Yes I wear a mask when required. I wore one for a large part of today as I spent several hours at the mall and then time at the grocery store.
A Norwegian meta study of existing mask studies placed the effectiveness of reducing transmission at around 6%, far from the 30% touted by the NPR graphic. If the NPR were to redo the graphic with 5x less effectiveness what would it look like?
To voluntarily wear a mask at all times I would need to see a 50% or more reduction in transmission before I felt it was worth it to me.
Wow. Well, thanks for wearing one when required, at least.
That's what bothers me. You wear your mask to make it
worth it for me, but I guess, I read you loud and clear.
Not that anything I'm going to say will sway you, but here are a few statements. I'll keep my eye out on the new studies that meet your approval and let you know.
In an interview with
JAMA on 14 July 2020, CDC director
Robert R. Redfield said that "The data is clearly there that masking works. [...] Masking is not a political issue. It is a public health issue. It really is a personal responsibility for all of us."
[81]
A report from the
United States Department of Health and Human Services found that 139 clients exposed to two symptomatic hair stylists with confirmed COVID-19—with both the clients and stylists wearing face coverings—resulted in no symptomatic cases reported among all clients and no positive tests among those who volunteered to be tested.
[104] This case was highlighted when the CDC reiterated that Americans should wear masks.
[105]
A recent study published in
Health Affairs, for example, compared the COVID-19 growth rate before and after mask mandates in 15 states and the District of Columbia. It found that mask mandates led to a slowdown in daily COVID-19 growth rate, which became more apparent over time. The first five days after a mandate, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9 percentage-points compared to the five days prior to the mandate; at three weeks, the daily growth rate had slowed by 2 percentage-points.
Another study looked at coronavirus deaths across 198 countries and found that those with cultural norms or government policies favoring mask-wearing had lower death rates.
Two compelling case reports also suggest that masks can prevent transmission in high-risk scenarios, said Chin-Hong and Rutherford. In one case,
a man flew from China to Toronto and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. He had a dry cough and wore a mask on the flight, and all 25 people closest to him on the flight tested negative for COVID-19. In another case, in late May,
two hair stylists in Missouri had close contact with 140 clients while sick with COVID-19. Everyone wore a mask and none of the clients tested positive.
