The study I mentioned earlier was in the journal, The Physics of Fluids. Mask wearers within 4 ft can still pass covid 19 and SD remains the best defense.
They help for sure but nothing is better than distancing according to Dr Fauci and many others.
Some good news out of NY.
New York hospitals can now allow visitors, governor says
CNN
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said hospitals across the state can now allow visitors as coronavirus numbers continue to improve.
“The numbers look very good,” he said at a news conference. “We’re going to allow hospitals to accept visitors at their discretion.”
Cuomo said that if a hospital chooses to allow visitors, those guests must follow state guidelines, including wearing personal protective equipment and being subject to symptom checks. The visits may be time-limited.
Cuomo also added that group homes can allow visitors starting on Friday, if they follow similar guidelines.
US Open will be held in New York City without fans, governor says
CNN
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that the US Open tennis tournament will be held in Queens from August 31 to September 13.
He said the event will be held without fans, but it will be televised.
That was odd to me and I saw through the ‘masks don’t work’ right away. The CDC site had extensive info for medical providers at the same time that was all focused on N95s and surgical masks. But there were other things I found strange.
And none of this was partisan. It didn’t matter if the paper was left or right or middle. They were reporting these topics the same way from what I could see.
I just wondered how stupid they think the public is. If you read the comment section on articles or twitter comments to public figures saying these things, quite a good % of people never believed the ‘masks don’t work’ and would post sarcastic comments like, ‘yeah, masks don’t work on regular people, only on doctors.’
I don’t think the powers that be that decided to put out the idea that masks don’t work had even considered cloth masks.
I look at what so many people around this country and the world have done with mask making in such a short time. had people been given the heads up sooner or support to try to come up with better homemade masks, I think we could have slowed the spread even more. there are masks I have seen that make a good seal and are made of Halyard or other material that is good at filtering. Those have to be more effective than masks that are, say, crochet with big holes in them (such things actually exist) to give an extreme example.
There were other strange things, too.
The airborne and person to person spread was reported in China in January but not discovered or recognized here to the public until much later.
Oh, and the big focus on surfaces over air and that we need to not touch our face and leave N95 etc to doctors also seemed strange to me. And also the throwing out the idea that surfaces can cause spread. Of course surfaces can still cause spread even if a small %. I think maybe that is being very downplayed because it is a lot less likely to cause spread but maybe also as a way to encourage people to get the economy going again? I don’t know.
In general I think the mainstream news is trustworthy (but has bias), but these things felt like a big media/govt joint messaging to sway the American public to not panic, not buy up medical masks to worsen the existing shortage, and more. Strange stuff.
Wasn’t just Fauci, Brix, etc. (not including Pence, since he’s not a ‘scientist’, and as such wasn’t believed by most here) saying we didn’t need them.
The media pushed no end of stories of masks not protecting the front-line healthcare professionals - they were still coming down with it. Not only was a mask not going to help, the covid was going to get you unless you were living in a diving bell.
Science evolves, unlike opinions and biases.
At least 18 US states report upward trend in coronavirus cases
From CNN’s Madeline Holcombe
The United States could see more than 200,000 deaths from Covid-19 by October 1, a closely watched model predicted Monday as states continue to reopen.
Though many states are seeing improved conditions, the pandemic has not yet reached its conclusion. The projection comes as 18 states are still seeing an upward trend in new cases.
“Increased mobility and premature relaxation of social distancing led to more infections, and we see it in Florida, Arizona, and other states,” said Ali Mokdad, one of the creators of the model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. “This means more projected deaths.”
Although daily death rates are expected to drop in June and July, the model forecasts a second hike in deaths through September, culminating in 201,129 by October 1. The model’s certainty decreases the further out in time it projects.
Projections such as the one from the IHME, as well as metrics on infections and hospitalizations, are important as states decide how to proceed. Looking at the infection rates currently, Dr. Anthony Fauci told British newspaper The Telegraph, it will likely be months before life can return to normal again.
How US states are trending:
18 states trending upward in newly reported cases from one week to the next: California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alaska and Hawaii.
