I don’t disagree with you. I think wearing a mask for the benefit of others is being a responsible citizen but it’s all about the situation. Should everyone wear a mask around others. Yes, of course. Will that mask protect you? Maybe.Jackie Treehorn wrote: ↑02 Jan 2021, 22:50Thanks for that article but I'm going to respectfully disagree. Let me preface this by saying again that I had Covid, my wife had Covid and my 83 year old mother had Covid. It is not a joke. I am over 50 and it was no walk in the park. Do I wear a mask in public? Yes. Where I live It's the law and I'll follow the law. At this stage it is also a matter of public courtesy. That said, I think it is a wasted effort. In the article you linked what you have is one selective month pulled out and I'm not sure how the data there fits in with what they are saying. There is at this point no direct correlation between wearing masks and a reduced spreading or vice-versa. I have read any number of articles where doctors or nurses make bold declarative statements like, “You’re less likely to get Covid-19 if you’re wearing a mask.” That's fine but please back that statement up with data. As of yet I have seen not one conclusive report.
There are any number of other factors that cannot be accounted for. One of these is population density. I'll use California and Florida as examples. California and Florida have policies that are almost diametrically opposed yet we see virtually the same spread. California has at this stage a larger number of cases. (Depending on the sample time size this may be regarded as statistically insignificant) What we can look at though is total cases and total deaths. If we look at Florida the number of total deaths is about 40% higher than California. On the surface we could surmise that California's policy is therefore the better one. If we however look at the population density we see that interestingly enough the population density in Florida is 40% higher than California. Now lets take into account age. Based on median age of citizens Florida is the 5th oldest state in the US (Considering the number of retirees I'm surprised its not number 1 or 2 actually). California comes in at around 45th. One of the few things we do know is that this illness is far deadlier to old people than young people. Based on the population age and density as well as their policy the on-the-face assumption would be that people in Florida should be dropping like flies. The fact is that we are looking at two states with completely different policies and.. it seems to make no difference.
Two things stick out to me and that is that 1.) I don't think we really know how this virus is being transmitted and I think that bothers a great number of health care officials. I believe the band-aid on that fear is "wear a mask". 2.) The most disappointing thing in the US at least is that we have created an incentive to fudge the number of deaths. It's a cold hard fact that a great number of people are being labeled as Covid deaths that did not die of Covid. Hospitals are cashing in more money because of this (This is not a conspiracy theory. It's just plain tax money fudging and it happens all the time.) A good friend of mine just lost his mother. She was 85 years old and had Stage 4 (lung) cancer. She happened to test positive in the hospital. Cause of death? Covid-19. What a farce. What we have caused by this is that we are spoiling a key metric in trying to make head or tails of this virus.
Just my two cents. That and about 498 more cents and you can get a cup of coffee somewhere.
I think you’re right about different strategies creating similar outcomes. I think it comes back to what we were talking about on the other thread, people are going to do what they want regardless of political theater.
Let’s hope the vaccines are A) effective and B) our governments don’t totally fudge the rollout. Anyone looking for a silver bullet, there isn’t one.
