[HN Gopher] Researchers propose that humidity from masks may les...
___________________________________________________________________
Researchers propose that humidity from masks may lessen severity of
Covid-19
Author : elsewhen
Score : 93 points
Date : 2021-02-14 16:13 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nih.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nih.gov)
| ndnfjttkrk wrote:
| One unexpected discovery for me was that wearing a tight FFP3
| mask is quite pleasant during cold winter weather.
|
| It's very effective at warming up the air, probably because it
| mixes it with the one in the dead space.
| deftnerd wrote:
| I've had the same experience in general. my lips often get
| chapped in sub freezing weather, but that hasn't happened this
| year.
| trhway wrote:
| now once some designer/fashion gets a wind of it, the masks
| will become a new niche clothing item - a nose/lips warmer
| like say ear mufflers.
| CarVac wrote:
| It's pleasant in short bursts but I find that after walking to
| work for 25 minutes in sub-freezing weather, my mask gets
| clogged with condensation and becomes stifling to breathe
| through.
|
| During the spring though, I found that wearing a mask
| completely prevented all of my seasonal allergy symptoms.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| I found that too, especially when I had some bronchial / throat
| irritation that would normally encourage me to cough.
| Jabbles wrote:
| This is probably because it eliminates the wind chill factor.
| gruez wrote:
| Yeah it basically acts like a ski mask for a good portion of
| your face.
| switch007 wrote:
| And even that benefit isn't enough for many people to wear
| masks unless absolutely required (e.g. inside shops). It's been
| unusually cold the past few weeks in the UK and I've seen less
| and less mask usage on busy streets and even shop queues.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| I can't speak for anyone else, but in NYC I've been finding I
| _have_ to take my mask off outside or I _literally_ can 't
| see, because that's how much my glasses fog up. Like, I
| walked straight into a pole one night.
|
| After that, I decided that the increased risk of getting
| COVID was lower than the risk of getting hit by a car.
|
| I do know it's not this bad for everyone, and I have tried
| different methods to mitigate it--anti-fog spray, different
| masks, etc. From what I've read it's largely dependent on the
| shape of your face, so I assume I just lost the lottery
| there.
| afterburner wrote:
| Try tucking the mask slightly _under_ your glasses. And
| make sure the nose strip has metal and can bend to the
| shape of your face.
| cjlars wrote:
| You can almost 100% solve the issue by taping the top edge
| of the mask to your face with surgical tape. Just a 6 inch
| strip of tape along your nose and under each eye and
| glasses fogging was 98% gone for me. It's probably not the
| most comfortable for some people, but not so different from
| wearing a band-aid. Very cheap and works with almost any
| mask.
| JohnCohorn wrote:
| Also makes it hard to take off and on. Something I do
| frequently when I'm out and about as there's no point in
| wearing the annoying thing in my car or outdoors away
| from crowds.
| switch007 wrote:
| Oh, I sympathise even though I don't wear prescriptions. I
| do like to wear sunglasses quite often, and even thought
| it'd help reduce a vector of infection. But I can't get a
| mask and sunglasses combo that works for more than 10
| seconds!
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I
| started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad
| on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by
| the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see
| neither the lights nor cars.
|
| Mask laws were instituted to get people to cover both nose
| and mouth, but it is interesting to see different levels of
| observance across Europe. In small-town Poland, for
| example, I see a lot of people not covering their nose,
| while in Romania I saw that people were very diligent about
| covering their whole face, and I have laughed to watch
| Albanian news and see that a lot of people in the street
| just have the mask over their chin with neither mouth nor
| nose covered.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| > I mitigate it by simply not covering my nose. Before I
| started doing that, condensation on my glasses was so bad
| on certain days, that I had to have my partner lead me by
| the hand across pedestrian crossings, because I could see
| neither the lights nor cars.
|
| So it's not just me! But, if you're not actively talking
| (ie, your mouth is closed), is wearing a mask below your
| nose any better than just taking it off? I figure at that
| point, I might as well put it in my back pocket.
