In late May, a couple hairstylists in Missouri tested COVID-19 positive. It was believed that they could have potentially infected over 100 clients. I responded to Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding (who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the virus) that I thought it would be interesting to see how useful face masks were.
Since face coverings were used, it'll be interesting to find out how many got infected.— EquivalencyAxis (@EquivalencyAxis) May 25, 2020
After three weeks from that tweet, the LA Times (Jun 12) reported:
In one Missouri salon, no customers became infected with the virus despite two hairstylists being sick — and scientists believe it was because they were wearing face masks. And many countries where masking is socially routine, including Japan, have not seen an out-of-control national epidemic.
Now when I get a haircut, the barber and I are seldom face to face so perhaps that played a role in the results, but one has to believe that face masks were also useful.
I'm not a scientist, but a finding like this makes it sound rather persuasive to me (up until I read a report that counters the result).
This is why I think the rest of the LA Times article is rather depressing:
The potency of mask politics became clear this week in Orange County, where the health officer resigned after weeks of attacks — and a death threat — over her mandatory mask rules. Her replacement on Thursday rescinded the rules amid intense pressure from the Board of Supervisors.
Instead, Orange County “strongly recommends” wearing masks in public settings, and the county’s top health official was left to explain the change even while acknowledging face coverings could prevent more deaths.
. . . Of California’s 15 most populous counties, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo require mask wearing in public, while Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Fresno, Kern, Ventura and San Joaquin do not.
. . . Experts rejected the unfounded charge expressed by opponents of mandatory masks that face coverings pose a danger to people’s oxygen levels. “No, there’s nothing to that. There’s all sorts of conspiracy theories about low oxygen and high CO2 levels,” said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious diseases expert at UCLA. “It’s really not an issue.”
Why are people so opposed to wearing masks? I will give the anti-mask wearing crowd one point. I don't know about the high CO2 levels argument, but I'll go with the conspiracy theories about low oxygen levels. I'm going to challenge Dr. Otto Yang here. When I've gone out to do my exercising and hit the hills around my neighborhood, there are times when I feel like I'm going to faint from a lack of oxygen. Now these are the same hills I've been walking up for years so yes, wearing masks does limit oxygen. I think to argue otherwise is the definition of stupidity, but I really can't believe that wearing a mask at a Vons or Target should result in such an inconvenience to your ability to breath properly. Those are low strenuous activities (or at least should be for a relatively healthy individual).
And Bloomberg reports on an interesting study coming out from Germany regarding masks:
Masks can reduce the growth rate of coronavirus infections by 40%, according to researchers who studied the experience of places in Germany that promoted their use.
After the city of Jena became an early adopter of masks in public transport and shops on April 6, new infections in the municipality of 108,000 almost disappeared. Most of the surrounding state of Thuringia and elsewhere in Germany only adopted mask policies days or weeks later and the outbreak in many of those areas continued to spread, according to a paper from the Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn.
What I'm going to find interesting is if any spikes result from the George Floyd protests. While watching the local news and social media surrounding the Los Angeles protests, it really looked to me that 90% of the protesters were wearing masks. Meanwhile, in Texas, it looked to me that far fewer people were wearing masks. As with the hairstylists situation in Missouri, it'll be interesting if any comparisons can be made between outbreaks in Texas versus Los Angeles that can be traced back to the protests.
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