Lets let our mps and scientists put their ideas forwards in this debate: And then ask them again after they and their cronies have setup companies flogging said masks at inflated prices.
Love a good debate about evidence All evidence is flawed - that's why there is an entire field of study that teaches professionals how to appraise evidence. It's relatively easy to study the effects of a drug - much more difficult to study the effects of an intervention like face coverings - especially when the intervention is part of a suite of actions. Tricia Greenhalgh wrote the book on Critical Appraisal - and here is her view on mask wearing.
All you have to do to combat all that though, is wash your hands before touching your face. I can’t stop someone’s airborne particles reaching me, I wear a mask but it’s not as effective as someone else wearing one. I can wash my hands/use sanitizer, before I touch my face, whether they’ve touched a mask and then touched a door handle or not. It’s really easy for someone at risk to protect themselves from Covid on surfaces by just not touching their face and practising good hand hygiene, they can’t stop airborne particles, they need others to wear a mask to help with that.
Unless you walk around with a sink attached to you, it's not really that simple, folk aren't going to wash their hands every time they touch something. Plus having the mask on, people tend to mess with them all the time, adjusting them. Far more than someone not wearing a mask would touch their mouth for instance.
I walk around school with hand sanitizer on my lanyard and most shops have it in the entrance. I sanitize my hands before I enter Morrisons (for other people’s sake) and when I leave (for my sake). I don’t touch my face or mask when I am in there. At work, when shelving books for example, I’m aware of not touching my face after picking up the books. It might take me 30 mins + to put them away and then I wash my hands at the sink. When I use the photocopier, I sanitize straight afterwards. At breaks and lunches when I’m touching loads of books and tucking chairs under every two seconds, I don’t touch my face for the hour and then wash my hands at the sink afterwards. You don’t have to wash your hands every time you touch something so long as you just don’t touch your face. I wear a mask for 8 hours at work (except for 30 mins for lunch) and the only time I touch it (to remove and replace), I do so by the straps. I adjusted them all when I got them though so they fit tight to my face and the wires over the nose and under my chin are shaped to fit me perfectly, I know that’s not the case with a lot of people. Humans are really good at forming habits so whilst it reads complicated and like it takes a lot of thinking about in reality it doesn’t at all. It’s just second nature now and boils down to: don’t touch my face unless I’ve just cleaned my hands, use straps when touching mask.
Commendable but your diligence probably won't apply to 90% of others. You just have to sit back and people watch to see that. Maybe if the entire population were as cautious as you, then it would sway my opinion on mask effectiveness, truth is though they won't be as cautious.
But you are only going to get covid off people who have touched surfaces if you then put your hands in your mouth. Just wash your hands or sanitise them if you can't get to a sink. Less likely to catch Covid that way than by someone coughing or sneezing near you without wearing a mask
Got to disagree on the more likely option. Studies done to show how many times the average person touches their face is quite alarming. People do it without even noticing. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2020/07/30/coronavirus-face-touching/
There's a virologist at Sheffield Uni or maybe Hallam who has appeared on Radio Sheffield quite a few times during the pandemic. He's of the opinion that it is difficult to pick up a viral load off a surface i.e. enough of the virus to infect you but that when it's airborne e.g.someone sneezing, coughing or breathing it out, it's easier to transmit and infect.i.understand the mask wearing is more effective at stopping the spread from the wearer than t'other way round. I wear one in enclosed public places whenever I can, it's no bother to me. Didn't wear one in a pub/restaurant when sat down, mainly public transport, shops, workplaces and the like.
And evidence shows that you touch your face less often when wearing a mask (look in the twitter thread I posted up thread)
Can't find the post now but someone said that masks don't stop viruses as they are too small. I checked it out. The reason masks work for covid is that the virus doesn't travel alone, it travels in droplets, ie a cough, a sneeze, a sigh etc.
Question: Not having flown since Covid whilst mask wearing throughout the flight is mandatory, you presumably have to unmask to eat the inflight meals, snacks and drinks. Even with a seat width to the nearest passenger , in such a relatively confined space this surely means, given it takes several minutes to eat and drink, all passengers are potentiailly exposed to any airborne pathogens. Given that, is the mask rule for the entire flight not simply paying lip service?
Masks offer very little protection from the virus. The standard surgical ones at any rate. But if you are infected, they reduce the amount of the virus that you expel into the air. You will expel far less into the air if you only take off your mask when eating rather than breathing out the virus into the air for the duration of the flight.
I’m not going to be putting my hands in my mouth or up my nose when wearing a mask as those areas are covered, so there’s really only my eyes to think about. It doesn’t matter if I touch my forehead, for example, unless I start licking it (which I can’t in a mask anyway, even if it was possible normally) so touching my face accidentally wouldn’t really matter.
Yes but surely in a confined space like an aircraft especially with the air from those overhead nozzles creating a front to rear general airflow, if 200 passengers are all maskless for the duration of the inflight meal lasting several minutes it provides ample opportunity for any virus laden 'aerosol' to spread after which everyone putting masks back on is a bit of a 'stabledoor/horse bolted scenario. Was it not '15 minutes in any 25 hour period (not necessarily consecutive )of close contact in a confines space ' that defined 'high risk' of transmission? On a long haul flight that could easily be exceeded with drinks. and meals. I certainly am reluctant to spend more than a couple of hours enclosed in a metal tube with 150+ people even if everyone wears a mask 100% of the time. Hence the reason we recently drove 1400 miles each way to visit family in UK we have not seen for over 2 years (except on Facebook messenger) rather than fly.
In any situation you've got to think of the multiple protections in place not just one (i.e. masks) In airplanes there is a frequent refresh of the air, both external and filtered through HEPA filters. And there's little face to face contact so lower risk from droplets. Plus, with pre flight testing there should be fewer infectious people on board. Then masks.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...bodyandvaccinationdatafortheuk/10november2021 93% of the adult population have antibodies so you'd have to be very unlucky to get badly with covid even without a mask.
