Thu Mar 10, 2022 4:44 am
Pretty sure it transmits through both micro-droplets and aerosols? And masks also prevent aerosols from exhalation to a decent extent.
It's easy to say covid particles are aerosols and not micro-droplets, but I think the tests which tested masks for efficacy against covid virus particles bombarded it with particles like covid virus particles specifically. Not aerosols or micro-droplets specifically. So whatever the case....
Here's a quick link, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7
However, in our country, things are a bit different. N95 masks by contrast are encouraged. The mask shortage has evened out. Because it is widely believed N95 masks are much more effective than cloth masks, and that's likely true.
And a university in netherlands may be saying it doesn't work (Can you get back to me with a link, I'd like to see their definitions) and universities elsewhere are saying they do work. Taking one person's answer as truth, especially when that one person is in the minority of an opinion, is risky.
Again, nobody's saying they prevent covid entirely. Just protect you some extent. Don't look just at the size of the wave. Compare it to population, demographics, and average tendency to crowd.
Also, it's the mesh that catches most of the droplets/particles. And like musikbear says, masks are double-sided protection. One, they prevent the carrier from producing too much virus particles around, and another is that the mask deflects/catches the virus particles on the non-carrier.
Countries like Japan had the same covid problems, but lesser covid numbers, I think.
Look at the statistics.
USA, about 25% of the population (give or take up to 5%) was infected. (7.93 cr cases, 32.95 cr population as of 2k20)
Japan is 4.23 %. Say, even 6%, assuming the government doesn't have a tendency to fudge numbers. Why is that the case?
My country, the official numbers say 6%, but anyone with a head on their shoulders can up the estimated number to 20% because that's what the random serology testing says, and there's no way the numbers aren't being fudged.
In my country, I know the case: majority of people aren't educated enough to try and argue with the government about masks, and a majority of people aren't educated enough to even realise they have covid. Especially after the ruling party itself crowded up people (mostly maskless) in an eastern state to campaign while saying "We've defeated covid, vote for us, yippee" and caused the covid wave to be sharper there than in other states as a result of this crowding. Hundreds of maskless people. If masks actually didn't prevent covid, but people still wore masks more in the peaks of the waves, then why do covid numbers ever decrease? Shouldn't it infect the whole population?
In USA, a good proportion of people are educated enough to feel they can argue against a standard rule actively rather than passively ignore it.
In Japan, though? I never heard of any rallies of people arguing that chances covid was not likely to be reduced by a mask, and I definitely didn't hear of mass anti-covid protests.
It is possible that Japan's government is producing misleading numbers, or that the majority of the population is uneducated enough that they don't have the resources to get covid-checked. But I am basing this off what I know, and I know Japan's relatively more sensible than my country on these things (upto 20% Japan total, 70% my country's total, poverty. But the government of japan says 16% poverty according to "below the median" definition where median is US$22,387; and the government of my country says 12.4% poverty by $2 poverty line and it's definitely fudging the numbers, other sources claim 70% and anyone who looks out on the streets can see which one's closer to reality, so you can guess the relative reliability.)
Countries like China where people already wore masks, the official numbers say 0.01% of population. Now, I am reasonably sure that most infected persons have been reporting their cases, responsible citizens etc, but I'm not sure if the government is producing the right numbers. But in China, a majority of people received vaccine, and most people wore masks before covid. Then again, they did also enforce strict anti-crowding rules...
And I know personal experience means nothing in this case, but I can confirm that the vaccine indeed does reduce the edge of the disease if not prevent it entirely. The same way the polio vaccine reduces your chances of polio. Except, polio doesn't mutate and isn't as sneaky, so polio vaccine just reduces your chances to 0% (Without the polio vaccine, I doubt my country would have ever been able to eradicate polio. One of the few disease campaigns they did well).
And while the many universities may claim the masks etc don't work, relatively MUCH larger amounts of universities etc claim the masks do work. It's a point of who you choose to believe. The majority, whose claims sound logical, or the minority, whose claims ALSO sound logical? The majority says something protects me, so I take the majority chance and believe it. The minority says something won't protect you, so you take the minority chance and believe it.
If the masks don't protect, however, then you should look at the reasons they don't protect. Check the reasons for whether they actually hold. Because, for "masks don't work because covid transmits through aerosols and not micro-droplets," the reason doesn't hold because covid transmits through both and masks protect to some extent against both.
