Wearing mask might just delay getting the infection. I wore mask all the time, wfh and go out only for groceries, still got infected. And when the CM gets Covid a second time after vaccination anyone can get it even with mask or vaccination.
And that ton of money may not be worth it if you're young enough, and lucky.
I used 3 kinds so far, one was KN95 and just not sealing at all. Probably not much better than a typical "surgical mask", maybe even worse.
Other was marked "FFP3", but without a certification that I could find independently. Much better seal with memory foam around nose, and an ear bands that can be connected behind your had. That one at least felt useful. ;)
The last one is the most expensive so far, with an independently verifiable "FFP3" certificate, and a rubber lining for better seal with a proper headband. That one should be the best on paper. I have not used it yet.
Anyway, if you look at independent tests of random protection equipment that's sold on the market and people buy, sometimes it doesn't even meet the stated specs. That's not encouraging either.
I find navigating all this kinda tough, especially with some sellers proudly showing certificates which are obviously for something else than what they're selling, or blurring some information on the certificate, sometimes including the model information, lol.
(That is for the use case of actually protecting yourself from airborne particles in risky situations, not just "your mask, my mask" thing sibling posters write about)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-si...
The government, the lax attitude of the public and inconsistent messaging has lead to this situation. It is heart breaking to see so many lives lost needlessly where something as simple as wearing a mask effectively could have averted this disaster.
And if you’ve had it or been vaccinated?
An unvaccinated health care worker set off a Covid-19 outbreak at a nursing home in Kentucky where the vast majority of residents had been vaccinated, leading to dozens of infections, including 22 cases among residents and employees who were already fully vaccinated, a new study reported Wednesday.
Most of those who were infected with the coronavirus despite being vaccinated did not develop symptoms or require hospitalization, but one vaccinated individual, who was a resident of the nursing home, died, according to the study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/health/vaccine-nursing-ho...
I am certain most of the world population can get covid and recover, but that is no justification to allow it to spread uncontained and cause so many preventable deaths.
It's also far easier to establish (and verify) a "masks requried" policy (visual inspecition is sufficient) than a "masks or fully-completed vaccination schedule required" one.
The ultimate goal isn't protecting individual health but public health, and here, social measures including distancing, quarantine, masks, sanitation (though perhaps less so than first thought), etc., all reduce the probability of transmission through the population at large.
We're used to thinking of individual health. Public health is related, but is not the same thing. Logics and measures that are appropriate or sensible in the case of individual health may not be for public health. (And vice versa.)
Public health is an emergent phenomenon of individual health.
The only exception to this is vaccinations. They may give you immunity without being infected. (They are not without risk though.)
Still requires that vaccines are available though, which is not a given worldwide yet.
Perhaps @dang can verify it, But I don't want to impose as moderating HN is extraordinarily hard job as it is.
Update: Speaking of comment history, I just took a quick but good look at the history of user lolthishuman, the user who tried to troll me above, to analyze why anyone would do such dumb cheap shit.
As expected from someone with such silly comments (to me) and such a giveaway (to their mentality) losername, many of their previous comments on other threads were downvoted, and some heavily. That is very telling ... The most charitable assessment is that they probably don't have a good or maybe even any semblance of a life, outside of forums where they troll, anonymously, and weakly, at that.