10 states are seeing steady numbers of newly reported cases: Washington, Utah, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Maine and Rhode Island.
22 states with a downward trend: Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Delaware.
I’m sure this was mentioned elsewhere on CC but since I don’t follow all the Covid threads:
Harvard drops standardized test requirement for admission to class of 2025
From CNN’s Laura Ly
Harvard is dropping its standardized testing requirement for applicants to the undergraduate class of 2025 due to challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has created insurmountable challenges in scheduling tests for all students, particularly those from modest economic backgrounds, and we believe this temporary change addresses these challenges,” a statement on the college’s website reads.
The school also said that students who are limited in the activities they can participate in, and students who are only able to present pass/fail grades for the spring semester due to the pandemic will not be disadvantaged in the application process.
Some background: Throughout the pandemic, an increasing number of universities have announced they are dropping the SAT and ACT requirement for fall 2021 admissions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last month, the University of California announced it is suspending ACT and SAT tests as an admissions requirement until 2024.
Most UCLA classes will be online this fall
From CNN’s Stella Chan
Only 15 to 20% of fall classes at the University of California Los Angeles will be offered on-site or in a hybrid format, the university announced Monday.
The courses include those that would be difficult to offer remotely including labs, performing arts and clinical health classes. The majority of classes will be online only.
Here are other changes the school is making:
The residence halls will house a limited number of students, and some rooms will be designated for quarantine.
The university will aim to offer housing to as many first-year students as feasible; some of these offers will be determined by lottery.
Physical distancing, “de-densifying classrooms and other spaces,” and frequent cleaning of facilities are among infection-control procedures.
Face coverings are recommended while on campus.
Daily symptom checks will be required for everyone coming to campus or living in campus housing.
Testing and contact-tracing protocols for Covid-19 will also be in place.
“The health of our students, staff, and faculty is of paramount importance and guides our planning process,” Emily Carter, the university’s executive vice chancellor and provost, said in a release. “As previously announced, the UCLA COVID-19 Future Planning Task Force has been hard at work, identifying options and recommendations for the fall. I appreciate their thoughtful work, the options they presented, and their recommendations.”
There is also this supposed tweet from someone high up in the CDC. It could be fake and it was talked about here and dismissed but it sounds plausible. Some news station got a supposed screen shot of it. In it the doctor is writing to her friend and says back in maybe mid-february that the pandemic is coming and they are just trying to keep the public from panicking. She tells him to stock up on supplies and get masks–n95s and wear them in public in one version I saw but maybe not in another version. The man’s son supposedly sees the text and made it public. The radio station claims they asked this CDC doctor about it and instead of either ignoring the question or denying it, she (the doctor) blocked them. maybe none of that really is true but it seems like something that could have been. Surely but mid-february the CDC was well aware we were in big trouble. I can imagine someone working there warning a very, very close friend.
Pay walled but the WSJ had a piece today as to the efficacy of the lock-downs and why it’s unlikely they’ll be repeated on any great scale. A couple of quotes:
The Chicago study came out in early March and was predicated on the Imperial College predictions made by Niall Ferguson… ouch.
The article references three more recent studies, from UC Berkely, Germany’s IZA Institute of Labor Economics, and one from MIT.
Along with finding that social distancing reduced spread by an estimated 50%, they found that the ‘harsher shelter-in-place’ measures only contributed another 5% reduction in spread.
And, with a better understanding of exactly who’s dying from Covid-19, they reanalyzed the benefits (costs, really) of the policy path we went down.
It was remarked here - numerous times - that a cure worse than the disease turns out to be an additional burden on top of one you neither wanted nor asked for.
Since we’ve tried one, and are still going to suffer the other, I’d say it was true.
Making the COVID-19 Pandemic Marginally Worse, Airlines Are Banning Alcohol
Plus, quarantine baking is losing heat, and more news to start your day
by Jaya Saxena Jun 16, 2020, 10:55am EDT, EATER
We knew that the new coronavirus pandemic would fundamentally change the way we travel for a while, but this is a bummer. A number of airlines, including KLM, Delta and American Airlines are suspending part or all of their alcohol services, in order to minimize the number of interactions between crew and passengers.