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| I couldn't take it off entirely, because in the countries
| I have been this winter masks are required outdoors by
| law, and taking it off could lead to fines if police saw
| me.
| ficklepickle wrote:
| My brothers work supplies masks with an internal nose flap
| to prevent steaming up their safety glasses.
|
| It seems to be very effective. I can't find a picture,
| unfortunately my description leaves a lot to be desired.
|
| But it's a common problem and there are a variety of
| products that try to address it.
| johnohara wrote:
| This story from back in April 2020 made the rounds but didn't
| receive the attention it may have deserved [0].
|
| I cited this story because it pointed out that the air was heated
| along with being humidified.
|
| This is the original press release from U of C Medicine [1].
|
| [0]
| https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/25/21236187/...
|
| [1]https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/coronavirus-
| disea...
| Jabbles wrote:
| What about humidity of the environment? Is that a reason behind
| the success of countries like Thailand, Vietnam in tackling
| Covid?
|
| Possibly relevant study:
| https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-virology-0...
| xxpor wrote:
| Places like the US have wildly varying levels of humidity,
| seems like a good place to study that
| bpodgursky wrote:
| You'd have to separate out the effect of AC though. In the
| hottest and wettest parts of the country, people may actually
| live more of their lives in cold and dry air-conditioned
| environments than in the north...
| xxpor wrote:
| Oof, that's a good point. And lots of people in the inland
| west (we're it's _extremely_ dry) have whole home
| humidifiers...
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Related, when it comes to youth sports as vectors for
| coronavirus transmission, ice hockey is a clear outlier, and
| the low humidity levels in ice rinks is a primary theorized
| reason:
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12/04/hockey-covi...
| doliveira wrote:
| Yeah Brazil and specifically Manaus in the middle of the Amazon
| rainforest is doing a great job.
| scythe wrote:
| Considering that Brazilian scientists described the
| government's strategy as an "institutional strategy to spread
| the coronavirus"[1] _and_ they 're reporting a lower death
| rate than France[2], you have to figure something in Brazil
| is working in humanity's favor. It can't make up for
| (probably) the worst policies in the world, of course.
|
| [1]: https://english.elpais.com/americas/2021-01-29/study-
| finds-t...
|
| [2]: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
| sjg007 wrote:
| Your hypothesis does not square with the unfolding tragedy.
|
| https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-
| storie...
| CorrectHorseBat wrote:
| I don't think you can conclude anything from those numbers.
| On the one hand Brazil is very likely underreporting and
| has a much younger population, but on the other hand their
| medical care is not as good.
| maxerickson wrote:
| A bit more than 20% of the people in France are over 65.
|
| For Brazil, it's a bit more than 9%.
|
| We know very well that age is a significant factor.
| doliveira wrote:
| I've seen some estimates that with the same age
| distribution as Brazil France would have had half the
| number of deaths:
| https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-55847831
| (Portuguese link)
| doliveira wrote:
| It may be a factor, but it's a pretty big leap to say
| that's what is behind countries' successes and failures. I
| mean, I've even seen people claiming it's due to "Asians
| eating a lot of fish".
|
| The most obvious explanation is (even literally) right in
| front of our noses: politics, culture and age distribution.
| muststopmyths wrote:
| Sarcasm?
|
| https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6.
| ..
|
| ( _Resurgence of COVID-19 in Manaus, Brazil, despite high
| seroprevalence_ )
| doliveira wrote:
| Yes, pure sarcasm. Quite a catastrophe there. And a
| cautionary tale for what happens when denialists get their
| way.
| JohnCohorn wrote:
| A recent paper showed that obesity was related to spreading
| sars-cov-2 more readily, not just the severity of disease of
| the obese individual. The US and UK are world leaders in both
| obesity and virus spread. And the countries doing well with the
| virus are healthy and well within the normal weight range. I
| don't honestly believe it will be as simple as this, but it's
| amusing to think this _could_ be the big surprise connection.
|
| https://www.pnas.org/content/118/8/e2021830118?fbclid=IwAR3q...
| weberer wrote:
| It seems that way. Here's another analysis of studies that
| focused on indoor humidity.
|
| >"If the relative humidity of indoor air is below 40 percent,
| the particles emitted by infected people absorb less water,
| remain lighter, fly further through the room and are more
| likely to be inhaled by healthy people. In addition, dry air
| also makes the mucous membranes in our noses dry and more
| permeable to viruses," summarizes Dr. Ajit Ahlawat.
|
| https://www.tropos.de/en/current-issues/press-releases/detai...
|
| Actual paper:
|
| https://aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-20-06-covid-0302
| DennisP wrote:
| Thailand and Vietnam also had 95% compliance with mask wearing.
|
| https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28979/what-s-be...
| timr wrote:
| And so does the US:
|
| https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201022/mask-use-by-
| america...
