Although I've long given up on wearing masks regularly, I do carry one around and if I really have to be around someone coughing, sneezing, sniffling or blowing their nose, or otherwise looking potentially sick, I put it on. Has worked so far, even in a situation where a coughing person did have COVID and spread it to others who were unm…
Although I've long given up on wearing masks regularly, I do carry one around and if I really have to be around someone coughing, sneezing, sniffling or blowing their nose, or otherwise looking potentially sick, I put it on. Has worked so far, even in a situation where a coughing person did have COVID and spread it to others who were unmasked but none who were masked. Also, almost all of the few people I know who haven't caught COVID yet but spend lots of time around others use masks to some degree (much much more than I do), and they seem to be in agreement the masks are the main reason they have avoided COVID so far.
it could simply be that the one's wearing masks also had higher levels of zinc and vitamin D, too. Studies show NO correlation to masking wearing and reduced infection.
But then, there is no convincing you, I understand. You have your mindset and fears and cannot back away from the decision you have come to live with comfortably.
I strongly believe in Vitamin D and a lot of other supplements, and ivermectin, and I am unvaccinated. Most of the die-hard maskers I know are the exact opposite, but the vast majority of those die-hard maskers have either avoided COVID or caught it at a birthday dinner, Thanksgiving, etc. which obviously doesn't mean masking doesn't work, just that masking isn't a very practical strategy
Apparently you believe in hearsay and not RCTs. Not one single RCT ever done has shown any efficacy for masks, including N95s. A large N95 RCT was just published--no efficacy.
Funny you say that, because I talk about the disastrous mortality results in the Pfizer/Moderna RCTs all the time. In fact I commented on this very post imploring Steve to include the mRNA RCT mortality results in his list for his doctor. But any HONEST scientist will admit the difference between proper RCTs and junk RCTs. The "RCTs" that people love to cite as evidence that "masks don't work" have distressing similarities to the RCTs that used absurdly inadequate regimens and then claimed “ivermectin doesn’t work”. What percentage of intervention subjects properly adhered to mask wearing in those "RCTs", especially at the time of potential high-risk exposures involving prolonged contact?
I know of a decent RCT published recently which found no difference between surgical masks and N95s- I hope you are not using that RCT to say "no efficacy" or "masks don't work"?
Virions are hundreds of times smaller than the weave of the masks. They are airborne, and can stay in the air of a room up to two weeks. If you can breathe, the mask is not working. As I said, the cheapest mask that will help costs $800. All you are doing is polluting the environment and driving a bunch of plastic particle down into your lungs. while creating a breeding ground for bacteria. Find an RCT that shows efficacy for masks, any RCT. The only one is the Bangladeshi study, and in that one the data does not support the conclusions. Your mask fetish is a fantasy.
"They are airborne, and can stay in the air of a room up to two weeks." This is exactly the type of fearporn hysteria that the COVID zealots used in 2020-2021: "COVID is so uncontrollable that everyone should engage in every preventative measure, including experimental mRNA injections with completely unknown long-term risks." How ironic that the opposite camp is now twisting the same fearporn to say: "COVID is so uncontrollable that nobody should engage in any sort of preventative measure and we should spend our time heckling anyone who does."
I am sure you realize that if the "aerosols staying in the air of a room up to two weeks" type of fearporn were actually true (sure there are grains of truth but for all practical / clinically relevant purposes it's nonsense), the world would have been a very, very different place the last 3 years. It's obvious to any honest person that COVID, while contagious, is not really uncontrollable at all. Just the look at the case counts from the hysteria-promoting governments- even the inflated case counts through deliberate over-testing aren't even minutely consistent with the type of fearporn you cited above. And common sense says so as well.
Of course it's not controllable--it's a virus. JFC. The airborne nature of COVID has been tested, and its ability to remain in the air has also been tested. That is not fear porn--it is just data. Different viruses are different sizes and behave differently, but that is how COVID behaves. The initial direction to use masks was based on the notion that the virus was almost completely contained in larger droplets that quickly fell to the ground. Testing soon showed that was not true--ergo, cloth and surgical masks were completely useless. There was only one good trial on N95s (in a health care setting), and it too showed no efficacy. Now there is another. Fear porn is clinging to some "measure" that is pure virtue signaling and theatre. It is like sucking your thumb for comfort. And BTW--that is not just my own idea or interpretation--it is shared by numerous data analysts and medical school professors.
