The Surgeon General is correct. Masks are for the sick.

They said masks aren’t effective at stopping people getting sick. That’s misinformation. If they weren’t effective at reducing infection healthcare workers wouldn’t wear them.

Saying there aren’t enough for healthcare workers isn’t. Save respirators and surgical masks for healthcare workers. Wear a mask if you’re going outside even if it’s just a tshirt covering your face.

>If they weren’t effective at reducing infection healthcare workers wouldn’t wear them

Yes, they would. The healthcare worker may already be sick, and are regularly closely interacting with people that have compromised immune systems. An illness that wouldn't slow down a nurse may kill a patient.

If we agree that masks slow the spread of disease from and to wearers then we are in clear disagreement with the Surgeon General. Masks work and the general populace should be encouraged to wear makeshift masks until such time as there are enough surgical masks for everybody or the crisis is over.

We don't agree. Masks would only help in the event that someone coughed/sneezed directly on your face but missed the eyes. Even then, removing the mask and washing your face without contamination would be difficult.

Makeshift masks don't necessarily even help in that situation, become a liability when contaminated, and putting it on then removing it causes additional risk.

This is why that someone also needs to wear a mask.

Don't worry, people aren't morons and have been using masks in Japan and other countries for decades just fine.

Yes, masks can hold contaminated droplets --that's their purpose. When people don't use masks on the other hand, those droplets that would have remained on the mask now end up everywhere else, and now you have a far more spread vectors with basically everything being potentially contaminated.

Using a mask ensures that a lesser percentage of your contaminated droplets end up in other places.

If you are sick, masks are great. Even homemade ones. This is about healthy people wearing masks.

> If you are sick, masks are great. Even homemade ones. This is about healthy people wearing masks.

First, masks work better when both sides use them. In Japan, healthy people wear masks as well during flu seasons because it makes it offers better protection than wearing nothing.

Second, in the specific context of COVID-19, how do you know they're healthy? That's the key, because asymptomatic cases are estimated to be the main driver of this pandemic by far. And it's only worsened by the fact that only few tests are available.

Have you read this article? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-...

> Third, of course masks work — maybe not perfectly and not all to the same degree, but they provide some protection. Their use has always been advised as part of the standard response to being around infected people, especially for people who may be vulnerable.

That quote does not fully describe what is advised, but wearing one when you are knowingly interacting with an infected person is different than general use.

Are you saying masks dont help in preventing ingestion of airborne viruses? That sounds like horse shit. Yes you can still get sick by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching your face...

Anytime a mask would prevent you from ingesting an airborne viruses, it becomes a contaminated surface.

So as your clothes and skin except that when you are wearing a mask you dont get sick.

Removing a contaminated mask involves both touching a contaminated surface and touching your face, which you say can still get you sick.

> If they weren’t effective at reducing infection healthcare workers wouldn’t wear them.

Have you seen the pictures of healthcare workers using "effective" mask protocol? Have you also noticed that said protocol almost always includes goggles?

If I can't trace the seal lines on your face for an hour after you remove your mask, it isn't doing shit for you as a healthy person.

If you are sick, however, that's a different story. The mask prevents droplets from being spewed out of your mouth at 120km/hr (70mph for the heathens) when you sneeze.

"If I can't trace the seal lines on your face for an hour after you remove your mask, it isn't doing shit for you as a healthy person."

Just because it isn't 100% effective doesn't mean it's not doing anything. Exposure isn't binary--the quantity matters.

Healthcare workers have very little room for error because they're constantly exposed to large quantities of the virus. For them, blocking 80% of droplets from a cough is useless, of course, because they're surrounded by infected coughing people all day long. Even 99% isn't good enough for them. But for someone going to the supermarket once a week, blocking 80% might mean the difference between a deadly level of exposure and a level that their immune system can fight off.

Also, this whole "only sick people should wear masks" refrain rather exasperatingly ignores that we don't know who's sick and who isn't. That's exactly why this virus is so difficult to contain. Supply issues aside, the only way to make sure all the sick people are wearing masks is to get everyone wearing masks.

> Also, this whole "only sick people should wear masks" refrain rather exasperatingly ignores that we don't know who's sick and who isn't.

And your argument exasperatingly continues to assume infinite availability of masks.

The masks most help when people are coughing or sneezing significantly. That's really obvious last I checked.

Someone not coughing or sneezing is spreading the virus roughly the same amount whether they wear a mask or not. Covid-19 doesn't actually seem to produce nasal secretions like the flu does so surface contact spread isn't quite the same.

If you want to spread good advice, tell healthy people to start wearing their glasses instead of contact lenses. It's probably more effective than a mask on a healthy person--especially since it prevents people from poking at their eyes with dirty fingers.

"And your argument exasperatingly continues to assume infinite availability of masks."

Except the part where I wrote "supply issues aside". Of course there's a limited supply. That doesn't mean masks wouldn't be effective if we had enough of them. I think we should prioritize making more, not just for healthcare workers, but for everyone.

"Someone not coughing or sneezing is spreading the virus roughly the same amount whether they wear a mask or not."

Scientific consensus so far is that coughing, sneezing, and talking is responsible for the majority of spread. Surface spread is secondary.

"probably more effective than a mask on a healthy person"

Again, we don't know who's healthy and who isn't.

Expect he is wrong and spread dangerously false information and pushed people toward danger. And you are also doing it here as well. His "correctness" is reflected in the number of infected people in the US, which is over 27000 now. Japan, despite having a head start and having a far higher population density, is at 1050. Let these numbers sink for a minute, and ask yourself what you could be doing better.

In Japan, people use masks to protect the community, which includes themselves as well as people around them.

When I read that I was suddenly wondering if maybe they were appointed by Trump due to similar communication style.