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BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 May 21 - 08:34 PM Are ‘covid nails’ a sign you had the virus? Experts weigh in. At this point in the pandemic, the coronavirus’s devastating effects on the human body have been well documented. But unusual symptoms that may be connected to the virus continue to crop up, including “covid toes,” “covid tongue” and hair loss. The changes are a result of "Beau's lines" - “a temporary interruption in the nail growth.” Twitter post by Tim Spector about "COVID nails" included has some oddball responses. News reports and social media posts aren't science. Consider this a source of anecdotal coincidences that could lead to something but are more likely to mean nothing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 12 May 21 - 08:52 PM I've had horizontal grooves on my nails for decades. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 13 May 21 - 12:42 AM Two new outbreaks in Scotland, after the number of new cases had been reduced to near zero. One at a secondary school in Elgin, the other at a primary school in Midlothian. Given the much too rapid reduction in precautions in schools across the UK, I expect there will be more. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: The Sandman Date: 13 May 21 - 05:37 AM all the more reaon scotland and the uk should be ventilating schools, or even starting to build new schools. building new schools also boosts the economy if you accept keynsian economics |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 May 21 - 10:14 PM Today for the United States, the CDC lifted the mask wearing for fully-vaccinated adults outdoors, indoors, with fully-vaccinated adults. They are still required on rapid transit, in businesses that require masks, when flying, and in health care facilities. They are advised in really crowded buildings, at large sporting events, in mixed-vaccination crowds. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 May 21 - 11:59 PM What is Long COVID and how do you treat it? It sounds like an incredible number of people are dealing with this. Although most people who are infected will develop mild or moderate symptoms -- or none at all -- scientists are now researching another way COVID-19 continues to stagger and show up, sometimes for months or even a year. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: The Sandman Date: 14 May 21 - 01:20 AM politicians and governments across the world should be looking at long term ways of dealing with this virus . programmes similiar to roosevelts new deal need to be implemented whereby certain numbers of new schools and public buildings are redesigned and built ,so that people in buildings are less liklely to spread the virus |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Donuel Date: 14 May 21 - 06:20 AM In the US THE GARGANTUAN POLIITIZATION OF MASKS IS OVER. The CDC has lifted the mask mandate! |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 14 May 21 - 08:02 AM An anti-airborne-virus public building programme would risk becoming another Maginot Line - generals preparing for the last war. Climate change means the infrastructure might need to cope with insect-vectored disease, extreme wind storms, snow loading on roofs, flash flooding, forest fires, breaks in transport and communication links from sea level rise and storm surges, breached contaminant stores... the safer option is to hold back on massive investment until we know what we're dealing with. Better not to destroy what we already have. Ols schools work okay and are flexible to upgrade. It's like trees - old trees soak up far more carbon than young ones; cutting and replanting is always nett destruction. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jeri Date: 14 May 21 - 10:07 AM First off, it will take a while for me to feel ok with NOT wearing a mask in public. The question was asked at the President's news conference (I THINK it was, anyway) about "how do we know if other people not wearing masks have actually been vaccinated?" The answer, to paraphrase, was "it's THEIR problem". If they're vulnerable and want to risk it, they can." There are some folks who CAN'T be vaccinated, and so could be infected, but they're probably wearing masks. A big "so what?!" sort of squashes the tendency to mind everyone else's business. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 14 May 21 - 10:21 AM An article by the German virologist Christian Drosten was circulated a few days ago. His take is that virtually everyone who isn't vaccinated will get it. There is always going to be a large enough core of unvaccinated (and possibly unvaccinatable) people to keep the virus in circulation. The "core model" was developed as a description of gonorrhoea - the ultra-promiscuous keep it going by playing pass-the-parcel with germs and every so often a bystander gets pulled in. Surprising to see it turn up again with anti-vaxxers playing the role of hookers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 May 21 - 11:29 AM The wording also said that you should wear a mask in businesses that still require masks. They may have a workforce that is younger and not yet fully vaccinated and want to protect them. Like Jill Biden quipped the other day, she felt naked being in public without the mask. I'll be looping one around my neck to have handy (as I do every morning when I'm getting ready to go out). There are a lot of unvaccinated people here and you can catch the virus after being vaccinated, so I'll err on the side of caution for a while longer. Jeri, I recently got some fabric for making Pride masks this year. I'll send you some when they're made. (I also have black with music, yellow with chickens, black with dinosaurs, and a bunch of other leftover prints.