good article by doctor

[cmarshall]

Atul Gawande is a surgeon and public health researcher who writes very well about medical issues.  His latest piece about corona is informative in surprising ways.  It's a good read.  For instance, this observation:

 

Don’t ditch your T-shirt mask, though. A recent, extensive review of the research from an international consortium of scientists suggests that if at least sixty per cent of the population wore masks that were just sixty-per-cent effective in blocking viral transmission—which a well-fitting, two-layer cotton mask is—the epidemic could be stopped. The more effective the mask, the bigger the impact.

 

https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/amid-the-coronavirus-crisis-a-regimen-for-reentry#intcid=recommendations_default-popular_6b34958d-a892-4640-b9c8-96f47a978ece_popular4-1

 

So, 60% of the population wearing T-shirt masks could provide enough herd immunity to stop Covid cold?  Why aren't govts kicking off major campaigns to do this?

 

 

 

[Puccini]

2 hours ago, cmarshall said:

So, 60% of the population wearing T-shirt masks could provide enough herd immunity to stop Covid cold?  Why aren't govts kicking off major campaigns to do this?

No.

[Puccini]

Quote

Herd immunity (also called herd effect, community immunity, population immunity, or social immunity) is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through vaccination or previous infections, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune.^[1][2] 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

 

[cmarshall]

5 hours ago, Puccini said:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

 

Of course, I understand that is not literally what herd immunity it, but the assertion is that if that percentage of people wore masks it would effectively be the same as herd immunity enough for the virus to die out.  Unlike true herd immunity, the mask effect would be short-term only, but the virus would die out just the same.  So, the effect could be the same as herd immunity.

 

New Zealand has or is about to exterminate the virus by such methods without ever having had a large enough infection rate to achieve true herd immunity.

 

 

[Puccini]

On 5/19/2020 at 2:50 PM, cmarshall said:

Of course, I understand that is not literally what herd immunity it, but the assertion is that if that percentage of people wore masks it would effectively be the same as herd immunity enough for the virus to die out.  Unlike true herd immunity, the mask effect would be short-term only, but the virus would die out just the same.  So, the effect could be the same as herd immunity...

Just leave the expression "herd immunity" out of it, please. There are already too many people out there creating unnecessary confusion.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Puccini

[cmarshall]

8 hours ago, Puccini said:

Just leave the expression "herd immunity" out of it, please. There are already too many people out there creating unnecessary confusion.

 

I used the term "herd immunity" deliberately to underscore the equivalence and to point out that what many people take as the sole resolution to the pandemic can actually be achieved more quickly and without a vaccine using no more than the best practices of public health.

 

So, I think I'll continue to express myself as I wish and if that's too subtle for some readers, that's their problem, not mine.

[shdmn]

The problem with masks is NOBODY, NOBODY uses them properly.  I always see people taking them off and scratching their nose or whatever.  It is quite obvious that wearing them makes people touch their face even more which totally defeats the purpose.

[cmarshall]

23 hours ago, shdmn said:

The problem with masks is NOBODY, NOBODY uses them properly.  I always see people taking them off and scratching their nose or whatever.  It is quite obvious that wearing them makes people touch their face even more which totally defeats the purpose.

And yet we know from the data that widespread mask usage does work to suppress the virus.