To Mask or Not to Mask?

[SheepDog4Life]

The positive case rate is essentially unchanging after the mask mandate, but the relaxation of social distancing, even while masks are still mandated, precipitates a spike in cases

So how is that an argument in favor of the efficacy of masking, exactly?

Regardless of what the governor of California might think, it is not possible to eat in a restaurant, nor drink in a bar, while wearing a mask.

ETA: somehow skipped a page of posts addressing this already, lol!

 

[Ark]

Everywhere I look there's "record cases" and "record hospitalizations". Everywhere I go 100% of people are masked 100% of the time. Still waiting for the Church of the Mask's ceaseless prayer and devotion to deliver us from the rona. I'm sure those cases will vanish any day now.

Insanity is wearing the same face diaper for six months and expecting a different result.

 

[terrehautian]

Everywhere I look there's "record cases" and "record hospitalizations". Everywhere I go 100% of people are masked 100% of the time. Still waiting for the Church of the Mask's ceaseless prayer and devotion to deliver us from the rona. I'm sure those cases will vanish any day now.

Insanity is wearing the same face diaper for six months and expecting a different result.

I said this (that most people are wearing masks) a few weeks ago on the local health department’s Facebook page when there was a big spike. People went insane saying that hardly anyone is wearing them or wearing them improperly. I still pay attention at the stores and make no effort to go at certain times, 99.9% of people are wearing masks and properly. A very minuscule few (less then 20 in the past month) are wearing no masks or improperly. That is four different stores or more, some more expensive (like meijer or sams) and some cheaper (like Walmart and dollar general). I firmly believe that wearing masks are not the problem and if officials keep on screaming “wear a mask, not for you but for me”, people will actually stop wearing them as much.

As for myself, I do when I have to, but only then. It comes off ASAP. Unlike some who wear them in their car when they are by themself.

 

[SheepDog4Life]

Everywhere I look there's "record cases" and "record hospitalizations". Everywhere I go 100% of people are masked 100% of the time. Still waiting for the Church of the Mask's ceaseless prayer and devotion to deliver us from the rona. I'm sure those cases will vanish any day now.

Insanity is wearing the same face diaper for six months and expecting a different result.

I said this (that most people are wearing masks) a few weeks ago on the local health department’s Facebook page when there was a big spike. People went insane saying that hardly anyone is wearing them or wearing them improperly. I still pay attention at the stores and make no effort to go at certain times, 99.9% of people are wearing masks and properly. A very minuscule few (less then 20 in the past month) are wearing no masks or improperly. That is four different stores or more, some more expensive (like meijer or sams) and some cheaper (like Walmart and dollar general). I firmly believe that wearing masks are not the problem and if officials keep on screaming “wear a mask, not for you but for me”, people will actually stop wearing them as much.

As for myself, I do when I have to, but only then. It comes off ASAP. Unlike some who wear them in their car when they are by themself.

It's a new "fad" in some places... 5 weeks ago on a trip up to Des Moines, didn't see a SINGLE mask in the smaller bergs in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa when stopping for gas/bio/food. I suspect it's catching on there now, in those red counties on the dashboard map, as indicated in this post from two weeks ago (11/18):

I have no problem if people want to wear a mask if it makes them feel better. Actually around Greenfield lately i've noticed a pretty high level of compliance in stores etc. I don't agree with mandates though.

 

[JettaKnight]

I've seen several guys with veterans hats on they are wearing a cloth mask or a surgical mask or a neck gator. I ask them if they remember their NBC training they all say they do not many of us forget the most unpleasant training in mopp suit at 118 degrees. I then ask if they think the mask they are wearing is going to stop the biological covid19. They all said no. I ask why wearing the mask? They responded to appease people. Is everything wearing one to appease people even though you know it won't help you?

So now someone who's gone through NBC training is considered an expert in viral epidemiology?

 

[breakingcontact]

Masks work to some degree, it isn't a very large degree.

Social distancing works even better.

So long as schools, bars, restaurants are open, it is going to keep spreading. I'm not saying to shut all of that down, but when you pack folks into small spaces, they are going to spread whatever they have.

Eventually we'll all have it, and it will be like the cold or flu and we can die or move on.

 

[nonobaddog]

So now someone who's gone through NBC training is considered an expert in viral epidemiology?

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

In other words you don't need to be an expert in viral epidemiology to know face diapers have very low effectiveness.

 

[JettaKnight]

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

In other words you don't need to be an expert in viral epidemiology to know face diapers have very low effectiveness.

Reductio ad absurdum.

 

[nonobaddog]

Not me. I've decided I'm too old to play virus so I'm not going to get it.

 

[jamil]

Not me. I've decided I'm too old to play virus so I'm not going to get it.

Me too. I've decided I'll just not get it.

 

[nonobaddog]

Reductio ad absurdum.

Does not apply.

 

[foszoe]

Does not apply.

Always wondered what that phrase meant.

 

[jamil]

Reductio ad absurdum.

No. It's really not. You don't need to be an expert to assert that your expert knows more than the other. This is basically the climate change debate. Few people really know the ****. But internet experts scour the webs for someone that purportedly knows the ****, and then says the thing they want said. Internet arguments like that aren't arguments about actual facts. They're arguments between people who don't really know anything but can use Google to find the evidence that supports their belief. Well, **** climate change. And **** masks. And **** "experts". Do masks work? I'm not about to say I know. But there is no shortage of internet experts who've already made up their minds one way or other, who are quite eager to share their freshly Googled expert's opinion.

So dispensing with the process, I'll deduce that I suspect they might help people not spread it to other people. Not gonna keep other people from spreading it to you. And they're most likely overrated.

 

[chipbennett]

Always wondered what that phrase meant.

Reductio ad absurdum = reducing [an argument] to the point of absurdity - taking an argument to an absurdly illogical point of conclusion, using an illogically strained analogy, etc.

 

[terrehautian]

Me too. I've decided I'll just not get it.

I'm going to wear a sign that says, "no covid allowed". Works for guns.

 

[ziggy]

I think the science is pretty clear that face masks are not very effective. As for wearing them "properly," you cannot have facial hair and get the mask to seal properly against your skin. Maybe about half the guys I see in masks have facial hair meaning the mask cannot attain it's expected level of effectiveness.
The "effectiveness" of masks is as a test of people's willingness to be obedient to our government masters. It also makes many people feel better, the same way a placebo makes people feel better, and because it lowers their fear level, even helps their immune system to function as intended.

 

[indyblue]

Nearly everywhere I go even restaurants, all I see are people wearing them like this, which does.... nothing

 

[JettaKnight]

Nearly everywhere I go even restaurants, all I see are people wearing them like this, which does.... nothing

Maybe that's all you see because that's all you're looking for.


I see a lot of folks "dick nosing" with masks, but I see a lot more wearing them as properly as can be.

 

[Indianajeff]

Nope...haven't worn one since the start, won't wear one now

 

[nonobaddog]

I think the science is pretty clear that face masks are not very effective. As for wearing them "properly," you cannot have facial hair and get the mask to seal properly against your skin. Maybe about half the guys I see in masks have facial hair meaning the mask cannot attain it's expected level of effectiveness.
The "effectiveness" of masks is as a test of people's willingness to be obedient to our government masters. It also makes many people feel better, the same way a placebo makes people feel better, and because it lowers their fear level, even helps their immune system to function as intended.

The vast majority of the 'masks' I see can not ever be very effective because they are just diapers and have no chance of sealing to the wearers face at all whether they have facial hair or not. If the mask does not seal its main purpose is for show.