Some airlines are limiting drink service to water only, according to CNN, or to water and soft drinks. Delta will be removing alcohol from its domestic flights, though it will still be available on international flights. According to Virgin Airlines, the decision to suspend alcohol service was among the changes made to “ensure the health and safety of our customers and our people,” though it’s unclear how serving someone alcohol is riskier than serving them water. Maybe it’s just another reason to hold off on air travel for the time being, if you can.
@suzyQ7 Coming back to say I wrote my reply to you after having only read your post, not the other replies that came before my reply to yours. I wasn’t making a comment on people here when I posted. I respect people saying that they dismissed masks at first.
Interesting. And yet another similarity with that movie Contagion as life imitates art!!
That is something I wonder. I have heard it claimed but I think it depends on the mask. I could be wrong but I read that surgical masks give 80% protection compared to N95’s 95%. I read that cloth masks have a very large range from 20% to pretty high.
The Suay Sew Shop surgical masks are made with some type of Halyard cloth (what is used in N95) but not the same Halyard number as N95s and surgical masks. Those are made from Halyard 600. Halyard comes in 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600. 100 is supposed to filter at 90% or a bit higher compared to 95% for the 600. Their masks make a good seal on me. I don’t have my glasses fog up when I wear them. Water doesn’t pass through. I can’t smell a lit match/smoke after I put the match out when I wear it. I also find that the smell of essential oil is very faint when I have it on, much less than with other cloth masks. For these reasons, I suspect it works better than a surgical mask–somewhere between 80-92% compared to 95% for N95, but that might not be true.
There is this other mask that looks good to me. 02Canada. If it is what I think, I think it might be a reusable, hardshell mask that is as close to the level of N95 possible, maybe at that same level. that is, if the wearer has a really good seal when wearing it
I wonder about those two hair dressers who were sick and don’t seem to have passed it to their customers because they and the customers wore masks. Must have been within 4 feet so I think that masks must help. I do think that it can still pass in lots of situations and agree that SD is the best defense. Hard to always maintain, though.
Regarding this, do you think the hairdressers had a new policy of less conversation than usual? Typically hairdressers/clients are a chatty bunch (at least in my salon) and the talking has to be projected over the background noise. I’m wondering if with no blow-drying permitted, and perhaps new guidelines, that was different.
I’m primarily wondering because as a teacher, projected talking is required, but the efficacy of masks would be crucial to know.
I think it depends on what the mask is made up. Some are made of material that filters better than others, is a tighter weave, has electrostatic some such something (which I don’t quite get why works but is supposed to help), etc. Some have filter pockets. We know blue shop cloth, for example, works better as a filter than some other material. someone made a mask out of only shop cloth and tested it and found it filtered about 80% of particles, which I understand is about the same level as a surgical mask, if correct. Maybe I’m remembering the % it filters wrong, but it filtered a lot better than a lot of other materials. I think there is a huge range in how well they work.
We know we are lacking in good efficacy data for cloth masks.
It would seem to be a good idea for anyone who is in an at-risk group for covid-19 to speak with their physician about what type of mask they should be using so they can ensure they are being protected to the extent they need to be, rather than just protecting others.
I am no expert, but this is what I’ve read…One layer of fabric would let very small particle to go through if someone were to cough/sneeze directly at you, but if you have 2 layers of fabric, unless the fabrics are perfectly layered on top of each other then it would be twice as hard for droplets to get to you. Better yet, if the person who is coughing or sneezing is wearing a mask then you could get even better protection. Is it 100% protection? No, but it would cut down your chance of getting the virus? Yes. It is kind of like wearing a seat belt. Would it 100% protect you if you were to get a head on high speed collision? Probably not. But would it protect you at a low impact side collision? Probably yes.
Oh, I haven’t seen that yet.
Just to clarify - group homes does not mean nursing homes. Those cannot have visitors yet. They will be studying the numbers first in the hospitals/group homes before determining if visitors to nursing homes is safe.
I think it’s required watching for this pandemic. 