|
| https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/27/more-
| americ...
|
| Break it down by county or state, and you'll find that many
| of the the areas with the highest reported compliance have
| the worst overall metrics:
|
| https://delphi.cmu.edu/covidcast/?date=20210209®ion=42003.
| ..
|
| (and before anyone says it: sure, you can argue that mask-
| wearing correlates with population density or _some other
| factor_ that leads to greater disease prevalence, but doesn
| 't that just beg the original question? People are wearing
| masks the most in the places with the highest disease
| prevalence. If "the reason" that Vietnam did well is mask
| compliance...well, why didn't it work just as well here?)
| scythe wrote:
| >And so does the US:
|
| This is _not_ my actual experience in the United States. It
| 's practically impossible to find a laundromat in Rhode
| Island that isn't constantly full of maskless noses, and
| we're a blue state.
| deepnet wrote:
| SNIP
|
| " Our review of the literature offers evidence in favor of
| widespread mask use as source control to reduce community
| transmission: Nonmedical masks use materials that obstruct
| particles of the necessary size; people are most infectious
| in the initial period postinfection, where it is common to
| have few or no symptoms (45, 46, 141); nonmedical masks
| have been effective in reducing transmission of respiratory
| viruses; and places and time periods where mask usage is
| required or widespread have shown substantially lower
| community transmission.
|
| The available evidence suggests that near-universal
| adoption of nonmedical masks when out in public, in
| combination with complementary public health measures,
| could successfully reduce Re
|
| to below 1, thereby reducing community spread if such
| measures are sustained. Economic analysis suggests that
| mask wearing mandates could add 1 trillion dollars to the
| US GDP (32, 34).
|
| Models suggest that public mask wearing is most effective
| at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high
| (39). "
|
| FROM
|
| An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19 by Jeremy
| Howard, Austin Huang, et al.
|
| https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118
| hvac wrote:
| How would those same places be doing without masks?
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| Both your links claim less than 95% compliance, and both
| suggest a recent, marked improvement in mask wearing from
| earlier dates (but still well after the start of the
| pandemic).
| MengerSponge wrote:
| I don't work in the biological sciences, but my money's on the
| variolation argument more than the humidity behind your mask.
| https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2026913
|
| Here's why:
|
| Humidity affects the dessication of droplets, which in turn
| shifts what fraction become airborne (as aerosols) or settle out
| (as droplets). In the tiny enclosed volume between your face and
| your mask, that difference doesn't matter, because the whole
| volume is exchanged multiple times with each breath.
|
| Masks reduce the number of viruses that you're exposed to, so
| even if you are exposed to enough to make you sick, you get less
| sick than you would have otherwise.
| andylei wrote:
| > Humidity affects the dessication of droplets, which in turn
| shifts what fraction become airborne (as aerosols) or settle
| out (as droplets). In the tiny enclosed volume between your
| face and your mask, that difference doesn't matter, because the
| whole volume is exchanged multiple times with each breath.
|
| The article doesn't say anything about droplets or the number
| of viral particles you get exposed to. From the article:
|
| > hydration of the respiratory tract is known to benefit the
| immune system.
| [deleted]
| ppf wrote:
| It does seem to me that this has been done ass-backwards. That is
| - first mask mandates (and in many countries, too), then the
| research that supports the idea that they do anything. Or, in
| this case, "researchers propose".
| lucb1e wrote:
| What would you propose we do instead? Give a group masks and
| tell a control group explicitly to not wear masks, then see who
| contracts COVID more often?
|
| There is such a thing called ethics. You can't experiment on
| people when you have good reason to expect something will be
| harmful for them, like feed them cancerous stuff to see what
| happens. But you can check what happened to the people that
| didn't comply, for example those that accidentally ate that
| food, and still learn something.
|
| Telling people to wear masks, even if there is a chance it
| doesn't help, is not a weird idea during a pandemic. The chance
| of it being counterproductive was fairly negligible compared to
| the chance of it helping, and so you should do it.
|
| Or did I misunderstand what you meant there?
| sofixa wrote:
| No, mask mandates were because masks stop you from inflecting
| other people if you're sick and don't know it yet by stopping
| the air you exhale and limiting its range.
|
| This is research that wearing a mask actually help you have a
| lesser form of Covid, entirely independently of propagation.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| I propose that when handled by the average citizen they also
| increase the risk of bacterial pneumonia as you filter your warm
| moist breath through a bacteria catcher/cultivator.
