It is my opinion that mask use is a useful tool in mitigating the virus spread when you are exposed to the virus for a brief period of time, in a relatively well ventilated environment. In other words, if someone were to walk into my office and was several feet away it might prevent an illness if that exposure was brief and we both were masked. I believe it is counterintuitive to believe otherwise. I do not believe it would prevent an illness if the exposure was within a car for an extended period of time. Much of the time our interactions with other people follow the first scenario. None of your studies are useful in regards to that kind of exposure. The studies you mentioned in no way measure the overall benefits of wearing masks as it applies to Covid. The best evidence I can give you to the effectiveness of masks in the historically low incidence of influenza. You dismiss the studies that I posted because they are observational but they are at least measuring something that provides us with beneficial information. The CDC and medical journals think enough of them to publish them and you dismiss this as political. They may be observational but they are the best ones available at this point in time. It is not beneficial to know that a caregiver providing care to a sick individual needs more protection then a surgical mask. It is not beneficial to know that surgical masks do not protect family members in the household with a sick family member. We already know that. It is not beneficial to know that if you wear a mask out in public you get sick at roughly the same rate as those that do not wear masks. I object to the silly video which concludes at the end that masks are useless. I am not going to debate that the studies you posted are scientifically superior to the ones that I posted. I agree with you that they are but they are not measuring anything that I think applies to the wearing of masks according to todays CDC guidelines.
Interesting video on masks
- Thread starter AllNoles
- Start date
Here's an article that reviews the science research on the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of masks in reducing the spread of Covid. https://www.city-journal.org/do-masks-work-a-review-of-the-evidence?wallit_nosession=1
The article summaries and conclusions of all 14 of the randomized controlled trials, as well as other key research on the topic.
The article summaries and conclusions of all 14 of the randomized controlled trials, as well as other key research on the topic.
Today I saw an overweight lady sitting outside on a bench, alone....she had her mask pulled under her chin so she could smoke a cigarette, but then she strapped it back on to return to her office.
Love the mask crowd....gotta be safe!!!!!
Love the mask crowd....gotta be safe!!!!!
Masks should not be worn because they have known harms, especially for children and old people (different harms for those two groups), and do little good. Follow the science.
Fixed it for you.
Can kids be harmed wearing masks to protect against COVID?
Experts say there's no scientific evidence showing that masks cause harm to kids' health despite claims to the contrary on social media and elsewhere.
apnews.com
It's one thing to say you don't like wearing a mask. It's another thing to be fooled into something so ridiculous to justify it.Fixed it for you.
Can kids be harmed wearing masks to protect against COVID?
Experts say there's no scientific evidence showing that masks cause harm to kids' health despite claims to the contrary on social media and elsewhere.
Sure, if you like to read subjective articles from conservative think tanks that don't provide a fair analysis.
Yeah, like the AP is a legitimate science source now. LOL. And you will note there was no science whatsoever in the article you linked.Fixed it for you.
Can kids be harmed wearing masks to protect against COVID?
Experts say there's no scientific evidence showing that masks cause harm to kids' health despite claims to the contrary on social media and elsewhere.
If you spend a few minutes looking, you will find numerous articles talking about the emotional, psychological, and interpersonal damage being done to children wearing masks. The younger they are, the worse the damage. Have you noticed that there are overwhelming harms caused over the last year by the combination of masks, lockdowns, and learning at home instead of at school? Surely you couldn't have missed all these stories. It's so severe that numerous states have hired large numbers of additional school counselors, and many states have announced emotional and social skills at the top of their priority list for 2021-2022 due the pandemic of anxiety and depression among school children.
Did you also miss the massive difficulties suffered by working mothers with K-6 and younger children? Did you read the articles describing the problems? Are you keeping up at all with any of this?
By all means, please post the "less subjective" and "more fair" analysis of the same or other RCTs researching the efficacy of masks, especially for children. I would love to read them. I have no agenda other than trying to help individuals and families.
With all due respect, no I won't post that. I don't believe that masks are the way to end the pandemic and I'm not going to waste my time on it. Back to the point. It's easy to spot a one sided article that cherry picks to only support their point. This is one of them.
It doesn't cause harm. People have mental disorders, etc. that make them think that there is something wrong. This may cause headaches, fear, panic, etc. But proper medical masks do not cause harm. Period. Never have, never will.
You went from "proper medical masks do not cause harm," which is a generally true statement if you are talking about physical harms for non-senior citizen patients, to "Period. Never have, never will," which I'm confident you didn't really mean. I've read several of your other posts. You seem very educated and also reasonable and open-minded.
It is well known that some older patients cannot tolerate masks. It is also well-known that long term wearing of masks causes a number of people psychological harms. It is also well-known that millions of people do not wear medical masks at all, they wear cloth masks, which are even less effective than surgical masks.
As I mentioned above, the risk for children is psychological, emotional, and relational harms. I didn't think anyone seriously disputed this after more than 18 months. It was my understanding that informed people assumed these harms were either transitory or that it was worth the cost of the harms to gain the hoped-for benefits of mask wearing.
