Hacker News Reader

Comment by dumbfounder | Hacker News Reader

Great website, I just have one suggestion. Before the message to wear a mask have in big red letters: "DO NOT GO OUT IN PUBLIC UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! No mask is more effective than simply not being around other people. BUT, if you absolutely must go out..."

View on HN

Most of us on HN are well off and have the opportunity to WFH. Things aren't the same for the rest of the general public. All of those essential workers risking their necks for us should have access to masks.

Here is what the rest of the general public is also doing: “I also see people congregating on the beach that are completely ignoring what we’re doing,“ he said, “and I will remind these folks: You are being very very selfish because you are putting all of us, including our health care providers, at risk.”

from: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/maryland-shelter-in...

People are still going out and doing things around and with other people. And they shouldn't be, even with a mask.

To echo this, wearing a surgical mask consistently will maybe decrease your odds of getting Covid-19 by a factor of 3. That isn't the same as being immune so don't take unnecessary risks.

Yet, all we need to stop this is a couple 3x reductions in spread. Staying home is one path. Wearing masks another. We must not take risks, but we should all do what we can.

No, it's a reduction by a factor of 1000 or more. Doctors use them around infected patients and doctors aren't dropping dead like flies.

Most non-doctors aren't wearing eye protection and are probably worse at things like not touching their faces than medical professionals are. This is coming out of a WHO study from Beijingers during the original SARS outbreak who either surgical or N95 masks regularly. For untrained users it seemed that N95 masks were roughly equally as effective as surgical masks or possibly it is all about the droplet spread.

And also, lots of doctors and nurses are coming down with Covid-19 right now despite being careful about their use of PPE.

EDIT: When people first started talking about surgical masks versus N95 respirators one study that came up was this one[1] from Ontario which showed that a bit over 20% of nurses using either of them got infected with influenza over the course of a flu season. Infections happen unless extreme care is taken as with things like Ebola.

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/184819

With Covid-19 they are. One in Italy; 9 in the Phillippines; two in America; several in China. This is not normal.

Those cases cannot be conclusively linked to a failure of the masks to filter. Ergo, I'm not wrong yet.

That's not science; that's arguing to a point.

Presumably, these doctors didn't die during last year's flu epidemic. Nor during the previous years or decades of their practice. So something is different this year. Something they normally do to protect themselves, that isn't working this year.

Hm, they use hand washing, gowns, gloves, masks. Which one, do you think?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com