Do masks really work?

[grnamin]

Does the mask you are wearing to guard against the chinese virus really work? Try this... seal the mask material around your mouth with your fingers and see if you can breath in and out normally. Now remove your fingers and breath. Think path of least resistance. Based on my own tests, the air I'm inhaling and exhaling isn't being filtered by the mask. At best, the masking is only capturing the water vapor of my breath, which is one way to stem the spread of the virus. Military protective masks and respirators, on the other hand, have sufficient seals around one's face to force the air to enter through the filters and exit through a one-way valve. Wearing more than one mask or a mask with a filter won't "filter" out pathogens. What do you think?

[AndyLate]

I don't think the concept is to filter the virus, it is to reduce the distance droplets from your breath travel. The scientific consensus is that masks protect other people, not the wearer.

I agree that the non-N95 masks are pretty poor for anything except sawdust.

Andy

[prepare]

Not wearing one has worked for me.

[glocktogo]

They really only work if used in conjunction with dark sunglasses, hoodie and gloves, preferably with no logos or other unique identifying characteristics.

[SomeOtherGuy]

Suggested reading, and extensive links to research papers, at:

https://wmbriggs.com/post/32326/

https://www.sott.net/article/434796-...ion-of-Viruses

Baccam, P. et al. (2006) "Kinetics of Influenza A Virus Infection in Humans", Journal of Virology Jul 2006, 80 (15) 7590-7599; DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01623-05
Balazy et al. (2006) "Do N95 respirators provide 95% protection level against airborne viruses, and how adequate are surgical masks?", American Journal of Infection Control, Volume 34, Issue 2, March 2006, Pages 51-57. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2005.08.018
Biggerstaff, M. et al. (2014) "Estimates of the reproduction number for seasonal, pandemic, and zoonotic influenza: a systematic review of the literature", BMC Infect Dis 14, 480 (2014).
Brooke, C. B. et al. (2013) "Most Influenza A Virions Fail To Express at Least One Essential Viral Protein", Journal of Virology Feb 2013, 87 (6) 3155-3162; DOI: 10.1128/JVI.02284-12
Coburn, B. J. et al. (2009) "Modeling influenza epidemics and pandemics: insights into the future of swine flu (H1N1)", BMC Med 7, 30.
Davies, A. et al. (2013) "Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks: Would They Protect in an Influenza Pandemic?", Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Available on CJO 2013 doi:10.1017/dmp.2013.43
Despres, V. R. et al. (2012) "Primary biological aerosol particles in the atmosphere: a review", Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 64:1, 15598, DOI: 10.3402/tellusb.v64i0.15598
Dowell, S. F. (2001) "Seasonal variation in host susceptibility and cycles of certain infectious diseases", Emerg Infect Dis. 2001;7(3):369-374. doi:10.3201/eid0703.010301
Hammond, G. W. et al. (1989) "Impact of Atmospheric Dispersion and Transport of Viral Aerosols on the Epidemiology of Influenza", Reviews of Infectious Diseases, Volume 11, Issue 3, May 1989, Pages 494-497,
Haas, C.N. et al. (1993) "Risk Assessment of Virus in Drinking Water", Risk Analysis, 13: 545-552. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.1993.tb00013.x
HealthKnowlege-UK (2020) "Charter 1a - Epidemiology: Epidemic theory (effective & basic reproduction numbers, epidemic thresholds) & techniques for analysis of infectious disease data (construction & use of epidemic curves, generation numbers, exceptional reporting & identification of significant clusters)", HealthKnowledge.org.uk, accessed on 2020-04-10.
Lai, A. C. K. et al. (2012) "Effectiveness of facemasks to reduce exposure hazards for airborne infections among general populations", J. R. Soc. Interface. 9938-948
Leung, N.H.L. et al. (2020) "Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks", Nature Medicine (2020).
Lowen, A. C. et al. (2007) "Influenza Virus Transmission Is Dependent on Relative Humidity and Temperature", PLoS Pathog 3(10): e151.
Paules, C. and Subbarao, S. (2017) "Influenza", Lancet, Seminar| Volume 390, ISSUE 10095, P697-708, August 12, 2017.
Sande, van der, M. et al. (2008) "Professional and Home-Made Face Masks Reduce Exposure to Respiratory Infections among the General Population", PLoS ONE 3(7): e2618. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002618 Shaman, J. et al. (2010) "Absolute Humidity and the Seasonal Onset of Influenza in the Continental United States", PLoS Biol 8(2): e1000316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000316
Tracht, S. M. et al. (2010) "Mathematical Modeling of the Effectiveness of Facemasks in Reducing the Spread of Novel Influenza A (H1N1)", PLoS ONE 5(2): e9018. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009018
Viboud C. et al. (2010) "Preliminary Estimates of Mortality and Years of Life Lost Associated with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic in the US and Comparison with Past Influenza Seasons", PLoS Curr. 2010; 2:RRN1153. Published 2010 Mar 20. doi:10.1371/currents.rrn1153
Wada, K. et al. (2012) "Wearing face masks in public during the influenza season may reflect other positive hygiene practices in Japan", BMC Public Health 12, 1065 (2012).
Yang, W. et al. (2011) "Concentrations and size distributions of airborne influenza A viruses measured indoors at a health centre, a day-care centre and on aeroplanes", Journal of the Royal Society, Interface. 2011 Aug;8(61):1176-1184. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2010.0686.
Yezli, S., Otter, J.A. (2011) "Minimum Infective Dose of the Major Human Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Transmitted Through Food and the Environment", Food Environ Virol 3, 1-30.
Zwart, M. P. et al. (2009) "An experimental test of the independent action hypothesis in virus-insect pathosystems", Proc. R. Soc. B. 2762233-2242

