Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

I think you raise a valid point. I agree that it's possible that masks can make people too relaxed for their own good, especially if worn improperly or using ineffective masks. However, I would like to offer an alternative solution. How about we step up education on how to properly wear a mask, which masks to wear, and then provide people with a plentiful and cheap supply of such masks?

I mean, the first steps of many positive developments throughout history were not always positive. When there's potential, the answer was not to abandon it but to improve it. The first cars were metal death traps, the first planes not much better, but they're invaluable tools to us now through many iterations of improvements.

To me, if the CDC is right in believing that it could save 20%, or 50k lives, then I think it's worth it. Not only that, for every one who dies there are many more who come close and spend weeks drowning in their own lungs. We can really change many lives for the better, much better, why not give it a try? It won't even cost that much, beats a lockdown for sure.

 

Literally nobody has said mask are THE solution at this point. They a part of a multifaceted approach to slowing spread until that vaccine is widely available.

 

Social distancing, hand washing, avoiding touching your face, and mask wearing all need to be done. None of them are mutually exclusive.

 

Data shows that the virus doesn't transmit as easily from child to child. The assumption made by the doctors and researchers, as I recall, was that the immune system in youths makes it more difficult for this particular virus to take hold.

I'm not sure why you're asking. The data is there for everyone to see. For example, as of today, Kentucky has reported 209,136 Coronavirus cases total. One individual in the 0 to 19 age group has died from it since March. I think the answer is pretty obvious. Immune systems in youths are naturally more amped. This virus seems to take advantage of weakness: ie decreased immune systems due to age or other disease, other ailments like diabetes or obesity. Even for healthy, HWP adults in their 40's, the risk of death is virtually nil.

 

Yep. There's really no reason to complicate it beyond this, but they will do so due to political leanings.

 

You are not the person I would challenge on death stats.

 

Ooohhh.. did everybody catch Joe Biden's First 100 Days plan to "fight" Covid?

He's gonna make mask wearing in Federal buildings mandatory. (as if everybody today is walking around Federal buildings without a mask). He's gonna require any bus or train that travels interstate to mandate mask wearing, as if Amtrak and Greyhound don't already mandate it!! He's gonna... wait for it... roll out the vaccine to as many people as he can!! Whoa!! I am sooooooo glad someone competent is taking over and is going to rid us of this nasty, cruel plague. Thank you, Joe Biden aka Captain Obvious aka Captain 6 months behind the game.

 

But as far as I can tell, for the most part it isn't spreading among mask wearers. Just because more people may be wearing masks, doesn't mean the rates are going to go down, at least not right away. Once the virus starts spreading, it is hard to stop. As it becomes more pervasive, unless you comply near 100% of the time, you are at risk. As I've said elsewhere, my FIL always wore a mask in public. But he let his guard down at their poker game, and out of 8 people, 1 person came in sick, and 4 others contracted it.

 

I am all for more education, better quality masks, saving lives. But let's be real. What percentage of people (regardless of political inclination) are going to take time out of their day to learn how to wear a mask right?

In any event, my issue is the misplaced faith in masks along with the fact that I don't think we should have to wear masks for the next 3 years everywhere we go for a virus that has a death rate that is likely below 1% (when you consider all the Covid cases that go unreported due to no symptoms).

I was all for shutting down schools for a couple weeks in March, while we got our heads wrapped around what this was. Here in Kentucky, we're coming up on a year of in-person learning being cancelled for a virus that has killed one minor. It has gotten out of hand and many of us are just tired of being told what to do when the things we are being told to do aren't helping the situation any and arguably making it worse.

 

I would say it's hard to believe that he wasn't able to figure that out. But then it's gator95, so it's not hard to believe at all.

 

No, he held up a case study where 2 people weren't wearing masks as an example of why masks don't work. His post makes no sense. And if you read the actual study, as I did, you would conclude that if they had been wearing masks transmission likely would not have occurred because masks filter out the larger droplets and the study says that in this case, due to the short time period of 5 minutes, a larger droplet was required to transmit enough virus to infect the person.

 

I think you're underestimating Americans a bit. It's not that hard to learn how to wear a mask, so with good consistent messaging I think the vast majority of the people can learn how to. We don't take time out of our day to learn about new products of all sorts, yet corporations manage to easily push them onto us anyway with various marketing techniques, so the methods certainly exist. I'm no expert in marketing, but I believe it can be done.

A virus' impact depends on both its lethality as well as its infectivity, and this one's combo of lethality and infectivity is the worst we've seen in a century. 1% of the US population is over 3 million people, even if only 1/3 of the country eventually end up catching it that's potentially a million dead. Even if you look at nothing but economics, the cost of masks and any ancillary support it needs (marketing, education, etc.) would be far less than just the medical treatment of those infected, let alone all the other socioeconomic impacts.

There will always be missteps in handling something we haven't encountered in a hundred years, but being frustrated will not solve anything. I'm way over this virus, but it's not over us yet. We need to correct our mistakes (e.g. keeping schools closed, inconsistent messaging on masks) and continue to look for the best way to fight it.

 

Thanks for the same useless answer I get from the other guy. I know there are studies and I know where to find them. The fact is 10 months later and youre still making your uneducated guess that’s it’s because of “immune systems” that kids aren’t spreading it throughout the schools to teachers and faculty and then bringing it home and spreading it to family. Why am I asking? Well, I have two kids, I’m diabetic and my father in law who checks several high risk boxes watches one of them while my wife and I work. Believe me, we’re “tired” of this too. Any emotional issues my son has picked up from virtual learning this semester will be gone as soon as he’s back to normal socializing. The emotional scarring of knowing he brought home the virus that killed me or my FIL would be carried for the rest of his life. The decision of in person vs virtual had to be made back in august, there was only data from a few foreign studies with very questionable methods. So yeah, we erred on the side of caution given the limited info at the time. There still is no understanding, just better data.

 

How kids’ immune systems can evade COVID

Try reading instead of being petulant. It will make you smarter, hopefully...

 

Duck and cover!

 

Irony is lost on death.

 

Might want to take your own advice. You could’ve provided a scientific explanation the first time I asked rather than the super mature response of “find it yourself”. Thank you for the article, I will note that this article is dated from this morning, not the summer when decisions on schools had to be made. It is good to see some actual explanation of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing though.

 

MMR vaccines may still be a big player here.

 

There was data in the spring that schools didn't transmit Covid. It's Govt officials and most MSM and people like you pushing to keep schools closed when there was already ample data sets available from Europe showing Covid didn't transmit thru schools. Some kids aren't as lucky as your kids. Kids are falling woefully behind in school. Schools closing is the worst decision by our Govt since us going to war in Iraq.

Study: Students falling behind in math during pandemic

All-remote learning is failing many students all across the country: "These children are struggling" - CBS News

And the worst part is there are still a lot of school districts closed to in person learning. It's a travesty.