Should You Wear a Mask?
During the coronavirus pandemic, there are a lot of questions about whether people should wear masks in public. This survey will help you make the right decision.
Yes
You Should Wear A Mask
Covid is airborne: it is in the exhaled breath of infected people. Vaccines and treatments are your last lines of defense. Post-infection immunity shortened to 28 days. 1 in 3 infected people are pre-symptomaticor show no symptoms. Long Covid usually comes from reinfections, most often mild infections. There is no limit to how many times you can catch Covid-19. The AMA wants people to knowthat getting reinfected is Cakin to playing Russian Roulette. Rapid tests can miss asymptomatic infections.
Covid-19 is not just a respiratory infection. It is a multi-organ, systemic disease; a serious vascular, neurological, immune-system-damaging, eye-damaging, brain-damaging, randomly disabling (and disability-worsening) disease (CDC: 1 in 5; PHAC: 50%). Any infection creates risk for serious heart problems; the risk of deadly blood clots is elevated for one year. Covid can leave pets with brain damageand long-term harms.
Each reinfection does cumulative, worsening damageand leads to Long Covid; typical onset is 4 weeks after infection. There is no treatment, cure, or prevention for Long Covid. Anyone of any age or health status can get Long Covid. Here is what Long Covid looks like.
The above is from Violet Blue's COVID Newsletter, "Threat Model" which I encourage you to subscribe to.
- If you're indoors, or if you're in a really crowded place outdoors, you should wear a mask.
- Vaccinated people can get COVID19.
- Vaccinated people can spread the virus, both to vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
- COVID is not just a cold.
- How to choose a good mask. Focus on getting an N95 or KN95 mask.
Masks Are Effective
There are numerous academic and medical studies that indicate how effective masks are at preventing the spread of COVID-19.
- Face masks for COVID pass their largest test yet Nature, 9 September, 2021
- Evidence shows that, yes, masks prevent COVID-19 – and surgical masks are the way to go The Conversation, September 22, 2021
- UAB study, among others, shows masks are effective in preventing spread of COVID-19 University of Alabama at Birmingham, August 18, 2021
- Do face masks work? Here are 49 scientific studies that explain why they do KXAN Austin, August 7, 2021
- Effectiveness of Mask Wearing to Control Community Spread of SARS-CoV-2 JAMA Insights, February 10, 2021
- An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19, PNAS January 26, 2021
- How effective is a mask in preventing COVID‐19 infection? Medical Devices & Sensors, January 5, 2021
- Face masks: what the data sayNature, 6 October 2020
- Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus UC San Francisco, June 26, 2020
Masks are Not Harmful, Beware Conspiracy Theories
- Masks don't limit your oxygen or give you problems with CO₂.
- You can't protect yourself or cure COVID19 with crazy-ass treatments like horse paste ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.
- Hygiene is good, but beware of Hygiene Theatre that doesn't have anything to do with protecting from the virus. There is a lot of hygiene theatre in the US, in New Zealand and elsewhere in the English-speaking world.
Keeping Safe
- The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers has provided Core Recommendations for Safer Indoor Air, which is output from their Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Advisory Group.