I know it can be hard to detect 'tone' in print. I respect your opinion and mean my responses to you to be similarly respectful. The reason I posted a new thread was because I had read some of your other posts and hoped for an informed response. I found some of your other posts beneficial, even though I've read done a lot of reading on my own.
The response you gave above is sadly common for someone defending mask mandates or trying to debunk 'mask criticisms.' No counter evidence presented, just "I don't like your source of information." My source was an analysis of actual scientific studies, which is more than what's offered in most discussions. It should be an easy thing for you to cite a different analysis of the same or different studies. If it was "easy to spot a one sided article that cherry picks," isn't it easy to spot a balanced article that presents each side fairly? Do you have one? Does anyone?
Also, if you don't want to post on a message board, no reason necessary (at least for me). But the "I don't believe masks are the way to end a pandemic" is a red herring. No even moderately educated person believes that now.
Thanks for the link, OP. Not surprising at all to me. I’ll wear a mask when asked but have always thought they did little to nothing. And the research seems to confirm that.
One of my favorites from this weekend was seeing a band on TV wearing masks but playing their instruments through slits in the masks.....uhhh I'm pretty sure unless you got a UV-C light stuffed up in that saxophone it's blowing out the same air!!
This has been widely available but not pandered by mainstream media as it doesn't fit the narrative. I especially like folks in their car alone wearing a mask. Or the folks that wear one into a restaurant with it on just to remove it. I guess the virus is considerate of the fact your eating.
I've worn my in the car but it's normally in between close stops where I had to wear one and I just forgot to take it off. If it's just you and you're doing it to protect yourself in your car then I agree that makes no sense. Restaurant requirements also make no sense nor does wearing one outside by yourself but if it makes someone more comfortable then go for it.
To be clear if someone wants to wear a tu tu on their head while riding a wheel chair down the sidewalk more power to them. The masking guidance and messaging was bad from the start, that's why you see this type of thing. Some want to feel safe, some think it helps others use them as a statement. If you want to wear one fine but it shouldn't be mandated.
With the numbers at the point they are I'm pretty close to agreeing. I'm on the board of my church and we've requested that they be worn. Most of our congregation agreed but everyone is slowly starting to attend services without them. By our next week I'm hopeful we'll be at a point where we don't even request it anymore. Numbers are plummeting with Delta having burned through those it was going to reach.
I can’t imagine forgetting I had a mask on. I know every second it’s ok but maybe that’s because I’ve worn a mask less than four total hours since May 2020.
Mine is pretty comfortable so doesn't bother me unless I'm hot or have it on for a very long period of time like my flight to Hawaii.
Yeah the only time I really dislike wearing mine is at the gym. It also doesn't help that I have a beard.
Yeah sometimes my beard is long and sometimes its short. I assumed masks wouldn't be as effective if my beard was longer.
Spot on. If you want to wear socks at the beach, be my guest. They won't save you from a shark attack, but if you feel better, definitely wear them. But don't insist that others should also look as dorky as you do.
People are funny how they weigh risk, in my case I usually wear a mask in stores but don't think twice about driving home after a night game through crime ridden neighborhoods. 😳
^^^^^Your chances of dying in a car wreck, or as the outgrowth of a crime, are WAY higher than your chances of dying from Covid. Yet we lock down for Covid and/or wear silly masks, but we do virtually nothing to mitigate those other/bigger risks. LOL.
Just had my annual check up a couple of weeks back. Got into a conversation about mask with my Dr. She has to wear a mask while seeing patients due to the mandates from the corporation her office is a part of. When they were first required to wear mask back in 2020 she had all of her office staff put theirs on and check their O2 levels. Everyone's was above 95%. She checked them again at lunch before they took the mask off and all but one had fallen under 95%. She checked again when they put the mask back on after the lunch break and all were at are at least 95% again. At the end of the day the levels had dropped to below 90% with two of the staff below 85%. All of the staff were wearing N95s. I am sure the results would not be as drastic with the cheap paper mask but the filter qualities would be less with those too.
I have a friend who's a surgeon. He said, "You know they're called 'surgical masks,' right? Because that's what they are used for. Surgery. They last 30-60 minutes, then they have to be replaced. They are not even remotely designed to filter viruses."
Before Covid this was a no brainer. Not real good for oral hygiene, either. And it's funny, even articles that admit mask use did not help in 1918 (though we see the pics of folks wearing them at games) but try to suggest why it would be different now use excuses that simply don't hold up in real life.
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I really enjoyed Cameron English's take on the mask debate. I thought it was a very balanced article.
Fact-Checking The Fact-Checkers: What Do Studies Say About Masks And COVID-19?
They do block viruses and bacteria that are contained in droplets, which is why they're worn.
By surgeons. And they’d that for normal folks too but when you think about it, the droplets show why it’s disgusting how people use masks. They constantly have droplets and moist air stuck in them. When they’re not changed multiple times during the day they are like petri dishes. And no one does that. No one.
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