While it doesn’t apply to this OP, be aware that ‘approved’ and ‘available’ are not yet synonymous. For example, in England the COVID vaccines are currently being offered only to those aged 30 and up (or who qualify on other grounds, such as working in health care or being high risk); the 28-year-old in London with no special conditions can post here but cannot legally get the jab yet.
This is absolutely correct. I have been given this information first hand from someone doing research on this very topic.
Masks and its use, it appears, have been misunderstood. First it was not about providing protection for the end user, or those the end user comes in contact with, but it was always about combating the virus itself - the rest is a side benefit of this method. Reducing its spread by attempting to reduce the infection rate below a certain level, which would cause the virus to die out in the population (called the R0 level).
The masks were first said to be much more protective of those the mask wear comes into contact with, than the mask wearer themself. It was about protecting others if the wearer became infected. In other words reduce those who you could infect (again to try to get the virus reproduction/infection rate below the R0 level).
Later, IIRC in November, they discovered evidence that mask wearing does help the wearer in that it lessens the chance that they themselves get infected. It was not a great amount but better then nothing. Just to add the N-95 masks properly fitted was know to protect the wearer but nothing is 100% even with them.
So to recap, the masks was a way of limiting the virus spread in society, it never offered full protection to anyone at any time, nor was it advertised as such. It did offer some protection to those around the user, it was later found to also help the wearer somewhat.
So in the doctor’s visit example you give, you taking off your mask would introduce some risk to you, however it would be a greater risk to the doctor (and why medical professionals need the n-95 mask).
Why are you assuming that age is the only restriction for vaccination?
Surgical masks are better than bandanas. Surgical masks are readily available, most stores are giving them away if you need them.
No mask will protect 100%, just as the vaccine does not protect 100%. From what I understand, the viral load you get exposed to, and the length of time, effect if and how sick you will get. Thus wearing masks and social distancing.
This isn’t news. We are almost a year and half now. I can’t believe this is even a real question.
I came across this chart which I will link below that says there is a 0% chance of transmission if everyone is masked and 6 feet apart and a 1.5% chance of transmission if everyone is masked but close together and a 5% risk of transmission if an infected person is wearing a mask and close to someone who is not wearing a mask. There was no citations to this chart proving the accuracy of the statements. How accurate is this chart?
Cute and pushes some desired behaviors, but leaves out a third choice (vaccination) with an even larger impact. It also emphasizes the fact that wearing a mask is more important to prevent transmission than to prevent becoming infected. Aside from all of that, it’s also inaccurate, and missing obvious variables.
- Are they indoors?
- What kind of mask?
- Is the mask being worn in the ideal manner?
- Is the potential transmitter speaking, yelling, singing, coughing, etc?
- What are the risk numbers prior to rounding? (It’s certainly not actually 0% on the bottom)
- … and so on.
If someone gets vaccinated, tries to avoid situations where they are surrounded by unvaccinated people indoors, wears a mask correctly if they can’t avoid those situations, and tries to socially distance from those with an unknown status, they’ll certain lower their risks dramatically. Even then, it’s not 0%.
@craft458 you have not been to a doctor since before the pandemic. Therefore you’re not getting one of the aggressive kinds of chemotherapy that mean you can’t get vaccinated. I’m not a doctor, but as I understand it, that pretty much leaves an allergy to one of the ingredients as a possible medical contraindication for vaccination. Different vaccines have different ingredients, so if you’re allergic to something in one vaccine, you’re not necessarily allergic to all vaccines. Check with your doctor. If you’ve been allergic to another vaccine, you might just need to wait longer after you’re jabbed.
TL’DR: Don’t decide on your own whether or not you can get vaccinated. Ask your doctor.
The hospital i go to requires you to wear the surgical masks they hand out when you enter. If you come in wearing your own n95 or similar, you can put their mask on over yours. But they require a clean surgical mask between you and the rest of the people in the building. They won’t let you enter with just a bandana.
If you are in the US, covid rates are fairly low right now, and with proper masking it’s reasonably safe to see a doctor.
If you are in India, not so much.
I seem to recall seeing that chart back in the beginning before vaccinations were widespread. It would be interesting to see an updated graphic based on current vaccination numbers.
Those numbers are made-up. However, the trends are true for the most part. For example, surgical masks do a better job at source control than protecting the wearer unless you do something to seal the gaps around the mask or you switch to an N95. Six feet distancing really depends on the size of room and ventilation.
Not a chart based on current data.
I came across this study where two hairdressers who were positive for Covid and had symptoms continued to cut people’s hair. The hairdressers wore masks, one of them wore cotton masks, and the other wore cotton masks or surgical masks. The clients all wore masks as well. The health department did contract tracing on the over 100 people that they worked with and tested 67 of them and found none of them became infected. This seems to suggest strong evidence that there is very low risk if both people are wearing a mask and perhaps the chart I linked is accurate. This is a link to the article https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6928e2.htm
One thing though, is that it is possible that the hairdressers were not super spreaders. I read several studies that suggest that a small amount of people with Covid spread the majority of cases." One modelling study estimated that 10% of patients are responsible for 80% of disease transmission. (Endo 2020) Another study suggests that 8% of infected individuals are responsible for 60% of secondary cases, while 70% of infected people don’t pass the disease on to anyone else. (Laxminarayan 2020) Another epidemiologic study from Hong Kong reached similar conclusions: 19% of people were responsible for 80% of transmission. (Adam 2020)
I think a good example how effective masks may be would be the large indoor vaccination sites where you have hundreds of people at a time indoors, but they are all wearing masks and are for the most part 6 feet apart except for the nurses. Has there been any documented cases of people at these vaccine sites getting Covid from going there?
The chart is not necessarily wrong per se. The trends are accurate according to studies. However, the numbers are not sourced to anything. For example, under what circumstances do you have 90% chance of getting covid if you stand next to a covid coughing person? Small room? Long term interactions? The number is likely made up.
That study is one of the most compelling case studies. We know that they had a large enough viral load to infect people because the first one likely gave it to the second one because they didn’t mask during breaks together in the breakroom. The second one then spread it to several members of her family. Considering how close you get to a hairdresser and you are beneath them in direct line of their droplets, it’s amazing that no one got sick. An absolute testament to the efficacy of masks when everyone wears them.
I thought of this when I got my vaccine and when I voted. I was in line with hundreds of people for nearly an hour for the vaccine. I was in line to vote for three hours. The cases were fairly low when I voted but when I got my vaccine, cases were still very high. But everyone was wearing a mask and I was wearing a good mask. I can seem to find any literature on this though.
I tried to order one of the Vogmasks last year and they were out of stock. I put my name on a waiting list but no one ever responded. They look comfortable.
You might check the website. They’re my best masks for fit and reasonably comfortable.
A year ago, when nobody knew nothing, one of the early reports out of Wuhan was that no hospital personal wearing n95 masking and with tight infection control protocols in the infectious-diseases area of (the hospital that was being reported) had become infected. But that staff wearing surgical masks in the general medical area had become infected.
So that would be November 2019.