Latest 'Gold Standard' Review Puts The Final Nail In The Coffin For Masks

Are you denying that Fauci, Pelosi, Newsome, Biden and countless other celebrities and healthcare experts have been caught unmasked in public?

I double dog dare you to paste up a single example of "misinformation" in my posts.

 

Why would I deny the obvious? I'm not a MAGA type.

 

Is anything from your post supposed to actually contradict something I have posted?

If so, what"? You know -- specifically.

 

So if you agree that its true why are you on my case?

 

It can be ignored because most of the viral load in the air is in aerosols and droplets. Infection does not normally occur through just one individual virus or viruses without any liquid getting through. It is a matter of how many get through, and given most (if not all) are in droplets and aerosols, the masks reduce the odds of transmitting the infection. More effective when a larger inoculation is required, of course (so better for original covid than omicron).

Viruses do not evaporate into the air. But if you mean aerosols drying out while in the air, that is a thing, but still not significant.

 

WTF is "viral load"? I assume you mean viruses in the air.

Nope.

Generally speaking, yes, sans the "liquid" part.

Not the case. Aerosols in particular will quickly evaporate. Even droplets can evaporate quite quickly.

The disposable masks typically worn around, IF worn properly, don't do horseshit vs even most aerosols, let alone viruses.

There is no such thing as "original covid". There is just covid. Omicron is not covid.

Never said they did.

Bingo.

Do you realize how fast aerosols evaporate?

 

The density of viruses in the air in this context. A higher exposure rate if it's higher, thus one will more rapidly get infected if it's higher. Yes, I know viral load usually refers to the density of viruses in somebody's blood.

These guys do, and they say masks can help: Physics of virus transmission by speaking droplets (pnas.org)

In hindsight yeah, it wasn't going to end the pandemic, but largely because of the emergence of strains like omicron.

 

The novel virus that causes the disease covid-19 was given the name “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” on 11 February 2020. This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003. All viruses mutate and omicron is a mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus named in February 2020. Many people refer to the named virus in 2020 as the ‘original’ virus. Many people use the term covid to refer to the virus even though covid is the disease it causes.

That is not true, therefore misinformation based on misunderstanding virus transmission.

Even saying cloth masks are useless is incorrect because not all cloth masks are the same. N95 masks are disposable masks that if used properly filter out more aerosols than surgical masks and surgical masks are better than cloth masks, and cloth masks are better than no mask. That has been repeatedly demonstrated.

Surgical masks are not useless against aerosols. It’s true they are not 100 percent effective but that doesn’t make them ineffective either. When looking at masks and their effectiveness, one must consider that the concentration of aerosols drops dramatically with distance and if there is decent ventilation, a surgical mask is usually effective. If one were in the same environment with no mask, chance of infection of infection increases. You have to consider other variables than just the presence or absence of a mask.

It is poorly ventilated enclosed spaces with many maskless people talking or singing for long periods of time that increases the chance of exposure and infection. Anything that reduces exposure, like masks, distance, large well ventilated areas will reduce the risk of infection.

It’s also true that whether aerosols are capable of transmitting disease depends heavily of the number of virus produced, the concentration of virus, environmental factors, and the health of the host. There are a lot of variables involved that will end in either increased or decreased exposure and transmission. Wearing a mask is one part of it and those people who state masks are useless have no understanding of virus transmission and all the things that either increase or decrease exposure and transmission.

Saying disposable masks don’t do ‘horseshit’ is horseshit.

 

You don't know what "viral load" means and you presume to talk about viruses?

 

For those that don’t know, the term ‘viral load’ is used in medical virology to refer to the amount of measurable virus in a standard volume of material — usually plasma or blood. For those with HIV, a decrease in viral load is an indicator that antiviral medications are working. Of course, with HIV one doesn’t have to worry about ‘viral shedding’ via the respiratory system because it’s transmitted through body fluids which is totally different from SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

In terms of SARS-CoV-2 because it is transmitted through the air, what is important besides viral load in the body is ‘viral shedding’. In terms of transmission there are two important factors. The first factor is the amount of virus being put out by the infected person which is the ‘viral load’ (the amount of virus) in the aerosol or droplets. The second factor is volume of the aerosol or droplets itself. Generally, there is a time when the ‘viral load’ of the covid virus is high, especially within the nose and respiratory tract, which means a higher amount is being excreted or shed into the environment via coughing, breathing, speaking, sneezing etc. The other part of the equation is how long the virus will survive and remain infectious after it leaves the body. The virus has different rates of decay in different environmental circumstances. The volume of aerosol decreases over distance or is less concentrated the further you are away from a person. Ventilation is important and so are masks.

Generally, as covid-19 progresses, and as the immune system fights off infection, the viral load in the body decreases to a point where viral shedding becomes insignificant or unlikely to affect other people. High viral loads generally translate into a person being more infectious. I believe there are a lot of factors involved but viral load seems very important because of the increased viral shedding especially in relationship to prolonged and close contact with infected people, poor ventilation, and limited use of masks. Research has shown that relative risk of transmission to close contacts is significantly higher in the 2 days prior and 3 days following symptom onset. Generally, viral load increases and peaks around the time of symptom onset and then gradually declines for 7-10 days. Even being symptomless with covid-19 means there will be a peak of viral load at some point, as well as a peak of viral shedding. As one can surmise, precautions to decrease the transmission of the virus are important all the time related to the viral load and shedding that occurs prior to symptom onset or in asymptomatic people.

There is quite a lot of information that has come from investigating SARS-CoV-2 and there is still a hell of a lot to be researched. It’s really difficult when the virus keeps mutating and goal posts have to be moved due to a change in behaviour of the virus.



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The basic mathematics and engineering specs that I have mentioned still stand, regardless of how much you hate them and regardless of how much faith you have that masks work against viruses.

 

Nicely explained.

Of course, as you know even the P100 respirator I've worn when a lot of covid is circulating doesn't stop users from running across SARS, but it may keep the amount of virus exposure low enough that our bodies may be able to cope.

 

A mask or respirator may help keep the amount of virus low enough that your body can fight off SARS.