| mrfusion wrote:
| Wrong narrative, bro.
| doliveira wrote:
| Is that the new "theory"? Have you guys dropped the whole "O2
| and CO2 levels" thing already?
| luxuryballs wrote:
| Who is "you guys"? You don't get to be the gatekeeper on
| biology and medicine. This is a very reasonable concern. The
| mouth is one of the dirtiest places on the body, which is why
| human bites are so dangerous. Bacteria transfers from hands
| which is why we promote washing hands. The logic follows this
| hypothesis.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| > The mouth is one of the dirtiest places on the body,
| which is why human bites are so dangerous.
|
| To _others_ , with _broken skin_.
|
| We're inhaling air that passes through our own dirty mouths
| pretty regularly without getting infected by it already.
| tasty_freeze wrote:
| If one were to wear the same pair of underwear every day
| without washing them, you'd probably smell bad and end up with
| nasty rashes. But unless you are homeless where it is
| difficult, everybody changes their underwear daily and washes
| it after every use.
|
| If you don't wash your plates, bowls, and utensils, you can get
| sick due to crud which has grown on the residual cruft. That is
| why people wash them between uses.
|
| If you are using your mask long enough that it is developing
| bacterial growths, that is your fault and isn't flaw of the
| mask. Wash your mask after every use, giving it ample dwell
| time in the soap before rinsing it. Wring it out, hang it to
| dry, no problems.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| We'd have an absolutely massive uptick in non-COVID pneumonia
| if that were the case.
|
| (It'd also be a known phenomenon for surgeons, dentists,
| nurses, painters, drywall installers, nail technicians, etc.
| who've been using masks for decades.)
| [deleted]
| luxuryballs wrote:
| How do you know we don't? They are instructed by CDC to mark
| them as covid even if unsure.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| We know because, again, various professions have been using
| masks extensively for decades without all dropping dead of
| pneumonia.
|
| Your theory also falls down with the spikey nature of
| hospitalizations/deaths. If it were the masks, you'd see a
| steadily high count of these, not outbreaks that come and
| go. The big early spikes in Italy and NYC were before
| masking at all became a thing, even.
| sofixa wrote:
| > The big early spikes in Italy and NYC were before
| masking at all became a thing, even.
|
| And the first wave, which triggered the first wave of
| lockdowns, was all during the time where there were
| barely enough masks for medical personnel, let alone the
| general public.
| yborg wrote:
| Totally disagree with this thesis but disagree with the
| downvotes as well. I think it's important to understand the
| mentality of the anti- crowd.
| protoman3000 wrote:
| Why do so many people exist, who outright disregard any public
| hygiene?
|
| Why do you enter a public bathroom, touch your privates with
| unwashed hands and then leave without washing your hands? Why do
| you spit on the floor? Why do you sneeze and cough in public
| transport without covering your mouth and nose?
|
| Can stupidity or ignorance alone explain this germ spreading
| behavior? What are the psychological mechanisms behind these
| highly infectious people? What's wrong with them? At least we
| need an explanation for why we are suffering this huge amount of
| pain!
| vbezhenar wrote:
| They exist to train your immune system.
| nmstoker wrote:
| I wonder if they're any similar effect at play worth those who
| sleep/breathe with their mouth open vs closed.
|
| Would need proper testing but the "arm chair" thinking here is
| two fold:
|
| 1. the nasal passage is specifically intended to help inhaled air
| warm and be mildly humidified
|
| 2. A tendency to sleep with your mouth open is more common in
| those who are overweight and they've often been observed to be
| hit worse by Covid
|
| I'm mainly thinking point 1 here, as point 2 is probably just a
| convenient coincidence, but you never know (until it's tested or
| at least considered by more of an expert in this field than me
| the amateur!)
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| To add to your thinking: COVID infection is usually most
| dominant in the nasal passages. The lungs are less vulnerable
| to infection, but may get infected via the upper respiratory
| system via aspiration. This is a really interesting read:
|
| https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/researchers-map-how-coronavirus...
| loveistheanswer wrote:
| There is indeed compelling evidence that nose breathing has
| many health benefits compared to mouth breathing. Including but
| not limited to better sleep, and immume function.
|
| https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/health-benefits-of-br...
| DoofusOfDeath wrote:
| When sleeping, do obese people generally do more mouth-
| breathing? (IIRC, obesity is a major risk factor for sleep
| apnea.)
