So I guess everybody is getting Covid

mollyc said:
In your opinion, should we continue to wear masks indefinitely? (Not looking for an argument...) Colds and flu mutate every year also, which is why the flu vaccine is redesigned every year.
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I think the biggest issue is that the long term effects and behavior of covid is still relatively unknown. It was terrible before, but now it's seemingly devolved into The Sniffles v.2.0. The question is, will it stay mild? Will it go back to being terrible? Will we have a mix and match of the two, with it being mild one year, then killing hundreds of thousands the next?

I don't think we need to consider masks an everyday part of our lives now, but we still need to exercise a bit of caution concerning the issue.
 
Yes, I think if you wear an N95 mask every time you are around another person and do not remove it, you will have a pretty good defense against catching COVID. That isn't what mandates accomplish, however.
 
TBL said:
Yes, I think if you wear an N95 mask every time you are around another person and do not remove it, you will have a pretty good defense against catching COVID. That isn't what mandates accomplish, however.
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I carry one in my pocket at all times, and have a box of them in my car and another in my house. I wear an N95 any time I am indoors around people. Mandate not necessary for me to behave that way.

And given that I shared a house with my wife who was symptomatic and tested positive for 13 days and my little girl and I didn’t catch it (or at least we never tested positive), I have to assume that wearing masks whenever we were on the same floor contributed mightily to our safety.

Wear a mask folks. Mandate or not.
 
Cmaier said:
I carry one in my pocket at all times, and have a box of them in my car and another in my house. I wear an N95 any time I am indoors around people. Mandate not necessary for me to behave that way.

And given that I shared a house with my wife who was symptomatic and tested positive for 13 days and my little girl and I didn’t catch it (or at least we never tested positive), I have to assume that wearing masks whenever we were on the same floor contributed mightily to our safety.

Wear a mask folks. Mandate or not.
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Yes, when my kids both had it (not at the same time), they stayed in their own rooms and if they had to come to a common area, or I took food to them, masks were worn.

I'm not convinced, personally, about masks in places like the grocery store or hardware store where I'm never next to someone for more than a minute or two at the most. And no one wears them in restaurants for obvious reasons. Some place like a concert or crowed area where you are stuck next to someone I'm more likely to wear one.

And frankly the notion that never wore masks to the doctor's now has me freaked out and I will probably always wear one there for the rest of my life.
 
mollyc said:
Yes, when my kids both had it (not at the same time), they stayed in their own rooms and if they had to come to a common area, or I took food to them, masks were worn.

I'm not convinced, personally, about masks in places like the grocery store or hardware store where I'm never next to someone for more than a minute or two at the most. And no one wears them in restaurants for obvious reasons. Some place like a concert or crowed area where you are stuck next to someone I'm more likely to wear one.

And frankly the notion that never wore masks to the doctor's now has me freaked out and I will probably always wear one there for the rest of my life.
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I get the sentiment and also think this is why it continues to spread like wildfire. When I'm in the store I'm wearing my N95 whether others are or not wearing theirs, why should I risk it just because they're not? It may not be a catch all but it will at least give me some level of personal protection.
 
Eric said:
I get the sentiment and also think this is why it continues to spread like wildfire. When I'm in the store I'm wearing my N95 whether others are or not wearing theirs, why should I risk it just because they're not? It may not be a catch all but it will at least give me some level of personal protection.
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yep, I totally understand why some wear masks still. I make no judgment one way or the other for people who wear them.

but even in the height of the pandemic I was wearing cloth masks anyway.....
 
TBL said:
Alameda County re-instated their mask mandate when cases rose in the spring and it had no effect whatsoever on their numbers. Cases there began to decline and at the same rate as surrounding counties without mandates.

I'm not saying mask-wearing is "oppression" and obviously we're a far cry from China's pointless and destructive "zero COVID" policy, but I do think we're sort of avoiding the reality that this is never going away, that it is in effect the "new flu" and it should be treated as such (i.e. no masks, no lockdowns, new vaccines on a regular basis).
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Eric said:
Do you have a credible source for that? We know that it doesn't fully prevent it but it does help, the more that wear them, the more it prevents the spread.
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I was going to post this when I first saw it, but really wasn't up for the attacks. But here it is:

www.sfgate.com

Do mask mandates work? Bay Area data from June says no.

SFGATE compared Alameda County’s 7-day average case rate from the past two months to rates in neighboring Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties.
www.sfgate.com www.sfgate.com

Is this credible enough?

Edit: Sorry saw that it was posted after I read further down.
 
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Eric said:
I get the sentiment and also think this is why it continues to spread like wildfire. When I'm in the store I'm wearing my N95 whether others are or not wearing theirs, why should I risk it just because they're not? It may not be a catch all but it will at least give me some level of personal protection.
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There is one question for which I can't seem to find a good answer.

Scenario 1:
Two people, both wearing cloth masks in an indoor setting. Person A is only wearing one because of a mandate (or just call them me ;)) and person B is wearing one because they want to be protected.

