The Upcoming Season WAYGD?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

The caring thing to do is get the healthy people back to work ASAP. We're doing decades worth of damage to the economy. Not to mention mention what it's doing to the youth.

100% agree. But if we get back to "normal" work and school too soon, and in a careless manner, the house of cards will come tumbling down again. Lots of sick workers, sick consumers, sick teachers, sick students, and sick and overworked health care workers, as well as the additional dead, will not allow us to sustain a "normal" economy and education system for very long.

What is so hard about wearing a mask? Yesterday I had a young cashier at the drug store tell me that all this mask wearing may lead to a less impactful annual flu season.

I sure hope that he's right. Imagine COVID and influenza giving us a one-two punch this coming winter.

[SNIPERBBB]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

100% agree. But if we get back to "normal" work and school too soon, and in a careless manner, the house of cards will come tumbling down again. Lots of sick workers, sick consumers, sick teachers, sick students, and sick and overworked health care workers, as well as the additional dead, will not allow us to sustain a "normal" economy and education system for very long.

What is so hard about wearing a mask? Yesterday I had a young cashier at the drug store tell me that all this mask wearing may lead to a less impactful annual flu season.

I sure hope that he's right. Imagine COVID and influenza giving us a one-two punch this coming winter.

Respiratory viruses have not cared about masks in the past.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

Respiratory viruses have not cared about masks in the past.

Tell that to Dr. Ben Casey and Dr. James Kildare.





Vince Edwards and Richard Chamberlain didn't go to medical school and only played doctor characters on television, but their characters both earned M.D. degrees, and the shows had medical consultants.

They mostly wore the masks to prevent the spread of bacteria and fungi, but masks do have some effect on viruses.

For many years, scientists weren’t sure whether wearing a mask was effective at preventing the spread of viruses. However, recent studies suggest they can help. One 2013 study looked at how masks could help people with the seasonal flu limit spreading it when they exhale droplets containing the virus. Overall, researchers found masks led to a more than threefold reduction in how much virus people sprayed into the air.

Another study, analyzing data from thousands of Japanese schoolchildren, found that “vaccination and wearing a mask reduced the likelihood of developing seasonal influenza.”

Importantly, researchers also found that flu rates were lower when masks were paired with proper hand hygiene.

[SNIPERBBB]

The other thing about masks is that like vaccines, many people don't like something that only works part of the time. At best that makes it seem like a placebo and allows a false sense of security and you do things that you wouldn't do had you noybworn the masks.

If it showed 100% effectiveness, we wouldn't be having this debate. Many conservatives early on offered that if everyone wore masks and we got to keep everything running, we'd of done it. If I was really worried about the virus, I'd be looking for a gas mask or a closed system respirator but those tend to freak people out.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

Many conservatives early on offered that if everyone wore masks and we got to keep everything running, we'd of done it.

I almost believe this. If we did this (everyone wore masks) from the initial (February, 2020) get go, the "plague" wouldn't be over, but we'd be in a much better place right now.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If we did this (everyone wore masks) from the initial (February, 2020) get go, the "plague" wouldn't be over, but we'd be in a much better place right now.

Easy for me to say.

Back in February, 2020, medical and research professionals believed that asymptomatic spread (I don't even remember hearing about presymptomatic spread back then) did not occur with the novel coronavirus. And they were worried that if everyone started wearing masks that there wouldn't be enough to go around for the health care workers that were taking care of coronavirus patients (remember back then there was a PPE shortage), and for patients that actually had the virus and its symptoms who could actively spread the virus to others.