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Comment by stolenmerch | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure you can just casually tack on "and the lack of masking". Massachusetts does NOT have a mask mandate and Louisiana DOES - for everyone regardless of vaccination. [1] Mass. has a 1+ vaccination rate of ~75% whereas Louisiana has a rate of ~48%.[2] We can talk about actual mask compliance all day but I'm putting my money on vaccines being the life saver here.

[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/these-are-t...

[2] https://covidactnow.org/?s=22131139

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The new strains seem to be no more lethal, but more contagious, possibly so contagious they may be able to spread in a population that is fully vaccinated and which is practicing social distancing. People who are vaccinated are unlikely to get sick so vaccination is overwhelmingly the most relevant public health intervention at this point in places where it's already endemic.

It's not mask mandates that matter. It's mask wearing.

Exactly what I meant by "mask compliance". It's tough to measure and can only be done through self-reporting.

Respirator wearing is the only thing that works. Masks not at all for aerosol size particles.

Some percentage of particles are going get stuck in the mask fibers, thereby lowering the viral dose you get. There is no way it doesn’t help at least some, the question might just be how much.

Masks can't be sealed and all the studies that say they are somewhat effective use mannequins with perfect seals. Real world data from Florida shows schools with and without mandates had the same rates of infection which mirrored the general communities.

Stephen Petty, one of the top industrial hygienist in the world does an excellent job of covering all aspects of this: https://rumble.com/c/PettyPodcasts

> Masks can't be sealed and all the studies that say they are somewhat effective use mannequins with perfect seals.

That's not true. Here is a lit review that shows you multiple avenues of evidence that show masks are effective: http://files.fast.ai/papers/masks_lit_review.pdf

> Real world data from Florida shows schools with and without mandates had the same rates of infection which mirrored the general communities.

Again, mask wearing is effective. Mask mandates may not be. There is a difference, and the difference is compliance. If people don't actually wear masks, that's not evidence that masks don't work.

http://files.fast.ai/papers/masks_lit_review.pdf

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