Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

the thing about masks and their imperfections is that people were touting these imperfections all along when people thought the main way of spreading person-to-person was droplets, which are too small for many masks (surgical/cloth) to protect against.

but now we know COVID is airborne, and aerosols represent the majority of indoor spread, and masks do protect much better against those, especially those releasing them. so it is drastically reducing, if not eliminating risk. and that's important.

I have seen no evidence that masking does anything you could call "drastically reducing" risk of COVID. And droplets are bigger than aerosol particles, not smaller. Masks, esp. KN95 and up, almost surely reduce transmission to some extent, and they're easy and cheap -- that's why they're so good.

ps fwiw my two kids, one vaccinated and one two young, will both be attending in-person mask-mandated (but not KN95-mask-mandated) schools this fall.

all these posts and i still don't know what your point is man alive other than "just asking questions"

are we arguing "drastically reducing risk" vs "almost surely reduce transmission to some extent"?

I am, at least, because those are pretty different!

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6549/1439

Re: masks, I find at the very least they're a deterrent against touching your face and an innate reminder of the risks around us, so even if they did nothing they'd be doing something.

Where do you guys get your KN 95 masks? I look on Amazon and there’s lots of ones from China.

Masks are a deterrent against lots of things:

• touching your face
• talking too much or too loudly in public
• talking to assholes (you can tell they're assholes because they're not wearing masks)

if pfizer can get approved for under 12 vaccines in fall that's a huge deal in terms of a new influx of vaccinations that can move percentage of the population in a big way

Where do you guys get your KN 95 masks? I look on Amazon and there’s lots of ones from China.

― Bach on harmonica! (Boring, Maryland), Friday, August 20, 2021 10:34 AM (thirty-five seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://bonafidemasks.com/

a lot of counterfeit stuff on amazon

KN95 is the chinese grading system so they are iirc all from china

nobody under 16 can get immunised in the UK and we’re doing in-person schooling starting in two weeks with masks not mandated but “recommended” in “enclosed spaces”

wish us luck :(

Where do you guys get your KN 95 masks? I look on Amazon and there’s lots of ones from China.

Search for KF94.

I got'em on Amazon.

I just walk around and pick up all the discarded masks I see on the street and sidewalk then set them out for a week. Sunlight is the best disinfectant!

I bought KN95s from a site that caek recommended but I can't remember or find it now.

I bought mine from a store called Fake KN95 Masks because everybody who sells those masks lies so they must be lying that they're fake

I think what I'm trying to say is that "schools should mandate masks for now" makes total sense but "in-person schools with mask mandates are fine but in-person schools without mask mandates are a recipe for disaster" does not make sense, the two things are different and the former is better but I don't think the two things are *that* different.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 20 August 2021 14:53 (one hour ago) link

Agree with this, I just come out on the open school anyway side. Masks will somewhat reduce spread, but I think the big differentiating factor is going to be districts where large majority of adults are vaxxed vs not (and kids as well once that's widely available). Of course, we may not be able to tell since there's such a high correlation between antivax and antimask. But I generally think masks in schools are a false sense of security. If you are one of the rare people who either can't get the vaccine or are extremely high risk in spite of it, I could totally understand sending your kids to school. I am willing to risk a breakthrough infection for my kids to attend school, and they are not high risk. I don't think that masks are going to make much difference between whether that happens or not.

*totally understand not sending your kids to school.

all these posts and i still don't know what your point is man alive other than "just asking questions"

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, August 20, 2021 10:07 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

My point is we need to adjust expectations away from the idea that we're going to vanquish COVID sometime in the near future and can just kind of hold out until then.

I mean the "goal line" in the sense of the point at which we in our respective countries mostly go back to "normal," not the ethical goal line. I don't think the UK or US would maintain capacity restrictions based on vaccination rates or antiviral availability in India

Will say despite all that it doesn’t feel remotely like “back to mostly normal”; I fear m@tt is otm re “normal”

Oh! It was protectly.co.

oh good, protectly is the one I just ordered lol

My point is we need to adjust expectations away from the idea that we're going to vanquish COVID sometime in the near future and can just kind of hold out until then.

I don't see anyone here with these expectations. In fact, people are saying this is here to stay and we're never going back to normal.

You are the only one that seems to be advocating a return to normalcy (ie why bother with masks and other precautions).

I'm seeing that Pfizer is expected to have an EUA for under-12s by end of September? It's not like this is a far distant event, things are extremely in flux and progressing all the time. It's disingenuous to act like we can't do simple things temporarily until transmission rates are lower/the world is safer than it is now.

I *do* think there are lots of people still promoting COVID zero out in the wilderness, but yeah, none of them are here on ILX.

