Anyway, yes, it sucks, the only way I got through it was by reassuring myself that for the vast majority of people issues like brain fog do tend to resolve depending on their underlying cause. I won't lie and say it wasn't scary though. Essentially it deleted three months of my life.
There are at least two orders of magnitude difference in efficacy depending on what type of mask you happen to be wearing and what the fit is[1].
And that's assuming OP is the only party wearing a mask. If all parties are wearing them then it's four orders of magnitude depending on mask type/fit.
I don't know what the actual time-to-infection is for Omicron. But that's quite a spread in mask efficacy to blithely encapsulate with the single word "mask." Given that, I don't think it makes sense to talk about "masks" without specifying which category of mask. It's like talking about "latency" in audio-- unless users prefix it with "round trip" they are almost certain to misunderstand what it is they are measuring and will end up just confusing themselves further.
> It will not, look at a place like South Korea or Singapore to see why that's just not reality.
But OP is OP, not an entire country of citizens. And we already know a subset of citizens called "nurses" can learn to wearing a tight-fitting, uncomfortable NIOSH-approved N95 for extended periods of time. If OP wants to do that when buying groceries, OP will likely lower the risk of infection for themselves. And hell, at some point somebody is probably going to create a decent mask that is both tight-fitting and not so painful to wear. Maybe by that point there will even be a better indication of what the actual time to infection for Omicron is.
At this point, I generally find it more inconvenient to remember the mask than to wear it for extended periods of time, even at the gym doing lifting.
From the FAQ:
"Are ULTRA FIT™ masks rated as an N95 respirators?"
"No. N95 respirators are intended for healthcare workers and, if used correctly, must be fitted to the user’s face in a specialized process called “fit testing.” A professionally fitted N95 respirator will provide more protection than an ULTRA FIT™ mask but will be much less breathable and much less comfortable than an ULTRA FIT™ mask. N95 respirators are designed for front line healthcare workers looking after COVID patients. N95 masks are not suitable for general community use, because most people will not reliably wear an uncomfortable mask in low risk community settings. ULTRA FIT™ masks are designed for comfort, compliance, and better protection than any other mask for general community use."
But then they go on to show some decent results from their ASTM testing!
They desperately need a copywriter, marketer, or someone else who's going to put a little more thought into what they're communicating.
If you dig deep, it looks legit. On the surface the claims are impressive. But right below the surface— where many scam-averse PPE shoppers will be lurking— you start to see warning signs. They're comparing it to an N95 too much but the qualifiers are awful. That FAQ answer is both condescending in the way scam copy is, and fails to offer any justification for why THEY made the comparison. They don't mention the ASTM certification, let alone the impressive tests results. The only efficacy numbers they show are at the bottom of a linked PDF.
Seems like a good product but a great example of how communication isn't making something look and sound nice. A mask made by two doctors, one also a medical engineer, working in two of the best hospital systems in the country, will look no different than some random factory pressing stuffed animal batting into the shape of KN95 masks without the proper communication.
If it gets listed on that site of NIOSH approved masks I'll certainly give it a shot, though.
While 3-6 months is a standard recovery timeline for longer term effects, many people are looking at years or a lifetime of serious effects. I'm close to someone who is still recovering from mono over 2 years later. Their entire life has been upended, their career is over, and most of their passions are now physically impossible.
We're looking at many millions of people of people being temporarily or permanently disabled every year on top of previous contributors like flu, etc. Many people don't have the resources to be exhausted and struggling with cognition for months. How many billions of years of life will collectively be deleted over the coming years? I believe this is worse than we realize, and it's going to get worse sooner than we're ready for.
It's all about adding layers of prevention that each drop your chances of catching it (and its potential severity) by N% each. Get enough of those, and your chances start to look pretty good.
It just does not follow to me that asking people to wear masks during a pandemic or to raise taxes to pay for something (done literally all the time) lead to a dystopian surveillance hellscape.
Just because someone is willing to wear a mask or get vaccinated during a pandemic does not mean they would be fine with a massive surveillance state. That’s a _crazy_ leap
My point on that is the Boiling Frog analogy. [1]
We all brush our teeth (mostly) because we want to preserve their health. And we wish to avoid the pain of abscesses and the dentist's drill.
The government doesn't MANDATE that we brush our teeth.
They have worked hard to make us think that the mandates are not for you but your neighbor, meaning they protect your neighbor from you. But that just isn't the case. We know that the vaccine will not stop infection or spread, and the only useful masks are the ones that will protect you from inhaling the aerosolized infective agent.
So this would come down to personal choice.
What we're seeing on a global scale is an infrastructure being put in place ever so slowly based on shocking and jarring events. Piece by piece. This has been going on since the turn of the 20th century. Maybe earlier.
DO you think the infrastructure being built for vaccine passports is going to be limited to vaccines or travel? If legislation like the PATRIOT act and dark projects like Prism have taught us anything it's that once the foot is in the door it will not retract.
It was a voluntary opt in QR code with pencil and paper back ups that's already disappearing?
They seemed purely convenience focused to me.
Are you this concerned that people need driver's licenses to drive and insurance?
How far do we take this? Should we stop forcing people to get the MMR vaccine? Polio vaccine? Hep A?
The trial data will not be released by the FDA for another 55 years or so [1]
The J&J Janssen vaccine is a more traditional vaccine and it's not pushed by the media or the governments almost at all.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/wait-what-fda-wants...
The inactivated vaccine, which is the actual well established old tech, seems to have worked just as well, or just as poorly, depending on how you percieve the vaccine efficacy.
India used mostly the inactivated vaccine, where nearly a billion people have been vaccinated with it. Apparently, that's just not good enough for several western countries that demand you MUST get an mRNA shot, despite being fully vaccinated by inactivated vaccines that were accepted as effective by the WHO. Clearly purely scientific decisions. /s
It gets even better. Licensed Astrazeneca vaccine that was made in India is not accepted by the EU, only the UK version that's sold under a different label. duh, this is obviously The Science. /s
Most of pharma in the world is manufactured in India, btw. Usually good enough, but for some reason not in a critical emergency such as a pandemic.
Why is that?
I am ok with the MMR and tetanus and the older traditional vaccines. They have been very rigorously tested and proven. I got all those for school and whatnot and I'm cool with that.