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 15 May 21 - 04:22 AM 12 people are responsible for most of the world's Covid misinformation |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Donuel Date: 17 May 21 - 09:14 AM A prudent person is aware that fully vaccinated people are not all immune to all varients for all time. Certain situations are ideal for infections and therefore make continued use of masks a wise decision. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 17 May 21 - 10:32 AM I have no personal fears about getting Covid now, as I'm fully vaccinated. But I'm in a minority, so I still wear a mask in indoor public spaces like buses and shops. It sets an example. We are heading for in Scotland again, with the Indian variant getting imported thanks to the Johnson regime sucking up to Modi and a fascist/unionist riot in Glasgow last weekend spreading it as far as possible from the currently worst affected district in the country. Bottom line is that the British junta is using biological warfare against us. The death toll could well end up higher than what Saddam Hussein inflicted on rebel cities with poison gas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 18 May 21 - 02:07 PM Not Donald Trump this time. Oxygen up your bum If you're a rat or a pig anyway. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 23 May 21 - 06:30 PM Johnson stopped English schools from finding out about the risks of the Indian variant: Guardian article |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: leeneia Date: 25 May 21 - 05:30 PM I get a magazine called 'The Week.' It reports that some people have trained honeybees to detect Covid in humans. It remains to be seen if the method is practical. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Donuel Date: 25 May 21 - 08:43 PM Dogs too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Rain Dog Date: 01 Jun 21 - 12:20 PM From The Guardian today "Coronavirus variants are to be named after letters of the Greek alphabet instead of their place of first discovery, the World Health Organization has announced, in a move to avoid stigma." |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Bonzo3legs Date: 01 Jun 21 - 12:47 PM Stupid idea, winkie wankie wokie nonsense! |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jos Date: 01 Jun 21 - 05:28 PM Never mind the w-w-wie nonsense or otherwise, a b c d, or alpha beta gamma delta, are MUCH easier to remember. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jack Campin Date: 02 Jun 21 - 10:16 AM It's now "variant alpha" but it will always be the Ashford Horror to its friends. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Mrrzy Date: 15 Jun 21 - 03:52 PM People have been looking into the smell-and-taste connection with Covid-19, and found an interesting relationship between the "supertaster" genetics and likelihood of severe covid. I found one thing on it in todays WashPo health section, but there are surely others. Blicky. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Bonzo3legs Date: 15 Jun 21 - 04:09 PM "Never mind the w-w-wie nonsense or otherwise, a b c d, or alpha beta gamma delta, are MUCH easier to remember." No it's not. Even our Indian neighbours are not surprised about the Indian variant, they always say how dirty it's become there, no social distancing at all. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Mrrzy Date: 15 Jun 21 - 10:47 PM Blicky that actually goes to the article, wups |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 16 Jun 21 - 04:41 AM "Even our Indian neighbours are not surprised about the Indian variant, they always say how dirty it's become there, no social distancing at all." So-called variants of this virus arise via mutations, and that process has nothing to do with cleanliness or social distancing. I'd remind you that an earlier variant that took the country over arose in Kent. I'm assuming that you don't regard the people of Kent as egregiously filthy rule-breakers... |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Jos Date: 16 Jun 21 - 05:57 AM I was relieved to hear someone yesterday on the radio talking about getting the vaccine "into people" - NOT "into arms". In the whole interview arms were not mentioned. I am not just an arm. I am a person, free to think, free to act, free to make decisions for myself. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Bonzo3legs Date: 16 Jun 21 - 08:07 AM I would imagine there are lockdown rulebreakers everywhere!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Nigel Parsons Date: 16 Jun 21 - 09:27 AM Jos: Yes, the vaccine jabs are going into whole people, not just 'arms'. Of course, there are other common sites for injections. Can we assume that for the anti-vax people "injections are not going into arses!