Again, look at even the most inflated COVID case counts since March 2020 onwards, and it is clear that "aerosols staying in the air of a room up to two weeks" is, FOR ALL PRACTICAL/CLINICAL PURPOSES, fear porn. I'm a bit amazed that your insistence on "debunking" masks is so strong that it makes you embrace this sort of fearporn- just think for a second what the fearporn does to people who are truly scared of COVID even now (I really am not). The irony is I've clearly said that I hardly even wear masks at all nowadays, and also that it makes perfect sense to me that large numbers of people choose not to wear them, and still that's unacceptable to you. Have a nice day and take care, Linda.
I believe there are many downsides of masking and that's why I do it sparingly. But I do not believe that masking around coughing/sick people is worse for my health than a gigantic viral load of COVID. For my ego, sure, but not my health
You are probably better off doing a nasal and oral rinse with saline and povidone iodine or hydrogen peroxide when you get home from being around coughing people.
I agree with those things and believe they can be very useful (I remember Steve shared a pretty promising study on that a few months ago). Still, the only benefit I see of NOT masking around coughing/sick people is for my ego, not my health
so, you are doing it to prevent showing you feel superior in some way to your associates, relatives? What a shame. There are so many real and positive reasons not to wear a mask, for everyone.
I'm unvaxed and never wear a mask. Despite having been around several people with Covid, I have not had so much as a sniffle. I conclude that's due to not wearing a mask.
So find a sample of people who've avoided COVID but spend plenty of time around others on a regular basis, and look at the percentage who wear masks among those people. No cherry-picking, such that that percentage should be relatively stable regardless of who finds the sample and between multiple samples. I bet the percentage of maskers in the no-COVID samples will be far higher than the percentage of maskers in the general population (who have predominantly had COVID by now). Note that even if masks work, it may be very reasonable for a large percentage of people to choose not to wear them (having natural immunity would be a very good reason for example)
The fact that you lumped the vaccine together with masks (when I never mentioned vaccine earlier and I am unvaccinated) shows that this is about ideology first and science last, as in ideology-driven science.
Although I've long given up on wearing masks regularly, I do carry one around and if I really have to be around someone coughing, sneezing, sniffling or blowing their nose, or otherwise looking potentially sick, I put it on. Has worked so far, even in a situation where a coughing person did have COVID and spread it to others who were unmasked but none who were masked. Also, almost all of the few people I know who haven't caught COVID yet but spend lots of time around others use masks to some degree (much much more than I do), and they seem to be in agreement the masks are the main reason they have avoided COVID so far.
it could simply be that the one's wearing masks also had higher levels of zinc and vitamin D, too. Studies show NO correlation to masking wearing and reduced infection.
But then, there is no convincing you, I understand. You have your mindset and fears and cannot back away from the decision you have come to live with comfortably.
I strongly believe in Vitamin D and a lot of other supplements, and ivermectin, and I am unvaccinated. Most of the die-hard maskers I know are the exact opposite, but the vast majority of those die-hard maskers have either avoided COVID or caught it at a birthday dinner, Thanksgiving, etc. which obviously doesn't mean masking doesn't work, just that masking isn't a very practical strategy
"I put it on. Has worked so far"
Your analysis is incomplete. It could be because you wear a certain brand of shoes. Shoes are important.
Apparently you believe in hearsay and not RCTs. Not one single RCT ever done has shown any efficacy for masks, including N95s. A large N95 RCT was just published--no efficacy.
Funny you say that, because I talk about the disastrous mortality results in the Pfizer/Moderna RCTs all the time. In fact I commented on this very post imploring Steve to include the mRNA RCT mortality results in his list for his doctor. But any HONEST scientist will admit the difference between proper RCTs and junk RCTs. The "RCTs" that people love to cite as evidence that "masks don't work" have distressing similarities to the RCTs that used absurdly inadequate regimens and then claimed “ivermectin doesn’t work”. What percentage of intervention subjects properly adhered to mask wearing in those "RCTs", especially at the time of potential high-risk exposures involving prolonged contact?
I know of a decent RCT published recently which found no difference between surgical masks and N95s- I hope you are not using that RCT to say "no efficacy" or "masks don't work"?
