I have what is probably a head cold but want a test anyway. I looked Monday evening and the earliest I could find was this afternoon.
anecdote = anecdote + 1
When they say surgical masks do they mean KN-95 or those flimsy paper masks?
the plastic surgical masks. I’m assuming those blue ones you see a lot.
I’d guess N95s would yield even better results but I don’t believe they were tested.
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Ok and wastewater tests show “levels of SARS-CoV-2 … that we haven’t seen since the surge last winter.”
Also, talk about bad data, one week the state had more new cases reported than tests so…
Yeah, it’s pretty much a conspiracy. Those hospital officials we keep seeing on the news are actors.
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I love this study. Some good data.
Why in the world did masks reduce COVID for 50+ year olds, but not for anyone younger than 50 (page 28)? Behavior differences? Like did under 50 year olds not wear masks or is it something with the way it spreads?
I also didn’t read every paragraph, but I saw villages that wore masks also socially distanced more. Could some of the benefit of mask wearing be contributed to social distancing or did they control for that?
Thanks for posting this study. I appreciate seeing actual studies on mask effectiveness in the real world and not just a laboratory.
I disagree with your statement above, based on this study. Cloth masks did not significantly reduce prevalence (p=0.54, confidence interval goes from 20% lower to 11% higher), and the minor observed amount lower could be as easily explained by the larger social distancing that mask wearing places did with the intervention (or, pure randomness given the p value and confidence interval).
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Pasting the table for those that didn’t click the link (note this is for Surgical Masks Only). Very interesting, and I’m curious. I couldn’t find anywhere that they mentioned it. They did not control for age in mask wearing, so maybe something with that? Maybe something with viral load? Who knows.
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They state that while factors such as social distancing could have impacted the results for mask wearing, they think the results are the direct impact of masks because-
- Cloth masks and surgical masks induced the same amount of extra physical distancing, but they found statistically significant reduction in COVID prevalence from surgical masks, but no difference from cloth masks compared to no masks
- Mosques did not alter social distancing, it was only outdoor use that did
- Prior hypothesis based on labs that masks have an effect
I was going by this from the article
Villages where cloth masks were distributed experienced a 5 percent reduction in symptoms, while villages where surgical masks were distributed saw a reduction of 12 percent.
Ah I hadn’t read the article about the study, just the study itself. Study surveyed people and asked about their symptoms, which did have respondents stating that they had fewer symptoms when wearing cloth masks, but actual testing for COVID itself did not show any differences for cloth masks.
From the study
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Our school board president wrote an op-ed. I live in a very conservative rural Iowa town. He encouraged mask wearing and the community to get the vaccine if eligible. They are bringing back the covid dashboard. He said the sky isn’t falling but our cases are climbing and school has only been in session 10 days. I’m so proud that they want to be transparent. I do think that if masks weren’t banned by our governor that there’s a decent chance the school board would have voted in favor of it.
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Were masks banned, or just mask mandates? I thought your state’s law was similar to Florida & a few other states that ban mandates but allow people who want to mask to do so?
Yes mask mandates.
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But if your mask is what protects me, it’s pretty useless to graciously allow me to wear a mask.
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it’s not useless to me . . .
But it’s not.
Let me just break that down right to the fox news headline:
“Massive study shows masks ineffective for large majority of Americans”
Hey, COVID, wanna play?
Who could have predicted that athletes in close contact sweating and breathing heavy would be among the highest contagion rates?
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