|
| If so, it might take some legwork to untangle those two factors
| (mouth breathing vs other obesity issues) to explain covid's
| disproportionate impact on obese people.
| dstola wrote:
| Humidity also encourages bacterial growth and I doubt inhaling
| that constantly is healthy
| pbourke wrote:
| That is easily remediated by washing cloth masks after use.
| faitswulff wrote:
| Not to mention staying out of public spaces, obviating the
| need for masks.
| pbourke wrote:
| It seems like wearing a mask in some environments (public
| transit, crowded shops, etc) might be a good practice going
| forward. I wonder if it will be normalized? Will you stand out if
| you choose to wear a mask to the mall 5 years from now?
| TheBlight wrote:
| Don't take this as a personal attack, but when I see people
| regularly wearing masks 5 years from now I'll certainly bias
| against engaging with them. I'll assume they don't understand
| risk and prioritize fear and emotion over reason. I won't be
| mean to them (nor disrespectful at all) but I will keep my
| distance socially (yes, somewhat ironically.)
| throwaway189262 wrote:
| In some (mostly Asian) countries you're expected to wear a
| mask if you go out when you're sick. Contrast that to
| freedomland where it's normal to have people hacking like
| crazy just about everywhere.
|
| It's required to wear a mask 100% of the time in some medical
| professions. This is usually so you don't get vulnerable
| people sick, not to protect yourself. Medicine is highly
| evidence based. If masks didn't work these rules wouldn't
| exist.
|
| Most of those wearing masks aren't doing it out of "fear and
| emotion", they're doing it to protect others. We all know
| that cloth style masks everyone is wearing offer the wearer
| almost no protection. The value is primarily in the
| protection they provide to others by blocking aerosols when
| you breathe and talk.
|
| I get the feeling you follow some news sources that
| erroneously claim people wear masks to calm their fear and
| emotions
| TheBlight wrote:
| Using terms like "Freedomland" expose your biases fairly
| clearly and make it easy for me to safely ignore you.
|
| But you might be surprised to learn that even as recently
| as 2016 the use of masks in surgical settings wasn't
| understood to be backed by very strong science:
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480558/
| throwaway189262 wrote:
| Lol "you aren't likely to share the same opinions as me
| because of a word you used so I I'm going to ignore you".
| Very intellectual, rational, and nuanced good brain type
| thinking.
|
| This article is about surgical masks which are basically
| tissue paper not N95's. In some healthcare settings N95
| is required especially when dealing with
| immunocompromised or extremely infections diseases like
| active TB or SARS. The evidence for these is much
| stronger
| netsharc wrote:
| 2018, someone has a bad flu, still wants to get groceries or
| go to the doctor.
|
| In Japan: they'd be worried about infecting others so they
| would wear a mask.
|
| In USA: Even if they cared about other and could buy a mask,
| they'd be worried about the weird looks, so they don't wear a
| mask.
|
| Hopefully in 2026, assuming Covid is solved by then, people
| wearing masks in the US won't be looked weirdly, or even if
| people like you do, the sick people would think "Why should I
| give a shit what you think.".
| che_shirecat wrote:
| From a strictly rational perspective, wearing a mask in
| public transit is always the correct decision, you are
| statistically less likely to contract airbourne diseases with
| a mask on. You're free to attach emotional significance to
| the act of wearing a mask, but maybe it has the desired
| effect - I personally would rather not interact socially with
| anyone on public transit, so maybe we are both the better for
| it.
| TheBlight wrote:
| >you are statistically less likely to contract airbourne
| diseases with a mask on.
|
| What are you basing this assessment on? Are all masks
| equal? Does training in mask application matter? For what
| duration are different types of masks effective?
| throwaway189262 wrote:
| Google is good for this. N95 and higher is effective.
| Mask application matters but they're effective without
| 100% seal. I don't think they get less effective with
| time, just harder to breathe through.
| ficklepickle wrote:
| I find N95 easier to breathe through than surgical masks.
| They use static, not mechanical filtration, which doesn't
| seem to cause much restriction on air flow.
|
| They do get less effective with time, exposure to
| moisture. Using alcohol to clean an N95 will
| significantly reduce its effectiveness.
|
| Early on, Stanford did a study on various methods of
| sterilizing N95s and the change of effectiveness. Heat
| (70degC for 30 mins) was best.
|
| https://news.stanford.edu/2020/04/01/researchers-show-
| how-to...
| tinus_hn wrote:
| From a strictly rational perspective, avoiding any and all
| infection is not the correct decision because that way you
| don't build up an immune system and remain massively
| vulnerable to the mildest of diseases.
| SteveNuts wrote:
| You can probably safely assume anyone wearing a mask in 5
| years is doing so because they are sick but still need to be
| in public for essential everyday tasks.
| ctur wrote:
| Do you feel the same way about seatbelts? If people choose to
| be safer by wearing masks, judging them is pretty extreme.
| This kind of attitude is what made the early days of the
| pandemic a mess.
