[OT] masks 'n stuff
- Posted by petelomax Apr 05, 2021
- 1928 views
I have always been rather sceptical of the benefit of wearing masks by joe public.
One study shows wearing a mask can increase particle emission by as much as 492%
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7
Homemade masks fare particularly badly (see what I did there?) in Figure 4.
Most people are surprised to learn that the outside of a worn mask is more infectious than the inside.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85814 (search for "Interestingly")
(My layman explanation is any virus on the inside is bombarded with cold dry oxygen rich air and low pressure every time the mask wearer inhales, quickly drying out/killing it, whereas that effect is much reduced on the farside.)
While I could readily accept that face masks reduce airborne transmission for about one hour, joe public does not replace and bin/wash masks every hour, has a strong tendency to reduce social distancing while wearing a mask, and almost certainly increases the likelihood of contact transmission. Remember these?
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1243972193169616898
I am just not buying the idea that a slightly different surface protein on the Kent variant makes it five times more infectious, or however many more times that it would need to be if masks were actually effective.
If I am wrong about masks (as worn by joe public), please explain to me why (here in the UK) the November peak (when everyone was wearing masks and more treatments and equipment were available and 10-15% should have been immune) was so much worse than the first wave (when hardly anyone was wearing masks and absolutely nobody had any antibodies). It is all just politics, what scant real medical proof exists has been totally perverted.
On a lighter note, apparently there is no benefit to wearing a parachute...
Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial
https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094