[chuckman]

Yes, no, maybe so.

Depends on the mask, depends on the virulence, depends on the distance, so many factors to say 'yes' or 'no'.

None of the non-N95 masks do a whole lot but there are a couple compelling articles about how while they may not prevent spread significantly, they do reduce the viral load, so if you get it, it's not as bad. We also know this to be true with other diseases.

[utahjeepr]

It doesn't matter if they work or not. Mask mandates are political. Douchebag POSIC has to do "something", so he/she issues a mask mandate. Noncompliance, arguing effectivness, or any other forms of insurrection cannot be tolerated.

Comply, wear your burka, placebo is become law.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Does the mask you are wearing to guard against the chinese virus really work? Try this... seal the mask material around your mouth with your fingers and see if you can breath in and out normally. Now remove your fingers and breath. Think path of least resistance. Based on my own tests, the air I'm inhaling and exhaling isn't being filtered by the mask. At best, the masking is only capturing the water vapor of my breath, which is one way to stem the spread of the virus. Military protective masks and respirators, on the other hand, have sufficient seals around one's face to force the air to enter through the filters and exit through a one-way valve. Wearing more than one mask or a mask with a filter won't "filter" out pathogens. What do you think?

I think in aggregate their use will collectively reduce the overall transmission rate. The problem I have is that that is not how they are being sold, or why people seem to insist on everyone wearing one. There is a lot of blame that if you don’t wear a mask that’s why you got sick. These improvised exhale devices are not protective. But I see people insisting that they are being protected by them. This includes old people and people with comorbidities. If you are at serious risk of a fatal outcome, the masked you wear and the masks other people where are not going to protect you.

On the one hand the mask give us a false sense of security and control, and the other I feel like they are implemented to show that we are doing “something“ to protect people so that we can allow them out and about. Without the silly masks all the lemmings would wonder what they were being protected by.

The proof can be found by looking at the seasonality and where outbreaks of happened. The wearing of masks and the distancing doesn’t seem to have as large affect as especially the time of year. But if you don’t mandate masks it’s kind of literally the emperor has no clothes.

The real issue is that we have not been able to ramp up N95 mask production. Frankly I think you need 1 billion a week to cover over 300 million population. So you better have a 20 billion stock pile. We just don’t have the capacity right now. I have a buddy who is an expert in the production of non-woven fabrics. He can literally go over all the facilities that can make materials for and 95 masks and what their capacities are. We simply don’t have enough. Considering the trillions we’re spending, a couple billion to build that capacity for the next pandemic that is actually the 5% killer and the society disabler is what we need to be shooting for.

I’m not anti-mask, so much as I am anti Highpoint quality masks. Colt masks for all!

[Todd.K]

Like communism failing, they now say we just weren’t doing it hard enough.

So shut up and wear TWO masks you science deniers.

Not a joke. NO REALLY, I’m not joking, look it up.

[Honu]

our world will be destroyed in 12 years because of MAN MADE climate change ! if you believe that then masks are our savior bow to your new lords !

if you realize driving is much more dangerous then you realize the masks do not work but might help a seat belt won't stop you from getting in a accident but it might help you survive it

now lets take your health if you are in a accident do you want to be rear ended in a 1974 pinto or a new modern car !
do you want to be in a 55MPH head on in a 1960 VW bus or a modern truck
these are choices that can help you survive !

again health is the thing that we can control and do so much to save us ! sure you can point to some cases of folks that looked healthy having issues but I am going to say looking healthy and being healthy are not the same and many are not by true lab standards etc...
cut out the seed oils cut out the processed foods and sugars as the base to start
the margin slims to a sliver for folks truly metabolic healthy by what studies they are doing and they are trying to now allow these

I do think the health industry finance machine does not make money off you if you are healthy but they do for chronic sickness and prescribing pills as the cure etc...
no doubt modern medicine is a miracle when needed but to often its not proper health is what is needed

so do they work NO its like putting up a chain link fence to keep mosquitos out as one virologist said
but it will keep other critters out and slow some things but if we weren't so sickly our defenses would help us more



is it real YES
is it the problem they are making it out to be NO
is it about never let a crisis go to waste YES
is it political DUH
only %12 of Americans they say are metabolically healthy that is scary but hey keep believing in the crap they say is good


frommycolddeadhand post above is solid !!!