I have heard that September will also being the full FDA approval for adult vaccine use.

This is here to stay and we will eventually get back to normal

xp bring not being

oh cool so all the people who told me they won't get it because it's not FDA approved are surely going to get it now

i've definitely gone through a period of withdrawal from most people. everybody is anxious, and I have chronic anxiety, so talking to other people invariably means bringing up COVID anxiety and I get overwhelmed fast.

i should really quit the Twitter expert surfing, only because invariably you wind up reading the comments on the tweets and the ignorance is overwhelming.

oh cool so all the people who told me they won't get it because it's not FDA approved are surely going to get it now

Yeah, I bet this moves the needle for 5-10% of them at best.

It won't move much but it will remove an excuse; that said, most will likely go 'well it was approved too fast!' or some similar nonsense.

it's not going to move the people of people whose Twitter Handles are "Charles No-Vax Morgenstern". it will have an affect on the unvaxxed who were legitimately not anti-vaccine but who were possibly duped by misinformation and are open to the possibility.

5-10% would actually not be a bad thing - means more people with shots.

ftr I was more agreeing with ums’s broader fear as clarified in his post immediately after his first “back to normal” one and ignored by yr man alives. Obv I agree most ppl in vaccine-rich countries will be able to get around to enjoying a fine masquerade ball of indeterminate duration

Where do you guys get your KN 95 masks? I look on Amazon and there’s lots of ones from China.

― Bach on harmonica! (Boring, Maryland), Friday, August 20, 2021 11:34 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

in the really bad times i used to wear these N95s with over the head straps https://www.protectly.co/products/5-3pe-n95-mask

i prefer the "korean shape" now (two horitzonal seams running parellel to your mouth) rather than the single vertical seam look. and i've switched to ear tabs for whatever reason. masks like that should be pretty widely available, e.g. there are three options here https://www.protectly.co/collections/authentic-kn95s. if you want to use amazon i wouldn't worry about fakes tbh as long as you get one of the top sellers with "kf94" in the name, e.g. i'm sure these are fine https://smile.amazon.com/20Packs-KF94-Protective-Individually-Certified/dp/B08KDGFD1D/.

Maybe this has been said better already but “back to normal” at best means normal a) without all the people we’ve lost along the way and will continue to lose, b) with all the long term side effects people have acquired, c) with the politicization of public health matters that has been entrenched, and d) with an ever-present dread that every cold or flu symptom could mean looming death for us or our family members.

i gave up on 'back to normal' a while ago. i'd like 'back to acceptable'.

FWIW my source for masks in general has been this bunch, linking to their about page:

https://shop.projectn95.org/about

You can shop around a bit as needed for what might be best for you, depending:

https://shop.projectn95.org/all

I’d feel so much better if only my daughter’s school had a mask mandate, at least until the kids are able to get vaccinated. Talk about parental choice! We don’t have a choice yet to get them vaccinated, why should other parents’ choice to put them more at risk take precedence over that? Anyhow, on a totally and completely unrelated note, I’d also feel better if I could stuff DeSantis into a drain pipe.

i don't think i could pull off one of these, but they look comfy! https://shop.projectn95.org/gerson-n95-respirators-3230plus-box-of-50/p

i gave up on 'back to normal' a while ago. i'd like 'back to acceptable'.

A little scoop in AgencyIQ today: The FDA is calling in some help to conduct the complex reviews for Pfizer, Moderna and J&J's vaccines. https://t.co/LOn6YOCZTZ (paywalled) pic.twitter.com/NMOT2J2MzO

— Alexander Gaffney (@AlecGaffney) August 20, 2021

It's as if they just realized, huh, maybe people want them to get this approval thing going a little faster.

My employers have adjusted the planned return from remote work date to March 1st. Assuming that holds (in my specific case there are other further factors) then I will have spent almost exactly two years not working onsite.

The city of Orlando is asking residents to reduce water consumption IMMEDIATELY. Liquid oxygen used to treat water is being diverted to the hospitals to treat COVID patients. They believe if water consumption doesn’t change, water treatment could hit a critical point in a week.

knowing how my fellow Orlandolts are, there is approximately a 0.01% chance of water consumption decreasing.

I'm in a neighboring county/city but that update turned my stomach.

slightly better news, apparently Lambda is getting crowded the fuck out:

The Lambda variant is going out like a lamb.
(from the hard to find pandemic good news list)https://t.co/LTDmeuKztt
It can't compete with Delta. pic.twitter.com/dpHuHqPNwx

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 14, 2021

Was there anything especially pernicious about lambda that we ought to be happy to have delta raging through the world instead? Offhand I don't recall any particularly bad news about lambda's capabilities.