on coping with C19 lockdown

[Atticus]

If we get a decent vaccine, doubt I'll be wearing a mask or face shield after that.

Regardless of the vaccine, which I am more than willing to get when it becomes available (March 21?), I'll wear a mask until the numbers are WAAAY down in my neck of the woods.
I have become convinced, however, that masks are more about infected people not infecting others, than it is about preventing ourselves from being infected.

[bambam1729]

Regardless of the vaccine, which I am more than willing to get when it becomes available (March 21?), I'll wear a mask until the numbers are WAAAY down in my neck of the woods.
I have become convinced, however, that masks are more about infected people not infecting others, than it is about preventing ourselves from being infected.

When we get the vaccine may be more a matter of availability than getting it approved. Fauci even said he expects to have answers in November - he even said maybe October, though I doubt that. But then its a logistical nightmare to get millions/billions of doses made and distributed. I know the companies have been paid to start manufacturing the vaccines pre-approval just in case but I still think it will take awhile.

[Conor Dary]

“In the past week, Microsoft, Target, Ford Motor and The New York Times said they, too, had postponed the return of in-person work to next summer and acknowledged the inevitable: The pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon.”

https://mobile.twitter.com/carlquint...78830721548288

[Conor Dary]

Florida governor doesn't wear mask to Trump rally

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...mpression=true

[Conor Dary]

[jeremyp]

Boy there is way too much common sense going on here!

[jeremyp]

[QUOTE=Conor Dary;n1665607]Florida governor doesn't wear mask to Trump rally

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...mpression=true[/

Mini T must follow his leader.

[xw]

Little history on masks from my career - when I was in med school I remember the microbiology lectures first year and the lecturer discussed surgical masks (not N95), and said, "They don't do anything." About 15 years ago I made my first trip to Japan and was surprised to see how many people were wearing masks. On return I asked a top infectious disease consultant at Duke about this and he said, "They don't do anything." In surgery, when we were really worried about infections (AIDS, Hep C patients), we always wore a face shield in addition to the mask. The shield is impermeable as opposed to a more porous mask, but its more open on the sides and neck.

There's a pretty good summary article I read yesterday in Nature about masks and their effectiveness or lack thereof, stating that the evidence on this is all over the map. Hard to say how effective they are for the type of masks most people are using. Having said that, they likely provide some protection to larger droplets and are better than nothing, and I do always wear them when out and about. I have some face shields and sometimes wear them, but I always wear something. If we get a decent vaccine, doubt I'll be wearing a mask or face shield after that.

I think another thing about mass wearing that people often tend to overlook is that they likely protect others from the wearer; it shouldn't be surprising that masks would decrease the viral load exhaled/sneezed behind them. So while individually they are not very useful, when everybody wears one there's quite possibly an effect on the mass scale.

[tandfman]

Originally posted by tandfman View Post
The Metropolitan Opera in NYC has canceled its 2020-2021 season.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/me...rnd/index.html

And now it's been announced that Broadway theaters will remain closed through the end of May.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/09/broa...gh-may-30.html

And now it's been announced that the New York Philharmonic has canceled its entire 2020-2021 concert season.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/us/ny...rnd/index.html

[Atticus]

And now it's been announced that Broadway theaters will remain closed through the end of May.
The Metropolitan Opera in NYC has canceled its 2020-2021 season.
And now it's been announced that the New York Philharmonic has canceled its entire 2020-2021 concert season.

I just need the Ballet to cancel and I hit the Quadfecta of High Kulcha!

[tandfman]

I just need the Ballet to cancel and I hit the Quadfecta of High Kulcha!

That's old news.

20-21 SEASON UPDATE


It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of Fall 2020 performances and our annual run of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker^®.

https://www.nycballet.com/

[Atticus]

That's old news.

Bingo! Yahtze! Uno! Checkmate! NOW the fat lady has sung . . .

[jeremyp]

Our model quantitatively links mask efficacy to reductions in viral load and subsequent transmission risk. Our results reinforce that the use of masks by both a potential transmitter and exposed person substantially reduces the probability of successful transmission, even if masks only lower exposure viral load by ~50%. Slight increases in mask adherence and/or efficacy above current levels would reduce the effective reproductive number (Re) substantially below 1, particularly if implemented comprehensively in potential super-spreader environments. Our model predicts that moderately efficacious masks will lower exposure viral load 10-fold among people who get infected despite masking, potentially limiting infection severity.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.13.20193508v2
Joshua T. Schiffer, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of Washington who co-wrote the study, found that if the healthy masked individual is infected, her viral dosage is slashed by a factor of 10. This reduces the likelihood that she develops a severe case of COVID-19. A larger body of research finds that masks reduce the spread of aerosolized diseases like COVID-19.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...trophe/616674/

[jeremyp]

When a spin studio opened in the Canadian city of Hamilton in July, its owners took several measures to prevent an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

They removed about half the studio’s stationary bikes to allow room for social distancing, Elizabeth Richardson, the city’s medical officer, said Tuesday. They ramped up sanitation measures. And riders were asked to wear their masks into the studio and remove them only while exercising, in accordance with local rules.

Now, despite appearing to have complied with public health regulations, at least 61 people linked to the studio have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“They had done all sorts of things to remove the potential for spread,” Richardson told reporters. “Unfortunately, gyms are a higher-risk place because of the fact that generally people are taking off their masks, they’re breathing at a higher rate.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...navirus-masks/

[Conor Dary]

A Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s order that limited the number of people allowed in indoor spaces as the novel coronavirus sweeps through the state.


The Badger state has the fourth-highest number of new infections in the country, according to Washington Post data, and the executive order that limited public indoor gatherings to 25 percent was a means to curtail the spread of the virus, Evers said in a statement last week. The order didn’t apply to schools, child-care centers, and health-care and long-term care facilities or churches.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ve-updates-us/