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: SPB-Cooperator Date: 16 Jun 21 - 11:31 AM Johnson LIED again during PMQs stating that the delta variant did not exist until24th April, so was the patient who was diagnosed wit it on 1st April faking his or her own infection? Apparently before 24th nobody in India had it either but it was another variant which Johnson called the Kappa variant, and another called the Gamma variant. This means that up to 24 April, what more than 340,000 people in India was diagnosed with as not the Delta variant but something else. This means that before India was placed on the red list, nobody brought a single case to the UK. I thought Id put the record straight as Boris Johnson is the planets leading expert on covid, and knows more than the WHO, every country's heath service, every genome mapping laboratory and put together. Either that, or he could be a LIAR as I suggested earlier, and in that case all tory voter must never be allowed near a polling station ever again. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 04 Jul 21 - 07:37 PM So we will not have to wear masks after July 19. Alle-bloody-luja. Masks should never have been forced on us in the first place. The masks that most people wear are dangerous and insanitary. I for one will never wear a mask ever again unless forced to. I suppose I'll have to have keep one in my pocket for a while in case some deranged imbecile insists on my wearing one. I can't bear to see photos of young schoolchildren wearing masks. Completely inhuman. I don't know what the world's coming to when we can force people to hide half their faces, for reasons for which there is no evidence, for fifteen months. The one massive move towards restoring humanity will be to tell people that they can ditch their horrid masks. Bring it on! |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jul 21 - 12:27 AM Thank dog you weren't in charge of deciding what and wasn't going to save lives during the pandemic. You can be as happy as you want thinking you don't have to wear one again, but don't FOR A MINUTE think they had no significant roll in slowing the spread and saving lives. What you call "torture" much of the world calls freedom from disease. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 06 Jul 21 - 03:51 AM You can't produce a shred of real evidence that would confirm your assertions. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 06 Jul 21 - 05:40 AM Incidentally, "what you call 'torture'" sounds like you're quoting me. To my recollection, I haven't said that wearing a mask is torture. Cheers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Bonzo3legs Date: 06 Jul 21 - 08:50 AM Nice to know that antivaxxers will have different rules from sensible folks who have been double vaccinated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jul 21 - 10:41 AM I have stuff to do this morning - maybe later. There is research, Steve, lots of solid research looking at the efficacy of wearing masks during COVID-19. But you won't look, because that would mean you have to question this silly opinion and admit you were wrong when the articles show up. I'd try Google Scholar first, if I were you. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: leeneia Date: 06 Jul 21 - 11:43 AM The same woman has been cutting my hair for 15 years. She is sensible and trustworthy. Two weeks ago she told me that her husband has cousins in SW Missouri who are Trumpers and anti-vaxxers. At the time, they had a one-year-old baby in intensive care with Covid. Was their defiance worth it to them, I wonder? |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Donuel Date: 06 Jul 21 - 12:54 PM SRS I think we're often like his annoying 5th graders. I can imagine tiny tortures were learned and exchanged for decades in his career. He's bad at admmiting being wrong and desperately claims others are wrong/unscientific in response. Its a waste to spend a shred of time presenting factual evidence or risk assesment factors. Highly mistaken gripers of our time are Jim Jordan, Rand Paul and Trump. SS is thankfully not even in their league. On the other hand how embarrassing if Fauci was wrong and SS is right! |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 06 Jul 21 - 01:10 PM I assure you that I do look things up, Maggie. I look for evidence that has to get over a very high bar. As I said, controlled experimental studies are not possible apropos of mask-wearing so the "evidence" is mostly observational and can't account for confounding factors. Laboratory testing of masks, for example, can't replicate the way people put them on, take them off, touch them, reuse them, wear them under their noses or chins or stuff them in their pockets alongside their ten-dollar bills, used tissues and loose change. On top of that, however strongly one wants to advocate mask-wearing, it is impossible to deny that huge numbers of masks are not only worn incorrectly, making many very likely insanitary and dangerous (not only because of Coronavirus), but they also give many people a false sense of security (sure, all observational, but very easy to observe). On that basis, it is not possible to make a good case for mandatory mask-wearing, and it is equally not possible to turn it into a valid moral issue, in my opinion. However, make disposable masks freely available everyone, alongside a public information campaign recommending face coverings, and you would very likely get most people wearing them and not abusing them, abuse which happens when you are forced to wear them and resent it. But I'm not a mask rebel and I never break the rules. I'm just saying what I think. A statement to the effect that "masks saves lives" simply can't be supported with sound evidence, which would clearly need to be numerical and would not need to be mere best-guesses or estimates. Only a controlled large-scale study could safely conclude that, and such a study would be unethical. Sorry if that makes me sound like Mr Spock. