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A comment on The end of the pandemic is near. Parent comment

Re:The end of the pandemic is near by Retric on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @10:57AM (#27291329)
All masks provide some protection for the user from air born droplets produced by coughing and sneezing. N95 masks or the equivalent provide significant protection from catching the disease. Though eye protection is still very important when treating patients with COVID.

Also, it’s important to realize that initial viral load makes a significant difference in how sick people get. Simply reducing exposure can therefore reduce how sick someone becomes.

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by rhino369 on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @12:40PM (#27292737)
>Also, it’s important to realize that initial viral load makes a significant difference in how sick people get.

While that was an early hypothesis, I'm not sure that has really been proven. A lot of the early data wasn't really "initial" viral load, but viral load when they presented in the hospital. That's not necessary an indication of initial viral load.

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by Retric on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @01:32PM (#27293535)
In the end most viruses have similar interactions with the body. The immune system simply takes a while to physically respond which is why initial viral load is important.

So, initial viral load is not COVID specific. Also viral load at first detection is a different yet important criteria for EBOLA, COVID, and other diseases. https://www.jci.org/articles/view/83162

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by rhino369 on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @02:54PM (#27294580)
It doesn't follow that viral load at infection matters because the immune system takes a while to respond. You have a built in assumption that immune response is exactly the same whether there is 1 (arbitrary unit) virus vs. 50 (arbitrary unit) virus. I'm not sure that is true. I could imagine the body starting a heavy immune response at 100 virus--which would mean the difference between 1 and 50 might have little affect on outcome.

Your paper is about viral load at diagnosis--not infection. Diagnosis happens after your immune system has been fighting a while.

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by Retric on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @06:20PM (#27296832)
That study was not supposed to refer to viral load at initial infection, you need to test viral load at exposure in a lab.

The 1 vs 50 difference is known to be based in part on the innate immune system not just the adaptive immune system. Most of the time you don’t need to create specific antibodies etc. If only a single virus enters the body it’s likely for you to fight off the infection without noticing though with the downside of failing to develop long term immunity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innate_immune_system

The 50 vs 50,000 is a related though less proven idea. Extreme exposure can simply overwhelm the immune system and extreme cases directly result in septic shock, but the middle ground is harder to test.

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by akiselev on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @11:04AM (#27291432)
The jury is out on whether N95's provide any extra protection over a thick bandana or blown plastic surgical masks for the general public, isn't it? The average person cannot be expected to fit an N95 properly.
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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by jfkvktnrnr on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @11:10AM (#27291512)
A totally unfit N95 has way less leakage than a very carefully fit surgical mask.

Just try it for yourself, put a N95 on you face and don't even press the metal nose thing, and then see if you can fit a surgical mask better than this unfit N95.

This is another meme which needs to die.

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by akiselev on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @11:39AM (#27291951)
> Just try it for yourself, put a N95 on you face and don't even press the metal nose thing, and then see if you can fit a surgical mask better than this unfit N95.

I have, with a proper fit tester. If you use a half mask respirator with cartridges, sure, the rubber seal is better by default. However, most N95 masks I've seen in public are are the cheap rigid masks leaving large gaps all around the circumference, whereas the surgical masks/bandana cling to the skin better.

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Re:The end of the pandemic is near by _ph_ on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @11:12AM (#27291546)
That would be a to-do item for after the pandemic then: make sure that there is sufficient supply with quality N95 masks and training people how to use them, also perhaps: offer several sizes to ensure perfect fit. There is no good reason not to own a small supply of masks going forward.
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