New England Journal of Medicine: Masks Offer No Protection

[Fat Cat]

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H.,
Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H.,
Julia Sinclair, M.B.A.,
Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N.,
and Erica S. Shenoy, M.D., Ph.D.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372

[Alfred_E._Neuman]

Wait, you're saying I *shouldn't* be wearing my mask when driving alone in my car? Or out for a walk in my neighborhood where I never encounter a single soul closer than 20'? Now I feel like a dumbass.

[Schlegel]

I am getting less worried as time goes on. We have them mandated at work. In a hospital. Right now I'm on a lake beach, sans mask. Nearest family is 50 ft away.

[nafod]

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes).

So in a bar or restaurant or church or sporting event or other places in close sustained proximity they make sense.

But not walking through the mall or outdoors.

Title of your thread is misleading.

[Fat Cat]

Are you stupid or something?

it's a paraphrase of the quoted sentence: "Wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection."

[nafod]

Are you stupid or something?

it's a paraphrase of the quoted sentence: "Wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection."

They said. The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal.

Sitting next to some asymptomatic but contagious loud blathering drunk in a bar (or cheering fan at a ball game) for an hour is not a "passing interaction". Might as well drink from the same glass at that point.

[Fat Cat]

Are you stupid or something?

it's a paraphrase of the quoted sentence: "Wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection."

They said. The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal.

Sitting next to some asymptomatic but contagious loud blathering drunk in a bar (or cheering fan at a ball game) for an hour is not a "passing interaction". Might as well drink from the same glass at that point.

That has nothing to do with the accuracy of my title, which was a direct paraphrase. When you contribute informative threads, you title them as you please.

[newguy]

But I thought the rational wasn't that the keep me from catching but more they keep me from spreading it?

[nafod]

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... ce.abc6197

Respiratory infections occur through the transmission of virus-containing droplets (>5 to 10 μm) and aerosols (≤5 μm) exhaled from infected overweight Hawaiians during breathing, speaking, coughing, and sneezing. Traditional respiratory disease control measures are designed to reduce transmission by droplets produced in the sneezes and coughs of infected individuals. However, a large proportion of the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appears to be occurring through airborne transmission of aerosols produced by asymptomatic individuals during breathing and speaking (1–3). Aerosols can accumulate, remain infectious in indoor air for hours, and be easily inhaled deep into the lungs. For society to resume, measures designed to reduce aerosol transmission must be implemented, including universal masking and regular, widespread testing to identify and isolate infected asymptomatic individuals.