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 06 Jul 21 - 01:14 PM It would be very good if you could actually address substantive points in people's posts, Donuel, rather than making unwitty and unclever little snipes. Think you can manage that? For a change?? |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Donuel Date: 06 Jul 21 - 01:23 PM Leenia, I bet that the issue of being a trumper or antivaxxer is NOT the main issue that is important to the Missouri couple. Its the Race issue that reigns over their life. The other little issues pale in comparison even if it raises other risks. Trump is only their current great white hope. Anyone else who could better satisfy their immediate racial concerns and fears could be preferred over Trump. Is it worth their child's illness? No but they were in for a penny, in for a pound. I say diversity is good for everything and everybody but some can't see it that way because of legacy or poor teaching. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jul 21 - 01:31 PM Google Scholar: face masks efficacy during COVID-19 raw results. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Donuel Date: 06 Jul 21 - 02:03 PM The Pfizer is still effective in preventing severe illness from the Delta varient but the effectiveness rating goes down to 90 %. Non symptomtic Covid contagiousness among the vaccinated is extremely rare. So if a vaccinated parent is carrying non symptomatic Delta even non vaccinated kids are almost never infected. US asians 80% vaccinated blacks 30% overall 68% (the red states still lag behind) |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 06 Jul 21 - 06:36 PM Well, Maggie, you post sources without comment. I've perused some of them and they largely confirm what I've been saying about the evidence: that most of it is observational, that randomised control testing is not possible because of the ethical deficiency of having an "unprotected" control group. Making real-life extrapolations as to efficacy from laboratory testing of various types of masks is not justified. Everything depends on how people use or misuse the masks, and that includes replacing them with clean ones at extremely frequent intervals. That largely does not happen. Just walk around your town and watch what people do. By the way, medical sources, rather than independent scientific sources, have a dog in the fight in that their need, as they see it, to protect their health service takes high priority. Recommending masks, to them, is a way of playing safe and they won't be adopting the same level of objective rigour as independent scientists would do. Now I am not saying that I KNOW that masks don't work (though I THINK that they are next to useless, a very different thing). But I am saying that compelling people to wear masks is in no way justified by scientific evidence, and that governments enforcing mask-wearing are acting beyond morality in my opinion. My view all along has been that the role of governments in this pandemic should have included giving public information, advice and guidance (and free masks). I suggest that a good campaign along those lines would have resulted in a very high level of public compliance, without the potential resentment (and cheating) that enforcement would cause. Neither you nor I can ever know whether doing this, that or the other, or not doing, would cause more deaths, because the alternatives can't be simultaneously tried. And, one more time, when you force people to wear masks you are forcing 99 people out of a hundred who are harmless to others to do something that is useless for them and useless for others. I can't see how anyone can think that that's right. Advice and persuasion, never coercion. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: SPB-Cooperator Date: 07 Jul 21 - 03:30 AM June 2021 - covid cases 8,000ish per day, PM decides that the time is not right to fully relax public health measures. July 2021 - 28,000 cases a day, expected to rise to 50,000 by 21 July and 100,000+ by the end of the month, PM decides that public health measures must end whatever the outcome. Does this mean that the 'science' Johnson has been guided by is a detail analysis of the likely headlines in the popular press. Surely then it makes sense to make murdoch head of the NHS .because as far as the government is concerned he is a worlds leading expert on health. