Really seems like a 50-80% is meaningful, but for whatever reason you’re tying yourself in knots trying to justify not liking wearing a mask.
It’s like saying there’s no point in stopping smoking when you’ve been diagnosed with lung cancer because there’s ONLY a 30-40% risk reduction of dying. Or maybe refusing to wash your hands because every cold or flu you’ve gotten has been ‘not that bad’. Except in this case, the risk reduction is for everyone around you instead of just yourself.
Like, whatever you want to do bud, but you’re not convincing anyone that basic hygiene while you’re sick isn’t beneficial.
Sure, 50-80% would be great if that’s the average case. But it’s not, that’s the best case, and apples if the mask:
is fresh
fits properly
is high quality
But if you’re wearing a mask all day, it’s not going to be fresh, will likely not fit properly the whole time, and probably not be very high quality. Most of the masks I saw at the height of COVID were crappy single-layer cloth masks with effectiveness in the single digits.
So your average mask is probably 5-25% effective on net if worn all day.
That’s why I say we shouldn’t be wearing masks all day, we should only wear them when it’s important. That way, people are more likely to use a fresh mask and ensure it fits properly. I can put up with wearing a high quality mask for a few hours or days, but if you ask me to do that every single day, I’m going to get lazy, and lazy reduces effectiveness.
At the height of COVID, medical experts wanted to slow the spread to preserve hospital capacity, so even single digit effectiveness was fine. But these days, there’s not much point to such low numbers of effectiveness, so mask-wearing shouldn’t be an everyday thing, but instead something you do when it’s especially important. Make it a normal thing, just not a routine.
Sure, washing your hands reduces risk of infection by 16-20%, but that’s best case, and applies only when:
You wash for at least 30 seconds
You wash with the right kind of soap
You do it after you use the bathroom and not before
So really it’s probably 5-10% effective on average. That’s why i say we shouldn’t wash our hands all the time, only when you’ve actually touched shit."
Masks prevent one on one transmission. Washing your hands prevents many to many transmission. Surfaces are touched by more people than you’ll directly interact with in a day. So even if it has a lower per-contact effectiveness, you have orders of magnitude more contact with contaminated surfaces than infected people.
The average mask wearer marginally reduces their transmission risk, especially if you consider that most people aren’t infected. The average hand washer dramatically reduces their transmission risk because they’re washing off other germs they’ve picked up (i.e. you don’t need to be sick to spread disease through touch).
Do you understand how respiratory infections spread? Unless you’re sneezing or coughing, it only really affects people in you immediate vicinity. Hence the one on one description.
Contact spread (e.g. what washing hands prevents) impacts anyone who touches the same surface. That’s a much bigger pool of people than would be in my immediate vicinity.
Masks prevent one on one transmission. Washing your hands prevents many to many transmission. Surfaces are touched by more people than you’ll directly interact with in a day
Almost like more than one person breathes the air in a room, just like ‘surfaces are touched by more people than you’ll directly interact with in a day’. If you’re on an airplane or working as a doctor seeing sick people, it makes sense to wear a mask even if you aren’t displaying symptoms, because masks reduce the transmission of airborne viruses, both for you and for the people around you. For the same reason washing your hands is efficacious when touching lots of public surfaces, wearing a mask is efficacious when breathing the same air as lots of potentially sick and at-risk individuals, especially if you are doing so frequently.
I’m not concerned with what your personal practices are with your mask-wearing, but you’ve been downplaying the efficacy of masks this entire thread and then backsliding when you meet resistance. You’re making up rational based on “wearing a mask is inconvenient”, vibes-based logic. You don’t think masks are worth the inconvenience for healthcare workers, and I’m saying they objectively and meaningfully reduce the spread, and whatever perceived inconvenience you feel is worth it if it prevents transmission in high traffic and high-risk environments.
Really seems like a 50-80% is meaningful, but for whatever reason you’re tying yourself in knots trying to justify not liking wearing a mask.
It’s like saying there’s no point in stopping smoking when you’ve been diagnosed with lung cancer because there’s ONLY a 30-40% risk reduction of dying. Or maybe refusing to wash your hands because every cold or flu you’ve gotten has been ‘not that bad’. Except in this case, the risk reduction is for everyone around you instead of just yourself.
Like, whatever you want to do bud, but you’re not convincing anyone that basic hygiene while you’re sick isn’t beneficial.
Sure, 50-80% would be great if that’s the average case. But it’s not, that’s the best case, and apples if the mask:
But if you’re wearing a mask all day, it’s not going to be fresh, will likely not fit properly the whole time, and probably not be very high quality. Most of the masks I saw at the height of COVID were crappy single-layer cloth masks with effectiveness in the single digits.
So your average mask is probably 5-25% effective on net if worn all day.
That’s why I say we shouldn’t be wearing masks all day, we should only wear them when it’s important. That way, people are more likely to use a fresh mask and ensure it fits properly. I can put up with wearing a high quality mask for a few hours or days, but if you ask me to do that every single day, I’m going to get lazy, and lazy reduces effectiveness.
At the height of COVID, medical experts wanted to slow the spread to preserve hospital capacity, so even single digit effectiveness was fine. But these days, there’s not much point to such low numbers of effectiveness, so mask-wearing shouldn’t be an everyday thing, but instead something you do when it’s especially important. Make it a normal thing, just not a routine.
That’s a completely separate thing though.
Masks prevent one on one transmission. Washing your hands prevents many to many transmission. Surfaces are touched by more people than you’ll directly interact with in a day. So even if it has a lower per-contact effectiveness, you have orders of magnitude more contact with contaminated surfaces than infected people.
The average mask wearer marginally reduces their transmission risk, especially if you consider that most people aren’t infected. The average hand washer dramatically reduces their transmission risk because they’re washing off other germs they’ve picked up (i.e. you don’t need to be sick to spread disease through touch).
I don’t even need to read the rest of your comment, this is inane.
Do you understand how respiratory infections spread? Unless you’re sneezing or coughing, it only really affects people in you immediate vicinity. Hence the one on one description.
Contact spread (e.g. what washing hands prevents) impacts anyone who touches the same surface. That’s a much bigger pool of people than would be in my immediate vicinity.
You’re almost there bud, just keep it goin’
Not sure what you’re getting at. I’m saying it doesn’t make sense to wear a mask all day every day when you’re healthy. It’s just nonsensical.
If you’re sick or around sick people, sure, but not if you’re healthy.
Almost like more than one person breathes the air in a room, just like ‘surfaces are touched by more people than you’ll directly interact with in a day’. If you’re on an airplane or working as a doctor seeing sick people, it makes sense to wear a mask even if you aren’t displaying symptoms, because masks reduce the transmission of airborne viruses, both for you and for the people around you. For the same reason washing your hands is efficacious when touching lots of public surfaces, wearing a mask is efficacious when breathing the same air as lots of potentially sick and at-risk individuals, especially if you are doing so frequently.
I’m not concerned with what your personal practices are with your mask-wearing, but you’ve been downplaying the efficacy of masks this entire thread and then backsliding when you meet resistance. You’re making up rational based on “wearing a mask is inconvenient”, vibes-based logic. You don’t think masks are worth the inconvenience for healthcare workers, and I’m saying they objectively and meaningfully reduce the spread, and whatever perceived inconvenience you feel is worth it if it prevents transmission in high traffic and high-risk environments.