Let's start a women's group, we say. Meanwhile, men...

submitted by Irascible-harpy from imgur.com

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]OrneryStruggle 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I asked for studies, not news articles, as finding the studies themselves when they aren't linked in the articles is fairly annoying.

But for example, the Zhang/Molina PNAS paper that you claim to have "seen yourself" (while linking to a press release about it and not the study itself) is likely to be retracted following a huge number of scientists critiquing its obviously preposterous claims and ridiculous methodology: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/mario-molina-coronavirus-face-masks-pnas

Here's a twitter thread about it (blue check by one of the signatories of the letter calling for retraction) explaining some of the issues and the academic misconduct that led to the study being published: https://twitter.com/BillHanage/status/1273659736760737793

This was a big controversy in the science community and many articles have been written about it.

Your third link links to the same study, so see above.

The lancet metastudy which is the only other linked paper uses only "observational" studies for other illnesses to infer whether or not mask use could help, but they underscore that N95 respirators are the only type of mask that shows a significant effect (i.e., surgical masks do not). All studies in this dataset are about PPE use by hospital workers in hospital settings, so it's basically impossible to extrapolate them to mask use by the public, mask re-use or cloth masks.

Can you link me to specific papers that you see "proving" that masks (any kind of mask) work for the general public in a pandemic scenario? I'll wait.

[–]Marsupial 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Frankly, the mask thing is up in the air. There are numerous countries that do not do it and which aren't experiencing any major breakout. While obviously N95 masks handled by trained staff are a good protection, there are a lot of problems with how masks are being used and the claims associated with the current use. In the way they are used currently- which is poorly made masks used by non-trained laymen- they are a risk of giving people a false sense of security and likely are not as effective as people think they are, especially not the home made fabric masks that people just take off, wash and reuse (or keep on during the entire day). The US has become pretty narrowminded when it comes to the use of masks, when in reality there should be much more focus on staying at home, keeping distance and (the most important one) washing your hands. It's reasonable to believe masks have some effect but it should not be the priority countermeasure the way it has become.

[–]OrneryStruggle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree that obviously N95s in a hospital setting when used properly and disposed of properly should theoretically work (for either a droplet-based or airborne virus - no one can seem to agree which it is) but the evidence for The Proles wearing Whatever Mask Even If It Is An Old Scarf is thin to put it lightly.

It's also weird that in many locales it is being mandated AFTER covid-19 is no longer an epidemic.