It's time to put masks back on, expert says

Correct, some people prefer to trust the experts over forum dwellers.

 

Repeating the same false information over and over again doesn't make it true. This is truly a pandemic for the sick.

 

These so called CDC experts are relying on one study out of India based on a vaccine we don’t use and that failed peer review but hey, you will believe anything.

 

The experts lied. Now what?

 

How is it false? Is it not mostly unvaccinated hospitalized and dying from covid currently?

 

Answered already.

 

You just stated an opinion. I said I doubt the accuracy of your opinion. So, put up or shut up.

 

Recent deaths
And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8%, or five deaths per day on average.

 

You did not post any evidence to the contrary.

 

Americans need to realize, a permanent Pandemic is in the greater interest of the Democrat Party. It got them elected (supposedly) and it continues to detract from their attempt to redefine America.

 

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So in May, your President repeated twice for us that if we were vaccinated, we would never need to wear masks again. So you are gonna do what he says even when he contradicts himself. You are a good soldier!

 

Nope, I know I have to do it because of anti-vaxxers

 

Someone said said 99% and obviously agreed. I doubt that the 99% figure is even close to being accurate.

 

Why would you need to wear a mask if you’ve been vaccinated?

 

You guys are all over the map. The fact is, you not anyone knows how many unvaccinated vs vaccinated people are dying. What we do know is that the recovery rate is around 99.78%.

 

To keep from flooding the hospitals with anti-vaxxers.

 

Not so easy. The main material, the blown melt, apparently is not very abundant in the United States, unlike in China. We ceded to China our means of production and now we're paying the price.

 

That didn't make sense.

 

Neither did you.

 

Surgical masks, to be protective, need two things: One, to be ASTM level 2 or level 3, which incorporate advanced blown melt in the inner layer (unlike the flimsy kind that do not achieve this standard). Two, to have an accompanying device to enhance the fit and to seal them around the face as best as possible. There are various kinds, and some are efficient, like some silicone braces and some neoprene braces.

Enhanced the right way, ASTM level 2 or 3 surgical masks can perform practically as well as an N95 (for a fraction of the cost). Sadly though, although guidance on this is readily available, the braces are actually easy to make on your own and cheap and you can find YouTube instructions, and ASTM level 3 masks are readily available (as easy as getting them from Amazon.com), practically NOBODY does it this way.

I've tried to teach this to patients and colleagues... I can count on the fingers of two hands the number of people I was able to convince to do it the right way.

So, yes, the way people wear masks in America is highly inefficient.

Some people wear N95 respirators (and rarer ones, even better, N100 or P100 respirators), or in their absence, the less guaranteed KN95 (lots of fake ones). If not counterfeit and properly sealed, these respirators do protect people to a certain degree. However most people either wear unsealed surgical masks like in your video clip, or useless cloth masks, not to forget the idiots who wear them under their noses.

No wonder this pandemic keeps waxing and waning, up and down, and doesn't seem to go away. We are as a people extremely stupid regarding masks, and regarding vaccines. In great part it's the fault of our public health officials who never came up with a clear and sensible message, and issued conflicting guidance, as well as, at times, plain wrong guidance.

How many educational pieces have you seen on TV or newspapers or the web, about how to maximize the protection from masks? It's the rarest thing... unlike in some other countries. We've been told over and over that a public educational campaign would start... but it never did. The Trump CDC promised to get one going... never did. Biden campaigned on getting this to take off... never did.

It's incredible how incompetent we've been as a people, as a country, and as a political establishment.

 

Absolutely, I agree almost 100%; except that there are ways to do it right that are actually affordable and readily available.

You said you're yet to see anyone do it the right way. Well, there is one person who does it the right way here in this very forum: me.

For a long time in my early posting here, I tried to educate people on this, with specific examples, video clips, guidance on how to procure the right masks (vast difference in protection among the various kinds), how to achieve a good seal, how to make neoprene braces to enhance the seal, and so on. A couple of posters here actually believed me and started following the advice (said so to me in private messages). The vast majority of people kept doubting what I had to say, and my sources.

At one point I quit. My intent was to help but so many people kept being antagonistic, that it was tiresome to patiently try to undo their prejudices and actually teach them how to do it right.

Lately I've been more pragmatic about it. The bottom line is, I do it right, my wife does it right, and so do my son, my daughter, and their spouses. We are all fully vaccinated, as well. I try to get my patients to do it right too; most don't follow the advice.

Most people don't want to mask up the right way with the right protocols, and many don't want the vaccines. Well, so be it. It's a free country and people have a right to be stupid and to qualify for the Darwin Award. Lately, that's been my attitude.

 

Some experts do know, but people tend to mistrust them (sometimes with good reason). Also, some experts have squandered public trust by issuing misguided advice.

But reliable expertise does exist. The idea that nobody knows anything about the right way to wear masks and the right kinds of masks that are actually protective, is just not accurate.

 

Of course. We always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
I've always been against mask mandates. I've always been for mask education.
We've had the former but not the latter.
No wonder we're doing poorly.

 

Not to forget, Brownian Motion. The right masks with good seal can and do filter out the SARS-CoV-2 regardless of the virus' size in microns.

I do understand that a lay person who doesn't have a clue about Brownian Motion and electrostatic charges, will have a really hard time accepting that masks with pores larger than the virus, do indeed trap and filter out the virus. People think, it's like a chain fence that a mosquito flies through. Well, actually, as good common sense as this seems, it's not how it works for micro particles. In the case of particles smaller than 0.3 micron, they actually can and do get trapped by pores that are larger than their diameter. And yes, the virus doesn't travel naked. This, plus Brownian Motion, ensures that masks with appropriate melt blown lawyers, that are new enough to conserve electrostatic charges (thus the need to replace them often), do protect the wearer against the SARS-CoV-2 *to a degree* (nothing is 100% in life; well, except for death and taxes, haha). The right masks worn the right way do not just protect the community, they protect the wearer too, but many don't want to acknowledge this scientific fact. And it is very rare to find people who wear the masks correctly (and have the right kind) so the end result is what we've seen... more and more pandemic waves, more and more deaths, more and more sequelae among the survivors. Sad.