At this point, no restrictions have been reimposed in the US, AFAIK. Just recommendations.
Actually, nm, CA has reimposed mask mandates. I’m 99% sure
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Actually, relaxing restrictions doesn’t always lead to higher case rates if
- other forces (e.g. seasonality, vaccinations) are stronger; and/or
- the restriction was pointless to begin with
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It is hard to argue that the restrictions were pointless. Observational evidence in this kind of large and varied environment is not as clear as “experimental” evidence from tightly monitored and rigorously constructed scientific experiments. The changing prevalence of the delta variant and vaccination are confounding variables. One might note Texas’ resurgence in 7 day new case average to say reintroducing measures, even those of debated efficacy, would be a prudent step.
I thought Biden’s response at the time was off - it was time to reopen, and the CDC shortly after that agreed. That was before Delta arrived. Annoyingly now, the people who did their part will be putting back on masks AGAIN to make up for the selfishness of those who skipped the vaccine and continue to follow the death cult. The CDC doesn’t care about individual choices, they provide guidance for the general public.
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You got anything like this to support cloth face coverings in public?
Because I have dozens that say they do nothing to stop airborne aerosol pathogens, which is why they were never in the pandemic playbook prior to 2020 (when the science still hasn’t changed).
…all masks tested showed some ability to block the microbial aerosol challenges although less than that of medical masks…
…in an infection control guideline developed in 1998, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended using cotton masks to protect from viral hemorrhagic fevers in low-resource healthcare settings in Africa if respirators or medical masks were not available (14). Similarly, WHO also discussed the option of using cloth masks to protect wearers from acquiring infection during the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic (15)…
My employer (hospital system in multiple states) is going 99.9% vax or terminated. Religion and medical issues are the exception.
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Do you have a link to this?
Because I found this from March 5, days after Texas & Mississippi announced their mask mandates ending (2 days after Biden called it “Neanderthal thinking”):
It wasn’t until end of April that the CDC said it was safe to go maskless outdoors and mid-May when they relaxed their guidance for indoors for those vaccinated. So I don’t really see any evidence that the CDC ever agreed with Texas removing its mask mandate.
Religious exemption is complete bullshit. What is a religion? What if my religion is the God of antivax?
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Is that similar to the teapot religion?
The only RCT in cloth masks in a real life setting I see mentioned there is the 2015 Vietnamese medical workers, which showed cloth masks had significantly worse outcomes than either medical masks or the control group (which did include some masking).
Note that this article was written when the CDC was still claiming spread through droplets, whereas today the main mode of transmission is acknowledged to be aerosols.
Here is the study that was referenced in the first quote
Results: The median-fit factor of the homemade masks was one-half that of the surgical masks. Both masks significantly reduced the number of microorganisms expelled by volunteers, although the surgical mask was 3 times more effective in blocking transmission than the homemade mask.
It appears as though most pre Covid studies done compared cloth to surgical to answer the question if surgical is better, not to see if cloth is better than nothing. But, they did still manage to conclude cloth is better than nothing.
I’m in favour of a surgical mask mandate now that we have the supply. I have a sneaky suspicion Marcie would find something to complain about if that became a mandate given the focus of her posts is downplaying the risk of Covid and complaining about any measures taken to reduce that risk.
In fairness I think she has kept her criticism to cloth masks, not surgical masks. And the mask mandates have never specified surgical masks. Certainly around me the vast majority of people masked are using cloth masks.
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Good, looks like we agree that cloth masks are useful!
Disagree, she consistently argues that Covid is no big deal, that vaccines have issues, and that public health interventions are wrong. I’d be shocked if she’s not getting these talking points off another website somewhere.
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I think that’s a bit unfair. If anyone argues that COVID is anything less than a medicine/vaccine free smallpox-type pandemic they’re concluded to be some Trump nut. Clearly the last few posts don’t support your accusation…
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look beyond the last few posts in one thread buddy.
The poster consistently minimizes Covid and argues against preventative measures.
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Example of Marcie comparing Covid to flu a couple posts up in this thread, i.e. minimizing the risk of Covid.
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