[fspeech]

The South Korean model:

1. Build up testing and contact tracing capabilities.

2. Massive mask making, everyone required to wear a mask in public.

3. Hospitals reconfigured to deal with covid patients.

People can then go outside and mingle again.

[superpermutat0r]

What kind of masks are effective? The one I have seems weird, I just feel the water vapour touching my eyes when I exhale. I guess the mask would block the sneeze/cough projectiles and small spits while talking but if I were sitting in the public transit the water vapour would float around.

[fspeech]

Wearing a mask is to protect others from your own droplets. This is CDC protocol: if a doctor suspects covid, the patient is given a mask to put on. If that is enough to protect the doctor in close proximity, it is good enough to protect the general public. Like herd immunity if we all wear masks in public, the chance of droplet exchange is greatly reduced. The quality of mask and the manner of mask wearing become irrelevant. This is why we need universal mask wearing. It is the fastest and cheapest way to get the economy back on its foot again.

[matt_the_bass]

I don’t understand why this is not mandated now everywhere. Yes I know supplies are limited but factories could start making these quickly if govt mandated them.

[Aweorih]

I don't know the names just that there are 2 variants. One which is cheap and one which is expensive. The cheap one does not protect you but shall protect others if you've got the virus. The expensive one shall protect you but you cannot wear it for long because it's hard to breath with it. That's what was said in germany from official site a week ago or so. May be outdated now. I Think they also said that you can get infected through eyes.. So a mask MAY not be enough at all

[DanBC]

Masks are not effective unless you combine them with all the other PPE and have training in how to use them.

Without those masks increase your risk.

Don't wear masks.

Listen to literally all the medical advice telling you not to wear masks, unless you've been advised by people treating you to wear a mask. (eg one person in a family is infected and the family is self isolating).

[j7ake]

That is not a good argument to not wear masks.

You could also say "don't wash hands" because it's not effective unless you combine them with social distancing and other quarantine measures.

A preventive measure does not need 100% effectiveness to be recommended. For example, washing your hands.

[DanBC]

No, washing hands is effective even if you don't practice social distancing.

The problem with masks is not that they aren't 100% effective, it's that they are worse than no mask. They increase risk.

The only people who should be wearing masks are healthcare professionals are people with the illness who are self-isolating in a family home.

Here's an effective mask: https://twitter.com/missemjo/status/1239520762815488000/phot...

https://twitter.com/kimbo2205/status/1238089278565031936/pho...

Why are you pushing masks to cover the nose and mouth, and not goggles to cover the eyes? Or gloves for the hands?

[j7ake]

If wearing masks increase risk, why are they recommending healthcare professionals and those with symptoms to wear a mask? I don't see how you can explain that masks reduce risk for healthcare professionals but increase risk if you are not. The virus is unlikely to distinguish whether you are a healthcare professional or not.

If the argument is that training is needed to use mask effectively, then simply put out a video on how to properly wear mask. This is how they push out hand washing. They have posters and videos to show how to do it properly.

Goggles to cover eyes can decrease risk, just like mask. Gloves for the hands will prevent your bare hands getting dirty but won't help the spread of of the virus onto other surfaces as you touch things throughout the day.

[agumonkey]

it seems obv that mask wearing would have slowed the spread immensely

they also have large distribution of sanitizer so you can shrink the contact vector too..

I wish europe went this way