Who Was That Masked Man?

They have studied this business of droplets that are generated just by talking. Very technical link below, with decay rates and half-lifes.

I have been irritated all along by, first, the claim that the public didn't need to wear masks, that was a matter of supply and the need for health workers to have all the masks in the beginning, which is fine but hardly transparency. Secondly, the constant suggestion that coughing and sneezing are the only ways we generate droplets has bothered me quite a bit. I think this has led to masks not being used right or not worn at all. Or worn because people think it directly protects them, which for what's generally available doesn't ; I think this last one they don't want to shoot down as that does get people to wear them. And they wear them over their noses, which is unnecessary for the typical mask. The droplets are not coming out of the nose, or if they are, that person should be staying home!

I was observing people today lifting their masks when they wanted to talk, which is so ass-backwards it's comical.

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/22/11875

I haven't been in cold weather for awhile, but don't most people's nose's run. Not sure if fluids wetting the outside of the mask would be better or worse than possibly inside the mask. Or maybe it's the same either way.

Quote: rxwine

I haven't been in cold weather for awhile, but don't most people's nose's run. Not sure if fluids wetting the outside of the mask would be better or worse than possibly inside the mask. Or maybe it's the same either way.

That has been the knock on the effectiveness of masks all along. Studies have shown that fluid seeps through the mask and droplets then are still being spread during speech.

Quote: odiousgambit

I was observing people today lifting their masks when they wanted to talk, which is so ass-backwards it's comical.

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/22/11875

So new punishable offense: No talking
outside your home. Fine for me, I never
speak when I'm out anyway.

I'd say wear the mask over your nose if it's running

you probably need to change the mask once it is wet from your breath. When I wear one, which is a participation in a benefit to each other, it's only going to be for the few minutes I'm in a store. The virus is not spreading around here, and I wouldn't wear one at all except to make those who want to wear them feel better.

Quote: odiousgambit

I'd say wear the mask over your nose if it's running

you probably need to change the mask once it is wet from your breath. When I wear one, which is a participation in a benefit to each other, it's only going to be for the few minutes I'm in a store. The virus is not spreading around here, and I wouldn't wear one at all except to make those who want to wear them feel better.

Even if you only believed the mask will reduce the overall risk by as little as 5%, that effect can be multiplied by millions if people would at least wear them where it is going to help.

I don't put mine on until I am getting close to going inside some public place or into groups of people outside. Ain't nothing hard about it.

I am taking a position that a journalist would say makes me a science-denier

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/leaving-your-nose-uncovered-defeats-the-purpose-of-wearing-a-mask/2412189/

what I think the current thinking on this ignores is that the study of the spread of the virus is showing that surfaces are not spreading it significantly. This pretty much leaves droplets as what will spread it, and those are not generated by the nose unless it is weeping. In fact I suspect that it is generally a waste of effort to wear the mask if you are not speaking.

Nonetheless this means the Scolders out there who want you to cover your nose do have support for their position and I guess I'll follow suit now

good grief, the CDC keeps changing its mind on this

BS in the news today about a draft version being posted by mistake, really? Clearly a tug of war going on. I think on some future date it will be finalized as droplets being nearly 100% the spreading culprit, with a small amount of spread undeniably possible by tiny particles, if in enclosed spaces... such as might come out of your nose [and in fact do not cease to come out of an infected nose with those common masks, worn over the nose or not]

In, say, a store, if you encountered a talkative person wearing a mask, and a silent person not wearing a mask, I have to think the least danger is posed by the one not talking, something in fact close to zero. They know this a the CDC but are fighting about what they should say, I think.

It turns out that there is a type of mask besides the N95 that will protect you

actually I never knew this mask, which shows up here and there in Halloween costumes or horror movies or whatever, is called a plague mask. Obviously, just what we need today ... j.k.

to get to the mask bit, skip to about 17:20, though the whole video is good