Anders wrote:Rob wrote:Anders wrote:
The biggest concern that doctors have around recommending masks is the false sense of security that might come along with wearing one.
Do you believe this? I just don't see how this can be true in practice. The mask is a constant reminder that you should be careful. The act of putting it on is an attempt to be careful.
How many people do you think follows this advice, or don’t touch their mask?
«If you choose to wear a surgical mask, make sure you have the best fit possible around your mouth and nose. Properly dispose of the mask and put on a new one anytime someone coughing or sneezing around you contaminates it.»
After what you quoted it also said: « There are a lot of reasons why face masks are not ideal. For example, it’s really hard to find one that fits perfectly around your nose and mouth or to keep it on for a long period of time. The minute you scratch your nose or touch your mouth behind the mask, you’ve lost the protection that the mask is supposed to offer.»
In one place, one of the guys that recommended people wearing masks, touched his own mask three times during the press conference.
This all sounds like it is addressing wearing a mask to protect the wearer.
The recommendation that everyone in public wear a mask is to protect other people from the wearer.
Not the wearer from other people.
So if I'm infected and able to spread it to others, it doesn't matter that my hands are all over my face. I'm already infected. By wearing a mask I am helping to prevent spreading my infection to others.
To address another point of concern: Scientists have concluded that it does more good than harm to have people wearing masks/face coverings.
There is potential for healthy people wearing a mask/face covering to touch their face more frequently because of the mask and infect themselves, but that will happen less often than the mask preventing the spread from a sick person to surrounding non-sick people.
I don't immedetiately have a study or news article to point to, but from interviews with epidemiologists it really seems the virus spreads much more commonly from person to person in the air than from object to person.
edit: And actually this is what the CDC is stating now too:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... reads.html
In my own personal experience wearing a homemade, cloth face covering, I don't touch my face at all when wearing it. And as kind of a cool observation I don't have the urge to touch my face when wearing it either. Which is a big deal, because when I'm home and not worried about surfaces, touching my face is a real source of comfort to me. It's one way I cope with anxiety and actually really like touching my face lol
edit:
Wearing a mask a little imprecisely, where maybe there isn't a good seal but the mask is still covering my nose and mouth, is still going to prevent me from spreading the virus to others. It's not perfect. And then too, even wearing a non-n95 mask 100% correctly is not going to stop all aerosols.
But knowing that wearing a homemade mask/face covering may not be full-proof, it's been shown to still make a substantial positive difference in preventing spreading germs to others.
Researchers know that even simple masks can effectively stop droplets spewing from an infected wearer’s nose or mouth. In a
study published in April in Nature, scientists showed that when people who are infected with influenza, rhinovirus or a mild cold-causing coronavirus wore a mask, it blocked nearly 100 percent of the viral droplets they exhaled, as well as some tiny aerosol particles.
NY Times: Six Months of Coronavirus: Here’s Some of What We’ve Learned | You should be wearing a mask.
I know that is just one study. So it would be beneficial to
site cite other sources. But there is a real consensus now that mask wearing is one very important measure that can be taken along with keeping physical distance to decrease the spread of coronavirus.
I'd have to find an example, but I've read many quotes from epidemiologists that the goal is not to lower the spread of coronavirus 100%. No one thinks that's realistic. Instead you have to take measures that collectively lessen the spread by 60% 70% or whatever compared to taking no measures at all. And that's how we can expect to bring down or keep in check the virus reproduction number while we wait for herd immunity, hopefully through a vaccine and not infection.
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