It's easy to say covid particles are aerosols and not micro-droplets, but I think the tests which tested masks for efficacy against covid virus particles bombarded it with particles like covid virus particles specifically. Not aerosols or micro-droplets specifically. So whatever the case....
Here's a quick link, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7
However, in our country, things are a bit different. N95 masks by contrast are encouraged. The mask shortage has evened out. Because it is widely believed N95 masks are much more effective than cloth masks, and that's likely true.
And a university in netherlands may be saying it doesn't work (Can you get back to me with a link, I'd like to see their definitions) and universities elsewhere are saying they do work. Taking one person's answer as truth, especially when that one person is in the minority of an opinion, is risky.
Again, nobody's saying they prevent covid entirely. Just protect you some extent. Don't look just at the size of the wave. Compare it to population, demographics, and average tendency to crowd.
Also, it's the mesh that catches most of the droplets/particles. And like musikbear says, masks are double-sided protection. One, they prevent the carrier from producing too much virus particles around, and another is that the mask deflects/catches the virus particles on the non-carrier.
Countries like Japan had the same covid problems, but lesser covid numbers, I think.
Look at the statistics.
USA, about 25% of the population (give or take up to 5%) was infected. (7.93 cr cases, 32.95 cr population as of 2k20)
Japan is 4.23 %. Say, even 6%, assuming the government doesn't have a tendency to fudge numbers. Why is that the case?
My country, the official numbers say 6%, but anyone with a head on their shoulders can up the estimated number to 20% because that's what the random serology testing says, and there's no way the numbers aren't being fudged.
In my country, I know the case: majority of people aren't educated enough to try and argue with the government about masks, and a majority of people aren't educated enough to even realise they have covid. Especially after the ruling party itself crowded up people (mostly maskless) in an eastern state to campaign while saying "We've defeated covid, vote for us, yippee" and caused the covid wave to be sharper there than in other states as a result of this crowding. Hundreds of maskless people. If masks actually didn't prevent covid, but people still wore masks more in the peaks of the waves, then why do covid numbers ever decrease? Shouldn't it infect the whole population?
In USA, a good proportion of people are educated enough to feel they can argue against a standard rule actively rather than passively ignore it.
In Japan, though? I never heard of any rallies of people arguing that chances covid was not likely to be reduced by a mask, and I definitely didn't hear of mass anti-covid protests.
It is possible that Japan's government is producing misleading numbers, or that the majority of the population is uneducated enough that they don't have the resources to get covid-checked. But I am basing this off what I know, and I know Japan's relatively more sensible than my country on these things (upto 20% Japan total, 70% my country's total, poverty. But the government of japan says 16% poverty according to "below the median" definition where median is US$22,387; and the government of my country says 12.4% poverty by $2 poverty line and it's definitely fudging the numbers, other sources claim 70% and anyone who looks out on the streets can see which one's closer to reality, so you can guess the relative reliability.)
Countries like China where people already wore masks, the official numbers say 0.01% of population. Now, I am reasonably sure that most infected persons have been reporting their cases, responsible citizens etc, but I'm not sure if the government is producing the right numbers. But in China, a majority of people received vaccine, and most people wore masks before covid. Then again, they did also enforce strict anti-crowding rules...
And I know personal experience means nothing in this case, but I can confirm that the vaccine indeed does reduce the edge of the disease if not prevent it entirely. The same way the polio vaccine reduces your chances of polio. Except, polio doesn't mutate and isn't as sneaky, so polio vaccine just reduces your chances to 0% (Without the polio vaccine, I doubt my country would have ever been able to eradicate polio. One of the few disease campaigns they did well).
And while the many universities may claim the masks etc don't work, relatively MUCH larger amounts of universities etc claim the masks do work. It's a point of who you choose to believe. The majority, whose claims sound logical, or the minority, whose claims ALSO sound logical? The majority says something protects me, so I take the majority chance and believe it. The minority says something won't protect you, so you take the minority chance and believe it.
If the masks don't protect, however, then you should look at the reasons they don't protect. Check the reasons for whether they actually hold. Because, for "masks don't work because covid transmits through aerosols and not micro-droplets," the reason doesn't hold because covid transmits through both and masks protect to some extent against both.
