cold to them. So now everyone has to risk their health if they want to travel on the train or bus.
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We achieved local elimination early in Aust & NZ saving thousands of lives. And that was without the knowledge of transmission we have now or widespread use of P2/N95 respirators. Then rich people didn’t want to give up international travel or wear masks so here we are 🤦🏻.
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The politicizing of masking rests on Trumps shoulders. He should be ashamed.
"But we went through SO MUCH" YES and the fact that we now do FUCK ALL as a society when we KNOW what would help against ALL KINDS of airborne shit means all the effort and expense and "hardship" was FOR NOTHING 👉 indoor air filters, efficient ventilation systems, masks
What if everyone masked up *now*? At least in crowded indoor spaces? And *definitely* while sick? What if we enabled sick people to stay home and rest? What if every school, prison, train, bus, office, doctors' surgery and hospital had air filters? What if we had legal indoor air hygiene standards?
We could eliminate not only COVID but also flu and the common cold, save thousands of lives every year, vastly improve quality of life for everyone, *and* hugely reduce exposure to airborne allergens and microplastics. It's time to take air hygiene as seriously as drinking water safety.
not to mention making the world a *lot* safer for immunocompromised and disabled people to participate in
We were so short of respirators at the start. Storing them in labeled bags to re-use in clinic.
Not in Germany
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An #evermasker here, since 2019. My respirator will NEVER come off in a public place again. It is painfully obvious that the Establishment is culling the herd of low-paid workers, and I have NO INTENTION of helping them kill me. Mask on, people. Defy the Establishment.
Back then (or even now), this would significantly slow the process of variant evolution, further slowing the population spread, with more sustained immunity and fewer reinfections. Targeted use could further protect IC folks, as chronic infections have been the source of all major variants.
We would all benefit from lower circulation. Fewer medical staff out sick, better healthcare. Less risky to briefly take off a mask during a flight to drink. Etc.
If only we really had and in future did follow the science. FFS.
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I don’t remember anyone even talking about or advocating for “respirators” until late 2021. Even today most of the “mask” people tend to use surgical ones (and as your analysis points out, they’re almost useless for airborne pathogens).
Everyone I know who masks is wearing n95 or equivalent, like this, which is a respirator.
There was a serious shortage in 2020. They used the lie that masks do not work to keep FFP3s for healthcare workers (and then even did not give those masks to healthcare workers for some reason). And they could not abandon the lie in 2021 when there was enough supply.
Underlying study for those wanting to go straight there journals.aps.org/pre/abstract...
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