Anyway, I just got home from coaching a college club. Eveyone wears masks. Everyone is vaccinated. The kids all get tested regularly. They have a really low rate of covid on campus. Lots of normal in-person interactions. Kids laughing and enjoying stuff. I’m so happy I was able to do this this year.
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Not sure if you were joking or not about the deer but Wisconsin health officials recommended hunters wear a mask when field dressing deer because of the risk of COVID. Not sure how you could get it from that process and I did not follow that recommendation, but then again I don’t live in Wisconsin and my state didn’t recommend it because the deer in our state don’t have COVID???
The two larger school districts near me (including the one I am in) require masks and cases declined during the first month of the school year and have remained flat since then. A school district one step closer towards the rural (and adjacent to mine) that does not require masks are seeing cases up more than 300% since September.
I’m not sure any state could say that with any certainty. It’s been found (in fairly significant percentages) in deer herds in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, if not others.
There’s a lot we think we know about how covid spreads but we don’t know everything. It might be possible it could go from deer to hunter during dressing and possible a mask could protect the hunter. I personally don’t see that as a likely avenue of transmission, but who knows?
I suppose if a mask prevents you from splattering blood into your lips, maybe?
I was out last night, and i realized the seasons have changed from “it’s warm with this mask on my face” to “putting on my mask feels pleasantly cozy standing here in the cold”.
(I was walking to a venue where i needed it )
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That’s what I was thinking - just like why surgeons wear them in the operating room. Having never field-dressed a deer myself, I was not sure how much blood tends to splatter the hunter’s face after the deer is dead.
Yeah, it’s getting to the point where I prefer to wear a mask outside anyway. My stark masks are thick and warm when I’m walking outside.
Never had blood splatter anywhere but I supposed it could be possible if you weren’t careful
You are more likely to keep doing it.
Cold turkey, lady.
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Eh, just linking the typo to the story about Covid in deer in a hopefully humorous way.
I wouldn’t have remembered that it was Wisconsin that had issued a recommendation to wear a mask while field dressing a deer but it was certainly hashed out in one of the Covid threads on here.
It’s pointless to try to have a rational discussion with someone acting irrationally. Smart+educated mostly implies rational people, but not always. Source: 20 years of actuarial forums online.
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It’s not entirely pointless, since some people read the discussion without adding to it. I am not sure what to think about masks and like the debate. I’d be interested in reviewing the one strongest paper on the pro mask side.
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Thanks. It’s for the sake of sensible people like you that I keep trying, even when it seems pointless.
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Check out the thread on masks.
Thanks. I’ll check that paper out.
I am more in the mask camp than the no-mask camp. There isn’t another group with whom to compare that is vaccinated and does not wear masks. Or is not vaccinated that wears masks. One cannot conclude anything from your specific club experience. There exist numerous groups elsewhere that believe masks are unnecessary (or the benefit from them is not worth the hassle and loss of facial recognition), and they would not be enjoying the club as much. Would your club be “happier” if masks were not required? Is that extra happiness greater than the risk of not wearing masks?
This can also be explained by the different attitudes between the school districts. The unmasked group is more likely to be involved in more “dangerous” behaviors outside of school, and have different vaccination levels. I also assume a masking cohort is more likely to socially distance more than an unmasked cohort.
I did not mean my post to be evidence that masks work. There’s a whole thread devoted to that. I did mean it to be evidence that mask requirements don’t destroy all social life.
That’s just the first post in the thread. The last is probably the most comprehensive to date.
I think it is widely accepted that correctly using good masks in controlled environments will have >0 impact on transmission rates.
I think the subjective part is should we have universal masking rules that will try to forever apply this concept to every aspect of life in the name of >0 health improvements. Despite the fact there are many situations where masking is near 0 impact. Is it OK to make the #1 priority of the entire population public health?
Rules on masking have gotten better I think, but still are significantly lacking. There is no good set of defined rules the government can roll out that really just says “wear a mask when it makes sense to wear a mask”. All the rules they roll out create infinite situations where people don’t think it makes sense to wear one, so they dont, and some kind of mask police is trying to enforce a rule that is pointless.
‘but if everyone would just…’- just stop right there. everyone is not going to just anything. this is just projecting your own logic on others. The real question is what level of controversy is this >0 health improvement really worth in society?
some people say its worth it. Some say it is not.
I wish people would just protect themselves and others using some basic logic and take the pandemic serious enough to do so, but that is not the case. So maybe we do need to force the rules on society. But forcing blanket rules on me effectively removes what I believe to my own good judgment, and then I find myself getting screamed at by security to put a mask on, outside, 20 feet from another human.
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