It certainly works better than nothing at all.
Comment on Public trust
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Are we really still pretending the mask I got from the front bin of Home Depot actually works?
Can we look at the other claims the government “scientists” claimed to see how they were not real scientists?
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 8 months ago
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
Nothing at all Nothing at all nothing at all…
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 8 months ago
Stupid sexy N95’s…
octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Are we really still pretending the mask I got from the front bin of Home Depot actually works?
Are we still pretending <100% effectiveness = worthless? (Just kidding, I know folks are.)
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
The issue here is that people pretended masks were very affective, and I have not seen any actual data that they were very useful. I have seen a lot of memes like the one above that pretend they were essential when the only data I ever recall seeing was they were overall 4% useful, by a pro-mask source. And if you look around there are lots of sources that said they did nothing, I dont know which is true, but lack of solid evidence seems to point to it was pointless.
Do you think masks should have been mandated indoors if they had a 4% impact? How about 0.1%?
octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Twentyish studies are sourced at the bottom of the article I linked, and it details the effectiveness of each mask type in the body of the article. Why we are discussing mandates now I don’t know, feels like a bit of the ol’ goalposts on wheels to me, it’s not what I replied to.
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
I think this is the most important part of the article “Yes. When used with measures such as getting vaccinated, hand-washing and physical distancing, wearing a face mask slows how quickly the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads.” It essentially says do all the things and it will be impactful.
At what level of impact do you think masks should have been forced on people?
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
damn i uh. Yup i read that statement.
Ok im going to go jerk off to furry porn or something immensely more productive than what i just spent time doing.
Lev_Astov@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The cheap, dumpy masks are still going to somewhat reduce your intake of particles and significantly reduce your output, which is their main point.
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Thats great, but did they actually prevent spread is the question to ask. We can start out with the hypothesis that they do work, then we need to actually confirm if that is true.
braxy29@lemmy.world 8 months ago
here. just the first two research results for a simple google search “did masks work research.”
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446908/ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8499874/
i mean… you could look into it? know that it’s difficult to set up a statistically ideal study during a pandemic.
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
From all that I have seen and heard its at best split or the impact is so small that it is not noticeable. I think most of the ones that say it worked involved healthcare setting where trained people used good masks, not me at home depot with a mask from a box.
lemminger@lemm.ee 8 months ago
From your own source: ‘Ninety-one per cent of observational studies were at ‘critical’ risk of bias (ROB) in at least one domain, often failing to separate the effects of masks from concurrent interventions.’ The whole “masks don’t work at all” argument is pretty much still a strawman argument, because the actually good criticism was for mask mandates. Can masks work, if you use them correctly (don’t touch them more than you have to, don’t use one mask for too long and do not have a beard when it comes to n95, change them frequently when it comes to the other ones)? sure they can. Can mask mandates work, if everybody adheres to the rules and uses them correctly? probably, yes. do we have any reason to assume that everybody will do it that way? not really, no. so my assumption and criticism was always: masks may work, when used correctly. mask mandates do not get people to use masks correctly, rather than just mandate to have some piece of cloth over your mouth, which you may have used for the last 3 months, at which point they do not really do anything anymore and may even become a public health issue in themselves. so mask mandates are annoying as shit, don’t do much to prevent spread and even have the potential to do more harm than good. if you can find a study that actually is able to isolate the effects of mask usage from other interventions, I’m happy to look at it, too. even the German government classified the effectiveness of their own mask mandates as controversial in the official committee. I get why bashing conservative anti-intellectualism can be fun and I can only assume that there were lots of idiotic arguments made against mask mandates, but it’s actually not that easy.
Hasuris@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
That people can still type in this word salads in 2024 is beyond me. Real actual scientists all over the world have answered these questions years ago. Stop asking Facebook for answers. Try Google
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
So you think that google is unbiased?
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 8 months ago
and significantly reduce your output,
acetanilide@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Just out of curiosity, what is a real scientist?
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Someone that takes in data and comes to a data driven conclusion, not an ideological driven solution.
Test_Tickles@lemmynsfw.com 8 months ago
Pretty much every study agrees, cloth masks are not as good as n95 or surgical masks. They don’t however say that cloth does nothing. Also I have not been able to find even 1 study that looked at multilayer cloth masks. Some even state that multilayer would probably do much better than single layer, but they weren’t even going to test them to see. Pretty much every study is focused on how well masks protect the wearer, but very few focus on how well they protect others from you. The only study that I found that does talk about it, says that while less than n95 masks, that even cloth masks have a significant affect on your spreading of the virus.
MeDuViNoX@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
The one that aligns with and confirms your personal bias; as all real science works.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What? Yes? Home Depot sells N95 masks. Protection is why they exist.
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Most people didnt use N95 masks, they used random cloth ones and the surgical looking ones. The N95 masks are actually really good for dust, I use them all the time.
kent_eh@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
While not as good as a properly fitted N95, they are still more effective than no mask at reducing the spread of airborne particles from the wearer.
Remember that masks were always mostly about protecting others, not so much about protecting the wearer. And I think that’s where the loudest resistance came from - selfish people who don’t give a fuck about the wellbeing of other people.
CableMonster@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Great, can you quantify how effective they were? So the issue is that if almost all infection happened not in public and cloth masks are marginally useful, what the point of wearing them in public if there is no measurable benefit?
s_s@lemmy.one 8 months ago
Yes, but the wearer has it on their chin.