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Steve Shaw Date: 07 Jul 21 - 04:45 AM It's an inconvenience all right. But I think the point that the increase in cases is no longer matched by similar increases in serious illness and death, thanks to the vaccines, is sound. A similarly sound point is in the question, if we don't do it now, when will we do it? Can we really go on like this for ever? If we have to live with the disease, there will always be spikes, as with flu in winter. So let's get everybody vaccinated. Information, advice and vaccination have got to be the way forward in my opinion, not constant resort to repressive restrictions. |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: SPB-Cooperator Date: 07 Jul 21 - 05:31 AM We can continue to open-up tourism, retail and hospitality, etc, but relaxing public health measures such as wearing masks, checking into venues with NHS app is downright bizarre, and threatens to undo the benefit of the sacrifices we have made for nearly a year and a half. it is like saying that it should no longer be necessary to wear seatbelts because wearing seatbelts has reduced the number of deaths in road accidents. Taking half a minute to scan a barcode and use a hand gel dispenser is hardly onerous. Also if people are no longer required to use face coverings on public transport, shouldn't the driver then be held personally liable for people spreading covid in tube/train carriages and on buses? |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Doug Chadwick Date: 07 Jul 21 - 10:42 AM ...... and use a hand gel dispenser is hardly onerous I always made an effort to find and use the hand-gel each time I went into a shop. Sometimes this meant several applications in one shopping trip. This resulted in my skin drying out and cracking at the side of my finger nails. It was really painful, especially when eating citrus fruit or anything pickled. The solution was to use copious amounts of hand cream when I got home but it took a long time to clear up. I still use the hand gel but a little more judiciously. If I am shopping round and go into several shops to compare prices without touching anything, I will use it in the first shop then maybe once again later in my tour. I think I am clued up enough to make these decisions for myself. DC |
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Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 07 Jul 21 - 10:44 AM Leave it to Steve - he makes irrational statements, I post a link to answers, and he choses to misrepresent the papers in the results. Asking me to prove he's wrong, he's not interested in proving he's correct, he keeps pushing the same tired politically-motivated line. Well, Maggie, you post sources without comment. I've perused some of them and they largely confirm what I've been saying about the evidence: that most of it is observational, that randomised control testing is not possible because of the ethical deficiency of having an "unprotected" control group. Making real-life extrapolations as to efficacy from laboratory testing of various types of masks is not justified. BS. Just nonsense. A point made here says that the efficacy of masks can't be taken in isolation - you also need to consider social distancing and handwashing, etc, but given the severity of the pandemic, each is equally important. Here are some abstracts and highlights from the top few papers in that list that came out in 2021: An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19 January 26, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014564118 Abstract The science around the use of masks by the public to impede COVID-19 transmission is advancing rapidly. In this narrative review, we develop an analytical framework to examine mask usage, synthesizing the relevant literature to inform multiple areas: population impact, transmission characteristics, source control, wearer protection, sociological considerations, and implementation considerations. A primary route of transmission of COVID-19 is via respiratory particles, and it is known to be transmissible from presymptomatic, paucisymptomatic, and asymptomatic individuals. Reducing disease spread requires two things: limiting contacts of infected individuals via physical distancing and other measures and reducing the transmission probability per contact. The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected respiratory particles in both laboratory and clinical contexts. Public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high. Given the current shortages of medical masks, we recommend the adoption of public cloth mask wearing, as an effective form of source control, in conjunction with existing hygiene, distancing, and contact tracing strategies. Because many respiratory particles become smaller due to evaporation, we recommend increasing focus on a previously overlooked aspect of mask usage: mask wearing by infectious people (“source control”) with benefits at the population level, rather than only mask wearing by susceptible people, such as health care workers, with focus on individual outcomes. We recommend that public officials and governments strongly encourage the use of widespread face masks in public, including the use of appropriate regulation. Face masks against COVID-19: Standards, efficacy, testing and decontamination methods June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2021.102435 Highlights • Universal face masking as a low-cost strategy to mitigate virus transmission • Interdisciplinary systematic review on face masking against COVID-19 • Standards for