oski

Yesterday, the White House stated that they are about to issue revised guidelines around masks likely today or tomorrow. They are likely to advise people to wear cloth masks.

At this point, I don't think anyone is really arguing that "masks don't work." Dr. Birx is worried that people will see masks as a substitute for other measures like social distancing, hand washing, and avoiding touching your face.

There is a growing "grassroots" movement advocating that everyone wear homemade masks -- #masks4all

Makes sense not to wait for the CDC on this on. Every day makes a huge difference.

See https://shouldiwearafacemask.com for a summary.

> as a healthy person does wearing a mask has any effect?

This all depends on the type of mask and how tightly it fits against one's face.

A mask made from cotton has been shown to be ~70% effective at filtering a virus from droplets in the air: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_t...

If you know any healthcare workers (doctors or nurses), have them checkout https://www.n95decon.org/ to follow the latest on sterilizing face masks.

N95 masks should be reserved for HCWs as there is a major shortage. Most people should just wear nonmedical fabric or homemade masks, but everyone should wear some kind of mask when out and near other people. See https://shouldiwearafacemask.com

Singapore and much of Southeast Asia learned their lesson with SARS, so they have been prepared for a long time. Temperature tracking has not been uncommon in those areas prior to COVID-19. They understand the importance of monitoring and early action.

This is the premise of the Amazon Go stores, walk-in, grab-stuff, walk-out. No checkout. All ML based video surveillance. They probably use the same underlying technology.

Yes!!! :) I miss that Bill Gates borg image: https://lurkertech.com/bill-the-borg/

The “false sense of security” I refer to is for employees who go to work and get their temperature checked and think they are fine since they don’t have a fever.

This is a “false sense of security” because one can have the virus and be contagious without a fever or any symptoms at all.

Edited. Thanks for the feedback. I used $AMZN to abbreviate it, but I can see how it is distracting.

Yes! You can be contagious without showing any symptoms (asymptomatic transmission). Recent data shows that up to 25% of people who have it are asymptomatic!

Just have employees sign a waiver.

Everyone who is still working to provide essential services should be wearing masks.

There is a major shortage of PPE, so non-healthcare workers should be wearing nonmedical fabric masks or homemade masks. https://shouldiwearafacemask.com for a full explanation with the science.

The link you posted is commercial (selling air filters), better to link to the original study from which this is based:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_t...

Masks can be made from cotton fabric and still be quite (~70% effective) (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_t...).

You can improvise a mask from paper towel and tissues that is ~90% effective (https://www.bkreader.com/2020/03/07/heres-a-diy-way-to-make-...)

TL;DR: starting next week, Amazon will start:

1) taking temperatures of employees, fever >100.4°F to be sent home for min 3 days

2) giving surgical masks to employees once it receives shipments of orders of “millions”

3) using machine learning-powered video software to monitor social distancing

(Shameless plug for a little site I made to help spread the word that we need #masks4all: https://shouldiwearafacemask.com)

I agree in general with one change:

s/surgical masks/nonmedical fabric or homemade masks/

At this point there is a shortage of PPE for healthcare workers, so the general public should wear nonmedical fabric masks or homemade masks.

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

Thanks, I designed it to share with friends and family! Please feel free to share it (https://shouldiwearafacemask.com) widely.

My point isn’t that taking temperature checks needs to be perfect, but that they are focusing their intervention on symptomatic spreading rather than asymptomatic spreading.

They would benefit more with immediate action by giving employees nonmedical fabric masks and making them mandatory TODAY rather than waiting for surgical masks next week.

This response from Amazon is better than nothing, but given that recent figures show that up to 25% of people may be asymptomatic, might these temperature checks give people a false sense of security? They should have any employee with _any_ symptoms stay home and self-quarantine for longer than 3 days.

They should really focus on getting face masks for employees faster by using nonmedical fabric masks, which can help prevent asymptomatic transmission by blocking respiratory droplets from spreading. The article says the surgical masks won't arrive until next week. And they should really be using some alternative fabric mask, rather than surgical masks which should go to healthcare workers.

Each day that interventions are delayed makes a huge difference.

More thoughts at https://shouldiwearafacemask.com

(Edited to remove suggestion to close until they get masks with a compromise to use nonmedical fabric masks.)

Cloth can still provide some protection. A mask made from a cotton blend t-shirt can be ~70% effective at filtering a virus from droplets in the air. (See this study: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_t...)

I've made this "single-serving site" to share with friends and family who aren't convinced yet: https://shouldiwearafacemask.com/

Check out application.security for a great interactive demo of the capital one breach

While meditation in general tends to help one manage pain/discomfort, the Wim Hof method deals specifically with coping with cold temperatures.

In researching what we can do about climate change, the most convincing proposed policy solution I've seen comes from the Citizen's Climate Lobby -- a Carbon Fee and Dividend (https://citizensclimatelobby.org/basics-carbon-fee-dividend/), which I learned about while reading "Being the Change" by Dr. Peter Kalmus.

Basically, it's a plan for a carbon tax along with a rebate program (similar to UBI in my opinion) so that the least well off financially don't get crushed by things like higher gas prices.

“The Mindful Geek” by Michael Taft is great for someone with a programming background. I think you can download it for free from his website.

Which kind of earplugs did you settle on?

Awesome. This looks great and I just purchased a copy. However, many of the chapters are listed as "under development." When can we expect them to be finalized and released?

those numbers are facebook user ids

I emailed customer support and got this email back:

<quote> Thank you for contacting O'Reilly Media Customer Service. Today we had a very heavy volume of orders due to our "ebook deal of the day" promotion. This is affecting the delivery and accessing of electronic media. We have verified that your ebooks are in your account. Please be patient and keep checking your account. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. </quote>

I still haven't been able to download my ebooks yet though.

measureit

The final version of the guide is here: http://www.evanmiller.org/nginx-modules-guide.html