Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Tue Nov 17, 2020 6:07 pm
This mask issue is not even debatable! What on earth is wrong with people? Has everyone lost their damn minds? I cannot believe that the CDC or the experts act like this is a new discovery. I knew early on that face mask were called for in preventing Covid. Why?
Has no one here never encountered a
chemo patient in public who is wearing a mask? I have for decades, seen women with head coverings due to chemo treatment related hair loss with masks on in public.
Are they doing this so they don't spread cancer to you?
Here's a couple of statements.
With a particularly nasty cold and flu season still gripping much of the nation, many people are taking extra steps to avoid getting sick. For many cancer patients, such precautions aren’t merely a seasonal consideration, but a constant reality, because catching an infection is more than a minor inconvenience—it could have serious implications for their health and treatment schedule. Experts recommend that patients protect themselves by taking certain precautions, many of which may make for some socially awkward moments, like declining a handshake at a business meeting or wearing a mask at the grocery store. But there are ways to manage both your health and your social relationships, and it often starts with a healthy dose of information—like telling friends, co-workers and loved ones that you have to take pains to avoid illnesses, and why.
In their day-to-day lives, cancer patients are often in public places, touching tables, chairs, doors and doorknobs contaminated with other people’s germs. “That’s why cancer patients need to be very careful about what they do each day,” Dr. Chowdhury says. “It’s very easy to catch germs in public areas.”
He advises patients to avoid crowded places, like malls, grocery stores, airports, public swimming pools and restrooms, if possible. If you must go out in public, wash your hands often and use hand sanitizer if you don’t have a sink nearby. Dr. Chowdhury also recommends wearing a mask to protect yourself from airborne bacteria.
https://www.cancercenter.com/community/ ... -treatment
People need to pull their heads out and use their brains. Treat yourself as if your immune system were compromised and wear the damn mask and stop politicizing a public health crisis!
The problem is the ambiguity in the term "mask." Both before and early on in the pandemic, medical professionals and disease experts used the term "masks" for "surgical masks" or sometimes "N95 respirators." My wife has to go to a cancer care center for her annual mammogram. She hates driving downtown, so I always go with her. So I saw lots and lots of immunosuppressed people wearing surgical masks or respirators before COVID.
The early guidance was "don't wear mask," driven by two things. First, the evidence, based on use in hospital settings, was that these kinds of masks have to be properly fitted to be effective. Second, health care workers needed them, and we were desperately short of them. Discussions about cloth face masks arose when hospitals were running out of proper PPE and the CDC suggested wearing a cloth face covering as a last resort because, why not?
At that point, folks in the U.S. began to ask "if cloth face masks are good enough for doctors, why aren't they good enough for the rest of us?" It was a good question, but there was no science on the effectiveness of cloth face masks. This was in the early days when everyone was trying to figure out exactly how this sucker transmits. In particular, what role did contamination of surfaces play. The thing about the use of masks in health care settings is that the health care providers change them between every patient. They dispose of them after every use to prevent the outer surface of the mask from becoming a source of transmission. But if I run out to do six errands in my non-disposable cloth face covering, The outer surface of the covering can accumulate virus and become an additional source of transmission. That was one original concern, and it was scientifically legitimate. The other was the potential for people feeling false security because they were wearing a face covering. So, there were potential tradeoffs, and there was no scientific data on whether wearing cloth face coverings would reduce vs. increase the spread. So, there are important reasons why we couldn't just apply the effects of wearing surgical masks or respirators on a relatively small portion of the population and having the entire population wear cloth face coverings.
Now we have studies and data. And, while there is some evidence that wearing a cloth face covering provides some benefit to the wearer, the evidence is that the primary benefit of wearing CFC's comes, not in keeping the virus out, but in keeping the virus in. But the benefits come with a few conditions. First, you need to wear a CFC properly -- it needs to cover your mouth and nose. Second, the CFC has to cover your face with as few opening or loose areas as possible -- it needs to fit as snugly as possible. Third, while you are wearing your CFC, you need to assume that it is covered with virus and handle it accordingly. If you find yourself having to touch the CFC to adjust it, find a new one. Once you put it on, you should handle it only by the straps that go around the ears or the back of the head.
And for the love of God do not wear a mask with a valve. Again the primary benefit of the mask is keeping your nasty little droplets from infecting others. If you wear a mask with a valve, you're just a whale with a blowhole. Every time you cough or sneeze or even talk loudly, that valve is a little geyer of droplets and aerosols. When I see someone wearing one of those things, I make sure I stay as far away as I can.
In a perfect world, we'd have unlimited surgical masks and could change them often when we are out and about. The good news is that proper wearing of cloth face coverings can help slow the transmission of this sucker down to the point that we could, if we had the will, we could confine this thing to occasional, small outbreaks until we get an effective vaccine in use.
