On April 4, Joe wrote an editorial that read, “The debate is over. Everyone wears a mask. ” We had limited data at the time, but the quadruple argument in favor of universal masking was valid:
Protect yourself. Protect others. Avoid touching your face Public signage.
Some were not convinced. In August, President Donald Trump said, “Maybe they’re great, and maybe they’re just good. Maybe they’re not that good. “
Even after Trump and many members of his inner circle tried last week, masks are still optional at the White House.
Reluctance extends beyond the White House; After positive for the coronavirus itself, Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson redoubled his opposition to conceal orders.
What does the newest show in the masks?
We have lab tests and studies on the appearance of other viruses that even the mask can help.
N95 masks (technically speaking, are part of the mask) are the best for fitness care, however, the average user does not want an N95; many easier types of masks can make a big difference, as with flu and other viruses.
Consider this test of exhaled breath in youth and adults with seasonal coronavirus: Fewer coronavirus aerosols and droplets were detected in those wearing a regimen surgical mask than in those who were not.
We have concrete paints that mask opposite SARS-CoV-2.
Masking has not been unusual in Asia for decades and SARS studies show that this has helped restrict spread, but we had no data on the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 or US data.
That replaced with masking in Massachusetts’ largest health care system, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that universal masking particularly reduced the rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health care workers.
We know that when other people aren’t dressed in masks, epidemics are more likely to occur.
Several high-profile outbreaks, which add to Israel’s schools; nine consumers flaunting a place to eat in Guangzhou, China; The Skagit County Choir practice, Washington, where a user ignited 52 out of 60; the camp in Georgia where many young people have fallen — percentage some unusual traits. Other infected people moved inside with little ventilation and were not dressed in masks.
We know what others would be in high-profile epidemics if a mask were used.
We can now quantify the effect of masking using statistical models that allow us to read about the counterfactual: the “what if” of an epidemic if something had been done differently.
Consider Joe’s team paintings, directed by postdoctoral fellow Parham Azimi, on modeling the epidemic on the Diamond Princess cruiser, where 712 of the 3,711 passengers were inflamed on board, an attack rate of 19%.
When we relaunched our style assuming that passengers were dressed in a fabric mask with 70% efficiency, the number of cases is reduced to 12, instead of 1 in 5 getting sick, it’s 3 out of 1000, and that’s the difference between a small group and a mass propagation event.
We know that dressing in a mask leads to greater risk-taking.
Many experts have mistakenly warned that dressing in a mask would mean that other people would take more risks. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Working Group, made shocking, ill-informed and damaging comments at first, saying that a call to Americans to wear a mask can simply send a signal that they can just let their guard down and stay away (“We don’t need other people to feel like” Oh, I’m dressed in a mask. I am and I protect others”).
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has just published a study that seems to be the opposite is true: other people dressed in masks are more likely to distance the test, and a thorough review of this factor in the British Medical Journal reported that others dressed in a wash mask both, if not more so , than other people without a mask.
We now have evidence that dressed in a mask can affect the severity of the disease, even if the carrier is infected.
An examination of epidemics among Swiss army recruits showed that a group of infantrymen who implemented strict social estating measures (add masked dresses when physical distance was) had fewer infections than two others.
Soldiers who were inflamed in mask society and distance were all asymptomatic, while 40% of patients inflamed in the other two developed symptoms.
In an inventive animal experiment, researchers inflamed hamsters with SARS-CoV-2 and placed them in separate cages adjacent to non-inflamed animals, with a fan to blow air from inflamed to unin infected cages. Placing a surgical mask in the middle reduced the number. infections and the severity of the disease in hamsters with the infection.
We know that the failure of national leadership comes alive.
We had a difficult start in this country, in a giant component because our national leaders acted as leaders.
Trump undermined the message in April (“You don’t have to do this. I don’t think he will. “) Vice President Mike Pence visited a hospital without a mask.
It’s more than symbolism. The images show unmasked participants in indoor meetings such as Herman Cain put a fatal case of COVID-19 and combined occasions indoors and outdoors such as the recent Rose Garden rite, where many of those who attended now test positive.
And recently, we learned of the shocking news that the White House had stopped the U. S. Postal Service from sending masks to 650 million Americans in April, which it estimated this would have stored 100,000 lives.
We know we’ll have to use tactics to live with that until there’s a vaccine available.
Vaccine trials look promising, but there will be no widespread vaccination until at least mid-2021. Before that, new remedies and better remedies will continue to lessen the threat to those who benefit from them.
And before that, we have new tests based on 15-minute antigens that are coming to market and can make more important decisions. But while we wait for vaccines, remedies and tests, we are not powerless.
Masks are the “now” strategy that allows us to reopen schools, offices and the economy. Hide, America!
Joseph G. Allen is Associate Professor and Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at THChan School of Public Health and co-author of “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Improve Performance and Productivity”. Marc Lipsitch is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard’s THChan School of Public Health.
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