Scenario 2:
Same two people in the same indoor setting. Person A is not wearing a mask (no mandates) and Person B is wearing a properly fitting N95.

In which Scenario is B better protected?
 
mollyc said:
yep, I totally understand why some wear masks still. I make no judgment one way or the other for people who wear them.
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In a store or other indoor place, I don't either.

But in your car, by yourself, well............... ;)
 
To address the point in the thread title: Statistics from the CDC and elsewhere confirm that case numbers are high, and they represent a massive undercount, which is aligned with everyone's anecdotal experience that they know of many more people who are SARS-CoV-2 positive than ever before. This is caused by several factors, including increased transmissibility of the BA.4, BA.5, and the emerging BA.2.75 sub-variants of Omicron, plus evasion of immunity conferred by vaccination or prior infection.

The "everyone is going to get it so no big deal" isn't supported by the evidence. While it's true that hospitalizations and deaths are considerably lower than in previous surges, that doesn't mean no harm is being done. For one thing, the probability of persistent COVID-19 symptoms, so-called long COVID, is unclear, but it is likely that the number of affected patients in the U.S. will be in the millions or more. As well, it is clear that there are long-term effects on organ systems even in people who became asymptomatic after their acute infection. It's also important to recognize that repeated infections appear to have cumulative deleterious affects. Here's an article from Eric Topol about reinfections:

erictopol.substack.com

A reinfection red flag

Why a new report is so troubling
erictopol.substack.com erictopol.substack.com

Which brings me to masks. @Herdfan's post about them implies that mandates don't work. However, mandates are not the same as actual masking, and the low efficacy of most cloth masks compared to respirators blunts any positive effect. I switched to N99s last year and plan to continue wearing them. Will I got COVID-19 at some point? Perhaps, but I want to minimize the likelihood of repetition.

Here's a good article about how Japan has fared without mask mandates:

www.dtnext.in

Japan’s secret to taming COVID: Peer pressure

As a policy, the country has never mandated masks or vaccinations. But it has significantly evaded the worst of the fallouts of COVID-19, thanks to a fear of public shaming and the ‘self restraint...
www.dtnext.in www.dtnext.in
 
Herdfan said:
There is one question for which I can't seem to find a good answer.

Scenario 1:
Two people, both wearing cloth masks in an indoor setting. Person A is only wearing one because of a mandate (or just call them me ;)) and person B is wearing one because they want to be protected.

Scenario 2:
Same two people in the same indoor setting. Person A is not wearing a mask (no mandates) and Person B is wearing a properly fitting N95.

In which Scenario is B better protected?
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I think it's subjective, but according to the CDC, the person wearing the N95 will always be better protected and cloth masks have been shown to be less effective.

So if the CDC is to be believed then there is your answer.
Masks and respirators (i.e., specialized filtering masks such as “N95s”) can provide different levels of protection depending on the type of mask and how they are used. Loosely woven cloth products provide the least protection, layered finely woven products offer more protection, well-fitting disposable surgical masks and KN95s offer even more protection, and well-fitting NIOSH-approved respirators (including N95s) offer the highest level of protection.
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mollyc said:
Yes, when my kids both had it (not at the same time), they stayed in their own rooms and if they had to come to a common area, or I took food to them, masks were worn.
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Back when the swine flu was the big thing, my wife caught it. We locked her in our bedroom and when we came to talk to her or bring her food, we cracked the door and shot a good spray of Lysol in the room before we opened the door.

It worked. :)
 
Eric said:
Right, and the article makes this note:


My brother after he got infected, "we wore our masks to the bar and it didn't make any difference" when I asked how he drank his beers he said they all had take them off for that.
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I don't understand people unmasking to eat lunch/dinner. Get it to go or take it outside. That's what I do. I have no interest being indoors with a lot of people not wearing masks. I still wear my mask everywhere I go.
 
Roller said:
Which brings me to masks. @Herdfan's post about them implies that mandates don't work. However, mandates are not the same as actual masking,
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I have to say that putting on a mask while walking into a restaurant and to the table to only then take it off for the meal makes little sense. But that's mandates for you.
 
MEJHarrison said:
I don't understand people unmasking to eat lunch/dinner. Get it to go or take it outside. That's what I do. I have no interest being indoors with a lot of people not wearing masks. I still wear my mask everywhere I go.
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I think most people see it as an acceptable risk, even my wife is starting to lean that way and I do get it, I'm so fnk tired of that mask and can't wait to stop wearing it. At the same time I have pretty big risk factors and a lung condition so I just take no risks, I also take my food to go or eat outside and haven't actually dined in since the beginning of this thing.
 
MEJHarrison said:
I don't understand people unmasking to eat lunch/dinner. Get it to go or take it outside. That's what I do. I have no interest being indoors with a lot of people not wearing masks. I still wear my mask everywhere I go.
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Also a great way to embarrass your kid. We took a card table and chairs. Picked up our food and sat in the parking lot at our own table and ate. Daughter was mortified. :ROFLMAO:
 
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