@BrandiDavis wrote:
So, I was just watching a video with regards to whether or not masks during this outbreak should be worn by the public. Well, if you all remember we were all told in the beginning of this and even up until now that unless you were sick or a caregiver there was no need for the public to wear masks.
Even the Sugeon General on 2/29 said for people to STOP buying masks, etc...said they essentially only worked for healthcare workers. Which that in itself doesn't make any sense. Their effectiveness doesn't change based on someone's job.
What they should've been telling us, was you know there is a shortage on masks so healthcare workers/elderly people will be given priority. People would've understood that, but instead they told us we did NOT need them. Which if you remember I know several of us even here on the boards questioned b/c it seemed like in China EVERY single person was wearing one! So, WHY wouldn't we also do that here in the U.S. Well, now we are seeing why. They lied. Instead of shooting us straight they tried to say they weren't effective for the general public. I cannot attach links here b/c of the obvious, but you can search this and see what I mean.
Now, TPTB are saying they may start to reccommend that the public wear masks. Hmm...imagine that.
So frustrating. Throughout this whole ordeal, not one person has had a straight answer. Too much wishy-washy when it comes to peoples lives. God help us all.
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@BrandiDavis , there are some out there saying that if people can wear masks out in public they might be encouraged to because of the asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus and those that are early in the syptoms of the virus that might think they only have a cold. Not because there is any change in the research that plain surgical masks or the fabric type masks provide the person wearing it any protection for the person wearing the masks.
It keeps people that have the coronavirus from spreading their respiratory droplets out in public. And since our testing has been such a fiasco, there are some that think this might help prevent community transmission from those that are still having to work or go shopping for groceries, etc when they are acutally contagious and don't know it yet.
People in China wear masks all the time. The primary reasons are for air pollution and because they have an ingrained cultural expectation that in case you might have the flu or some other viral disease you are protecting others out in public from you.
Think about this....even with the custom of routinely wearing masks in China, they currently have over 800,000 confirmed cases. Many of those are health care workers who contracted the disease working directly with patients, but the vast majority are just members of the public. So wearing those masks didn't protect hundreds of thousands from contracting the disease. It may however, offered some protection from others contracting the disease from someone else.
We are still learning as we go, but data about masks hasn't changed. For health care workers surgical masks alone don't provide adequate protection. We have studies at this point in time that material or fabric masks don't provide protection for health care workers. Which is why we are now seeing other individuals or groups that are now making masks out of different types of HEPA filters or filters made for air conditioners during this shortage. That is the level of filtration that is required to protect the person wearing the mask.
There is not one single credible research study that demonstrates these types of masks filter a virus of this size effectively with the exception of the N95 respirator masks or the others that are being designed from other types of high level filtration materials out there. I suspect there will be quite a few more research studies later on about level of protection for different types of masks after we get through this.
But in the meantime, wearing a surgical mask alone or fabric mask out in public right now is to protect others from you. The only mask that really provides protection is the N95 respirator mask. And those respirator masks that are available do need to be reserved for the healthcare workers. And heck, even they don't have enough of them for the doctors and nurses out there that are currently in the thick of taking care of COVID-19 patients or for those out there doing the tests for coronavirus. Many of them are having to wear surgical masks along with googles knowing full well that surgical mask isn't really protecting them from their patients.
* Freedom has a taste the protected will never know *
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