Now WHO says asymptomatic patients doesn't infect others. Full turn about to original position. This may mean all Lock down, Social Distancing weren't necessary at all! WHO have screwed this up royally!
... and still they wonder why so many people are reluctant to "just trust the experts" and fall into line like good sheep. The other one that made me laugh was the news report that said Fauci explained how the early announcement that masks were ineffective was to avoid a shortage for medical workers. So essentially what he's saying is that they lied but now they are telling the truth so please trust them, even though the masks they are saying are so useful come covered in disclaimers that they don't offer protection against, well, anything really.
I fulfilled a lifelong dream the other day. I walked into a bank wearing a mask and gloves and no one even blinked.
In the spirit of malicious compliance I've often been tempted to cover the entirety of my head except for my eyes (protection from the sun, and the fuhrer says we have to cover our faces), and strap a handgun on my waist before going in to the bank. In my state it's legal to carry a gun into a bank.... On a more serious note, a local jeweler is taking an unusual, if entirely understandable, stance on that front. He's refusing to let anyone in if they are wearing a mask. As he says, he needs to know who is coming into the store and people wearing masks can't be identified. He has a few regular customers but can't afford to let them cover their faces or he'll be accused of profiling, so he just says nobody is allowed to enter the store wearing a mask.
It's kinda circus out There. Nobody seems to be sure of anything. But, The role of WHO has been dubious at best. Their statements have made impressions from Chinese stooge to incompetent blundering bureaucracy.
That wouldn't be wise. It's secondary if mask are effective or otherwise, giving up precautions ca cost very high. What he can do is make people remove mask for a second and show face or look into security camera and them let put it on again.
Nobody is sure of anything, except for the armies of social media warriors who Trust The Experts, at least the experts who say what they want to hear. Needless to say the experts who say something else are in the pockets of Big Whatever-It-Is-That-Opposes-My-Thoughts.
It's not really giving up precautions, it's easy for staff to keep six feet away from people and the store is very seldom busy enough that customers can't keep a distance from each other. In a store like his the benefit of people covering their faces is likely to be minimal at best. More and more I see people notionally ticking the box in that they are technically "wearing a mask" but it's so loose that it barely covers their mouth let alone their nose. But it ticks the box, so it must be good. More and more people are simply not bothering with masks anyway, round here it's not only easy to maintain a distance from people, it's natural to keep a reasonable distance. One day I was out on a walk and bumped into a friend who was also out for a walk. We stopped a chatted for a time and, while talking, I noticed that the natural distance we kept between us was probably a little over six feet. Never mind calls for "social distancing" (a hideously inappropriate term if there was one), a natural distance was all that was required. Yes, it's different in big cities, which is just another reason why the one-size-fits-all approach is doomed to fail.
That's fantastic if the data bears that out. I fully have no issue with sticking with heavy precautions in the absence of hard data.
I'm 98% certain I had COVID, but given how insane the people at ASDA, Tesco, etc. a fashionable mask is taken along for the trip.
I often wonder what places would do if you showed up with a mask with one ear loop broken, tried to wear it as best you could but left it hanging loose because you didn't have a spare with you. I see so many people with masks looped around both ears but hanging so loose they not only achieve nothing but probably make things worse that go unquestioned, presumably because the person is Wearing A Mask and therefore Doing The Right Thing, that I wonder what would happen.
People are not wearing mask properly at all or are not wearing proper masks. Cloth masks are just for the show I guess, They make not much of a difference. Need surgical Masks or N95 kind and that too worn properly. SO many people are wearing masks loose or mask pushed down to chin as they can't breathe properly. So, It's just sham.
I read one news report of an elderly guy who died in a car wreck. It was a single vehicle wreck, it seems he passed out behind the wheel and went off the road into something immovable. He'd been wearing an N95 mask for some hours, apparently. The disclaimers all over the ear-loop masks for sale everywhere makes it clear they can't be expected to do anything. The manufacturers say they are more or less useless but the governors say they are critical. I guess they can be a fashion accessory for those who are into that sort of thing.
Forgot to mention, I read another interesting article written by someone who claimed to have significant OSHA experience, looking at different types of masks and how effective they might be in the current situation. The article talked of surgical masks being intended for use in a sterile environment and how they are of limited use in a non-sterile environment (like, anywhere outside an operating theater or similar), how N95 masks and P100 respirators and the like filter based on the assumption that the environment is polluted but they are very hard to find, and how the valves in many of them are disliked by proponents of the "you protect me, I protect you" approach, except that the whole point of the valves is that they make it easier to breathe while wearing the respirator. Another article looked at how wearing a mask while exercising can reduce oxygen intake and cause an extra increase in heart rate as the body has to work harder to overcome the mask. All this is before even considering the problems it causes people with hearing loss who can no longer lip-read because peoples' mouths are covered up.
Masks do have utility if proper masks are worn properly. They give protection from air borne pathogens. Even for the skeptics, They prevent you from touching your mouth & nose. That in itself is a good preventive thing.
Yes, Masks are not desirable during heavy activity. Regarding hearing loss, It's something new I have came across!
Some masks do that. A piece of cloth in front of your face is of limited use as far as protecting the wearer from airborne pathogens. When even the manufacturers don't claim that they offer any protection you know they are all but worthless. Except they don't, if you're constantly fiddling with the mask to adjust its position. You might touch your nose a bit less but probably end up touching around your eyes more which seems every bit as bad. If the idea is to keep pathogens from getting into your body it seems safer to touch the bridge of your nose than to touch around your eyes. Most people I know who wear a regular mask find they touch their face a lot more trying to adjust their mask than they ever did before. When I wear my buff pulled up over my mouth and nose I periodically have to adjust it to keep it in place, if not to pull it down so I can breathe more freely.