various face masks and their fundamental filtration mechanisms • Empirical methods for determining mask integrity and particle filtration efficiency • Decontamination methods that allow for the reuse of traditionally disposable masks Why does the spread of COVID-19 vary greatly in different countries? Revealing the efficacy of face masks in epidemic prevention January 14, 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268821000108 Abstract The severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly contagious, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by it has forced many countries to adopt ‘lockdown’ measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic through social isolation of citizens. Some countries proposed universal mask wearing as a protection measure of public health to strengthen national prevention efforts and to limit the wider spread of the epidemic. In order to reveal the epidemic prevention efficacy of masks, this paper systematically evaluates the experimental studies of various masks and filter materials, summarises the general characteristics of the filtration efficiency of isolation masks with particle size, and reveals the actual efficacy of masks by combining the volume distribution characteristics of human exhaled droplets with different particle sizes and the SARS-CoV-2 virus load of nasopharynx and throat swabs from patients. The existing measured data show that the filtration efficiency of all kinds of masks for large particles and extra-large droplets is close to 100%. From the perspective of filtering the total number of pathogens discharged in the environment and protecting vulnerable individuals from breathing live viruses, the mask has a higher protective effect. If considering the weighted average filtration efficiency with different particle sizes, the filtration efficiencies of the N95 mask and the ordinary mask are 99.4% and 98.5%, respectively. The mask can avoid releasing active viruses to the environment from the source of infection, thus maximising the protection of vulnerable individuals by reducing the probability of inhaling a virus. Therefore, if the whole society strictly implements the policy of publicly wearing masks, the risk of large-scale spread of the epidemic can be greatly reduced. Compared with the overall cost of social isolation, limited personal freedoms and forced suspension of economic activities, the inconvenience for citizens caused by wearing masks is perfectly acceptable. This in particular helps because it has a good photo illustration of with and without masks, and types of masks: Protection From COVID-19: The Efficacy of Face Masks February 5, 2021 doi: 10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0119 Abstract Background Since the beginning of 2020 the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread to nearly every country in the world. The mainly airborne pathogen has led to large numbers of deaths, principally in elderly and vulnerable segments of the population. Protective vaccines have recently become available, but it is not yet clear whether and when population-wide immunity will be achieved. The existence of evidence for the protective effect of masks covering the mouth and nose is a topic of public debate. Methods A selective literature search was carried out in PubMed. Data from the German Robert Koch Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were also taken into account. Results When talking, as many as 20 000 droplets ranging in size from 20 to 500 µM are released every second. According to PCR tests, the amount of virus exhaled is highest immediately before the onset of symptoms. No randomized trials have been conducted on the effect of masks covering the mouth and nose. A meta-analysis of 29 studies on infection with SARS-CoV-2, SARS, or MERS revealed that type N-95 masks (corresponding approximately to FFP-2), surgical masks, or similar multilayer cotton masks can greatly reduce the infection risk for the wearers (RR 0.34 [0.26; 0.45], with moderate heterogeneity [I2 = 48%]). Model experiments and case reports suggest that masks covering the mouth and nose afford considerable protection against transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne diseases by reducing release of and exposure to potentially infectious droplets; in addition, infections that do occur take a milder course. A limitation of the studies analyzed is that in most cases, this effect cannot be viewed in isolation from the protective impact of other measures (distancing, hygiene precautions). Conclusion It can plausibly be assumed that consistent use of masks covering the mouth and nose can play an important role in containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Since the outbreak in Wuhan (China) in early 2020, SARS-CoV-2 has spread into a pandemic. The pathogen is mostly transmitted via the respiratory route. It has caused many deaths, especially in older and vulnerable populations. Vaccines have become available recently, but it is not known how quickly vaccinations will help to establish immunity at the population level (1). The most important protective measures against infection with SARS-CoV-2 include: Adhering to safe minimum distances Complying with hygiene measures, and Wearing a face covering over nose and mouth (mask). |