Virions are hundreds of times smaller than the weave of the masks. They are airborne, and can stay in the air of a room up to two weeks. If you can breathe, the mask is not working. As I said, the cheapest mask that will help costs $800. All you are doing is polluting the environment and driving a bunch of plastic particle down into your lungs. while creating a breeding ground for bacteria. Find an RCT that shows efficacy for masks, any RCT. The only one is the Bangladeshi study, and in that one the data does not support the conclusions. Your mask fetish is a fantasy.
"They are airborne, and can stay in the air of a room up to two weeks." This is exactly the type of fearporn hysteria that the COVID zealots used in 2020-2021: "COVID is so uncontrollable that everyone should engage in every preventative measure, including experimental mRNA injections with completely unknown long-term risks." How ironic that the opposite camp is now twisting the same fearporn to say: "COVID is so uncontrollable that nobody should engage in any sort of preventative measure and we should spend our time heckling anyone who does."
I am sure you realize that if the "aerosols staying in the air of a room up to two weeks" type of fearporn were actually true (sure there are grains of truth but for all practical / clinically relevant purposes it's nonsense), the world would have been a very, very different place the last 3 years. It's obvious to any honest person that COVID, while contagious, is not really uncontrollable at all. Just the look at the case counts from the hysteria-promoting governments- even the inflated case counts through deliberate over-testing aren't even minutely consistent with the type of fearporn you cited above. And common sense says so as well.
Of course it's not controllable--it's a virus. JFC. The airborne nature of COVID has been tested, and its ability to remain in the air has also been tested. That is not fear porn--it is just data. Different viruses are different sizes and behave differently, but that is how COVID behaves. The initial direction to use masks was based on the notion that the virus was almost completely contained in larger droplets that quickly fell to the ground. Testing soon showed that was not true--ergo, cloth and surgical masks were completely useless. There was only one good trial on N95s (in a health care setting), and it too showed no efficacy. Now there is another. Fear porn is clinging to some "measure" that is pure virtue signaling and theatre. It is like sucking your thumb for comfort. And BTW--that is not just my own idea or interpretation--it is shared by numerous data analysts and medical school professors.
Again, look at even the most inflated COVID case counts since March 2020 onwards, and it is clear that "aerosols staying in the air of a room up to two weeks" is, FOR ALL PRACTICAL/CLINICAL PURPOSES, fear porn. I'm a bit amazed that your insistence on "debunking" masks is so strong that it makes you embrace this sort of fearporn- just think for a second what the fearporn does to people who are truly scared of COVID even now (I really am not). The irony is I've clearly said that I hardly even wear masks at all nowadays, and also that it makes perfect sense to me that large numbers of people choose not to wear them, and still that's unacceptable to you. Have a nice day and take care, Linda.
What about oxygen deprivation and mask mouth? https://nypost.com/2020/08/05/mask-mouth-is-a-seriously-stinky-side-effect-of-wearing-masks/
I believe there are many downsides of masking and that's why I do it sparingly. But I do not believe that masking around coughing/sick people is worse for my health than a gigantic viral load of COVID. For my ego, sure, but not my health
You are probably better off doing a nasal and oral rinse with saline and povidone iodine or hydrogen peroxide when you get home from being around coughing people.
I agree with those things and believe they can be very useful (I remember Steve shared a pretty promising study on that a few months ago). Still, the only benefit I see of NOT masking around coughing/sick people is for my ego, not my health
so, you are doing it to prevent showing you feel superior in some way to your associates, relatives? What a shame. There are so many real and positive reasons not to wear a mask, for everyone.
Where did you get "prevent showing you feel superior in some way" from, and what does it mean anyway?
I'm unvaxed and never wear a mask. Despite having been around several people with Covid, I have not had so much as a sniffle. I conclude that's due to not wearing a mask.
So find a sample of people who've avoided COVID but spend plenty of time around others on a regular basis, and look at the percentage who wear masks among those people. No cherry-picking, such that that percentage should be relatively stable regardless of who finds the sample and between multiple samples. I bet the percentage of maskers in the no-COVID samples will be far higher than the percentage of maskers in the general population (who have predominantly had COVID by now). Note that even if masks work, it may be very reasonable for a large percentage of people to choose not to wear them (having natural immunity would be a very good reason for example)
The fact that you lumped the vaccine together with masks (when I never mentioned vaccine earlier and I am unvaccinated) shows that this is about ideology first and science last, as in ideology-driven science.
I think you missed my point. One individual's experience means virtually nothing.