re: It boggles my mind how people scared to death of the virus

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Yet it hasn't.

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...:sigh:

I'm not getting into another semantics debate with you about the definition of "lockdown".

And you can't actually say it hasn't slowed the spread because you don't know what the spread would be without the lockdowns, so...

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If the only way to "stop the spread" is for lockdowns, then that is the only option. Because masks aren't doing shite.

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The only way to "stop the spread" is with immunity, either through natural immunity or vaccines.

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Handwashing and good hygiene is basic health and sanitation 101. Regardless of the virus/disease, proper hygiene prevents disease.

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Yeah, no shite

I was specifically speaking about the spread of COVID and how it is transmitted though

as far as I have read, the main route of transmission is still kind of debatable

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Literally everything that we know about disease transmission and physics tells us that they offer some degree of protection.

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And, yet, until this year (conveniently enough), most studies examining if masks actually REDUCED INFECTION found no hard evidence that cloth masks and even surgical masks do much of anything.

(Properly fitted N95 Respirators are a different story, obviously. But those aren't what you usually see out and about in the wild.)


And the "hard evidence" you're getting now are experiments that suggest RETARDING OF THE PRESUMED MECHANISM OF TRANSMISSION (rather than actual documentation of reduced infection rates), fun with study endpoints, and computational models where mask wearing can be given a value based on what the designer wants.



According to some survey, 83% of Americans report wearing masks in public. When will it be enough?



To the OP's point:
People are afraid because the media has told them to be afraid, and we are using a far too sensitive test, without using context and clinical diagnoses, which drives case and death counts. (This virus is definitely real and killing some people unfortunate enough to get infected.)


Edit to add: There is a reason why the methodology of the vaccine trials required a positive PCR test AND a number of symptoms, rather than a positive test alone.

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The problem with masks is that they make perfect sense on paper (covering your mouth/nose should slow transmission of things coming from your mouth/nose), but zero sense in practice. Studies have shown that to be the case.

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A study can show whatever you want it to if you try hard enough.

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well I can use places like NZ to prove that to be false

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No, you really cant

NZs "lockdowns" were no different than ours. Gas stations were open, groceries, etc etc

You need to find the variable, not the constant, when two places have different results

Due to the geography of the nation, and how people live, gatherings outside the immediate household are far less common in NZ

This isnt even me bringing up the island in the middle of nowhere element

Friend,

Let us grant the wild and untrue postulation that the anti-masker hold to — that surgical masks do not reduce spread of covid.

The great news is that N95 masks are available to the general public now. Now all the antimaskers who tell us that the only masks that work are N95, but tough luck because there is a shortage, have no leg on which to stand.

Bona Fide Masks has some excellent N95 masks at a reasonable price. With coupon code LOVE there is a 20% savings! That brings the cost down to 75 cents per mask if you purchase 100.

No excuses now. To be a good citizen is to wear an N95 mask when in public!

Yours,
TulaneLSU

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A study can show whatever you want it to if you try hard enough.

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Compare Florida's CV cases and lethality vs. the rest of the country. What do you see? I would think, if Florida is completely open, which it is, that they would have an abnormally high case load compared to the rest of the country. I haven't heard that from any news sources, you?

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Literally everything that we know about disease transmission and physics tells us that they offer some degree of protection.

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And, yet, until this year (conveniently enough), most studies examining if masks actually REDUCED INFECTION found no hard evidence that cloth masks and even surgical masks do much of anything.

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There is also no hard evidence that they don't. It is impossible to control for every variable, so we have to rely on what we know and how it applies to masks.

If I spit in your mouth, there's a good chance you're going to get whatever I got. If I sneeze in your direction and you get sprayed, still a good chance you get sick, but less than the prior example. If I exhale in your vicinity, still a chance but less than the prior. Are you suggesting that covering my face while I exhale in your face cannot possibly reduce the chance further? Or even increase the chance?

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If I spit in your mouth, there's a good chance you're going to get whatever I got. If I sneeze in your direction and you get sprayed, still a good chance you get sick, but less than the prior example. If I exhale in your vicinity, still a chance but less than the prior. Are you suggesting that covering my face while I exhale in your face cannot possibly reduce the chance further? Or even increase the chance?

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If I dont touch my face, I have little chance to spread any virus particles on my hands, if increase the likelihood I touch my in increases those chances

If someone sneezes, I am around those virus particles for the time of the sneeze. If someone sneezes, and those virus particles attach to my mask, I carry that shite around

Yes, masks help the spread of particles. But you refuse to see the real world application of what else masks do as it relates to virus transmission