continuation of: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/friday_night_covid_plotting_36-...
> You are back onto the effectiveness of a mask to protect the wearer, often used in a medical context, where it's not possible to social distance. Near 100% protection is needed such circumstances.
No, I'm not. I was going to point you to the same paper as the one I think you're referring to:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23744731.2021.1944665
> I'm not wrong. The reported effectiveness of masks was for prevention of spread.
Funny how we've both come to such different conclusions from that same paper. Here's the excerpt that sticks with me:
"The addition of knit cotton masks for all classroom occupants yielded a modest 15% reduction in aerosol conditional infection probability compared to the baseline with no masks. In comparison, the protective measure of increasing the ventilation rate from 1.34 ACH to 5.0 ACH resulted in almost a factor of two (1.87× ) reduction, regardless of mask worn. If a fitter is added to help seal the knit cotton mask to the user’s face, the conditional probability of infection is reduced by almost a factor of 2 (1.81×) relative to the no mask baseline. This reduction is similar to increasing the ventilation rate from 1.34 to 5.0 ACH, indicating that well fit cloth masks can play a significant role in reducing infection probability for aerosol transmission."
so any old mask, ~15%. Ventilation ~factor 2. Well fitted mask, with a mask fitter (little clip thing on the nose) is about as good as ventilating properly. How many people have you seen today with a mask fitter? Do you wear one?
> Of course being outside or self isolating at home is a better protection but its not possible for everyone to avoid public indoor spaces and that's where the virus is spreading.
Agree with this too, but it's not fair to say the best control is covering your face and not mention that staying the f*** outside is actually the best control by a country mile. That's where I take issue.
> Even less than ideal face coverings make a useful difference.
Yeah, they do, but it's because they're the lowest hanging fruit, not the biggest fruit. In fact they're one of the smallest fruit. I maintain that by relying on them in any way whatsoever, and especially encouraging/reassuring others to do so in the form worn by the general public day to day, to replace any other mitigation, is harmful.
I'd go even further and say that spreading the word that
> the standard cheap masks (not medical grade ones) have been found to be the equal top preventative covid measure, almost as effective as vaccines.
is right up there in the misinformation charts, and is f***ing irresponsible.
Edit because loads of typos and cut/paste problems.
Post edited at 15:01