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| Masks cover one's facial expressions. Showing one's own
| facial expression and being able to see others' is an
| important part of social interaction in many cultures.
| Indeed, whether one person feels he or she can
| instinctively trust another is often based on getting a
| view of the other person's face.
|
| This behavior can be suspended temporarily on a short-term
| basis when a population perceives an urgent state of
| pandemic or (as in Japan) when an individual says he has a
| cold, but it may not be sustainable at a society-wide scale
| beyond that. Seatbelts faced cultural resistance before
| adoption, sure, but much less than masks would once the
| acute COVID risk has passed.
| TheBlight wrote:
| This is a silly false equivalence but I'll engage with it
| because it seems annoyingly popular. The evidence of
| efficacy of seatbelt usage in crash scenarios is abundantly
| clear. The same isn't true for wearing a cloth/surgical
| mask in public during a pandemic featuring an airborne
| virus. I'm aware there are hand-wavy meta-studies and
| extrapolated surveys on the issue (but 1 RCT from Denmark
| which showed no statistical significance between control
| and experimental groups. See
| https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/m20-6817) but
| common sense and being able to evaluate statistics of mask
| mandated regions vs. not indicates to me their findings are
| dubious at best. Even n95s are not likely useful against an
| airborne virus if not properly fitted and regularly
| replaced.
|
| What wearing the mask does show me is that a person is
| extremely susceptible to propaganda and likely has
| conformist tendencies. This isn't necessarily true in all
| cases but I think it will be for the majority of them. This
| sort of person is dangerous to bring in to your social
| circle because they can easily be manipulated into being an
| instrument of the state. I don't want to have to police my
| own thoughts and opinions in front of my friends and in an
| increasing totalitarian "cancel culture" environment this
| risk becomes increasingly more substantial and existential.
| sofixa wrote:
| Is it not obvious, common sense and proven that masks
| stop you from spreading the virus if you have it and
| don't know yet? Are there still people unaware of that?
| Out of curiosity, where do you live?
|
| And you should tell frontline medical personnel that
| masks don't protect them, they'll be glad your non-
| conformist ultra intelligent mind managed to figure it
| out.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| It became normal practice in East Asia after bad flu pandemics.
|
| To be quite honest, masks are very helpful, given that they are
| infinitely more effective than covering the mouth with hands or
| elbow (it doesn't block everything, and people often do not
| sanitize their hands or elbows afterwards).
|
| Masks are also used in Japan to protect the wearer from
| allergens during their allergy season. After I read about it, I
| also started doing this, and I noticed my symptoms were a lot
| less terrible than previous years. They are also used in China
| when smog is bad.
|
| Given how cheap masks are, and how we will have a lot of
| manufacturing left after all this that will drive prices down,
| to me it is a no-brainer, and I'd definitely prefer it if
| Americans resume their practice of coming into work sick once
| we are at least partially back in office. (Now, they do this
| because we have terrible sick leave, but masks are at least not
| super-expensive at solving the problem absent some state or
| federal push for mandated paid sick leave.)
| heavyset_go wrote:
| Doubt it. Not wearing masks has become a political hill many
| have chosen to die on, and there are tons of people who virtue
| signal by choosing to go without them or judging others for
| choosing to wear them.
| pitspotter wrote:
| These days if I feel any sort of respiratory illness coming on I
| head straight to bed and get my head under the covers. The secret
| is to create a 'cave' or pocket of air by using a pole or prop to
| hold the duvet or comforter up like a little tent. Experience
| does seem to bear out that lungs prefer moist, warm air.
| amelius wrote:
| I'm curious though what that would do to CO2 levels.
| afterburner wrote:
| Measure the humidity in the air where you live, especially where
| you sleep (and therefore probably spend most of your time). If
| it's below 30% in the winter, get a humidifier good enough to
| actually raise it. If you can't get a humidifier good enough to
| humidify your entire living spaces, try just your bedroom.
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