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Comment by SketchySeaBeast | Hacker News Reader

A pessimist might consider that more of an attempt to hide a problem than to prevent one, especially considering that many of the medical staff probably will only be using some precautions instead of all of them.

My wife who works in the medical field and performs thirty minute to an hour long exams within a foot or two of a patient has been told that because she and the patient are both wearing surgical masks she doesn't have to self isolated if it's revealed the patient had COVID. I don't feel that's an actual representation of the reality, but instead a desire to minimize her downtime.

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AFAIK, N95 and disposable gear are definitely enough - I'm going for my 3rd dental checkup since Covid tomorrow, and last I asked they had no infection in the clinic. But they're properly paranoid.

Surgical masks in a closed room... I'm skeptical.

My SO is a DDS and has been back to practicing for over 3 months now. Her office has had no infections. My guess is the enhanced pre-screening, the closed wait area, no non-patients allowed, and all of the additional requirements of PPE have contributed very positively to keeping that infection potential suppressed. Staff have been tested a number of time due to concerns but they are strictly following the outlined protocol and have some enhanced requirements the owners have instituted to help keep it that way. This is in the US.

DDS? It's that something obvious in the US because it's not familiar to me. Dental something?

Yes, it's one of the two equivalent degree/title abbreviations for dentists here (and some other places).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_degree#DDS_vs_DMD_degre...

Doctor of Dental Surgery.

Not trying to jump on you, I recognize you're carrying on with your life and that's more than many can say, but is it really proper to be, "paranoid", opposed to taking reasonable precautions and moving forward based on a fair assessment of cost and benefit? This article and many comments paint police or medical personnel not self-isolating as if its a problem for which they should be ashamed. My wife is one of those working directly with Covid patients. Of course wearing a soaking wet mask in a closed room is skeptically effective. Sure when she suits up with real PPE it's effective, but that takes a lot of time she doesn't have, not to mention creates a ton of garbage. So if a patient isn't a known case, they don't bother. And the fact our whole family has the antibodies aside, of course she doesn't self-isolate when one of her patients is Covid positive. That would be absurd. Nobody else would be able to do her job. We need doctors, police officers, teachers, etc to carry on. We need to stop trying to shame them. These exceptions, like those pertaining to, "safe" lead levels in drinking water, are born of practicality. I wish people would try to think about Covid more pragmatically instead of dignifying paranoia as if it doesn't present a cost. Fact is - "Flatten the curve" means the same number of people will inevitably get Covid. Look, I know shaming each other is REALLY appealing but... We should probably start trying to weigh that universally recognized epidemiological fact against the perceived benefit of requiring public servants to self isolate, depriving children of an education, plunging millions into economic depression, or whatever.

Not sure what you mean as it was a bit of a long comment, but "taking reasonable precautions and moving forward based on a fair assessment of cost and benefit" is pretty much what I think that dental offices are doing. Why? Aerosols. Half of what they're doing is blowing saliva particles in a close space. Surgical mask is just not enough in this scenario. How far you go it's debatable - probably N95 and face shields are a minimum.

But that's just a rather isolated niche. As far as the rest of society goes, I'm pretty ok with masks and basic distancing.

> "Flatten the curve" means the same number of people will inevitably get Covid.

I think flatten the curve is for numer of confirmed cases, not daily confirmed. That means if the curve has flattened then it's 0 new case.

Flatten the curve means new infections, not total cases. Its primary purpose is to slow the rate of spread to avoid health services becoming overwhelmed.

See the graph at https://flattenthecurve.co.uk/ for an example.

You could pursue an elimination strategy after flattening the curve, but generally the approach has been slow things down and keep them manageable until a vaccine is available.

Oh well so I have interpreted things wrong after all this time. Though sadly we still don't know if immunity can be achieved against covid19 and flattened curve can do the work.

This website is mostly wrong. It tells you 3.4% CFR for COVID-19 against 0.1% IFR of the common flu. Apples vs oranges. Flu mortality rates are mostly the same worldwide, this year's flu season was not much different to others. Higher in areas with no proper healthcare for seniors, lower in most other countries.

Flattening the curve means keeping R low, whilst raising the overall mortality, because the time of the wave is artificially enlarged. You keep the virus alife, esp. by closing the schools. The area under the wave is much larger with the flattening the curve strategy, even after several months it's not over yet. A normal wave is over after max 2 months. Politicians rely on people who cannot do the simplest math.

> Surgical masks in a closed room

That's what my dentist was wearing. :-) I'm still alive.

Surgical masks are apparently all that's required for a closed room with close proximity and a long duration according to the AHS (our local health authority). I am extraordinarily skeptical this will work in the long term as case rates rise (here in Alberta our numbers have been much lower than the US or UK).

Surgical masks aren't good enough in this situation. Around Covid you need N95.

My partner works directly with Covid positive patients. N95 mask (for staff and patient), full face shield, gloves, alcohol and that is about as good as it gets here. Since extra precautions were implemented I haven't heard of staff getting sick - there were a few cases when it all started.

The clinic has not issued any further restrictions on the personal lives of staff.

An N95 is far more effective than a surgical mask.

Only to prevent yourself from contracting it, worse for preventing transmission to others.

Surgical mask makes far more sense.

That's not really relevant to the point/counterpoint I was replying to, which was to do with personal risk. But I'm not sure it's true anyway; you can't transmit the virus to others if you're not infected! If everyone wore only N95s, transmission would certainly be lower than if everyone wore only surgical masks.

However, if it bothers you that much, you can wear a surgical mask over the N95. That's the best of both worlds, and strictly better than either option alone.

(All of this assumes valved N95s. Unvalved ones are more effective in both directions than surgical masks)

Yeah, all that would give a sense of security. As I said previously - it's gloves for the tech (not full length, just the usual nitrile ones), which were always standard, and a surgical mask for the tech and patient. No face shield or N95.

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