Throw away your Masks? (1 Viewer)

[Himewad]

You have just proven how masks work. After they exhale, look at the inside part of the mask. You'll see a brown dirty looking stain. That is the water vapor from your breath your mask caught. The smoke is the aerosol that can get through. This is why you CAN still breathe through the mask and NOT pass out from oxygen deprivation or take on too much CO2. Virus just don't travel by themselves. They need spit, saliva, lung gunk from your cough, sneeze or rona laden heavy breathing to travel from one person to the next. The crappy cloth masks have woven fibers and catch a majority of the rona gunk that gets spread. Not all, but most. They NEVER were to protect you. They were to protect others if you had it and were asymptomatic. This isn't CNN or Fauci talking, it's 8th grade biology.

I still haven't heard anyone explain why the areas with the most strict mask mandates are the areas that have been hardest hit by this. If MOST of the bad COVID droplets are caught by these masks, then you wouldn't see these numbers. You would see exactly the opposite. Sorry, but I'm unconvinced. I'm done typing basically the same thing over and over again. I wore a mask for over a year. Now that I'm vaccinated, I'm done.

 

[zo121179]

I still haven't heard anyone explain why the areas with the most strict mask mandates are the areas that have been hardest hit by this.

Simple, people weren't wearing masks. Our Governor just just last month in a bar, in Iowa City, in the middle of a mask mandate.

Sorry, but I'm unconvinced.

This is why.

Now that I'm vaccinated, I'm done.

Then why do so many people get the virus when they wear masks religiously? Masks don't seem to be "highly effective" based on everything I have seen and heard.

The bottom two seem to be highly effective.

 

[aggie]

Now that "Trust the Scientists" no longer fits the narrative, the new term is "Trust Science" ... because who can argue with "Science", right?

I mean, it's "Science".

 

[Anthony Martino]

I am not vaccinated, I have no plans to take the vaccine either. I am also done wearing masks unless I am being refused entry to a location.

I have been playing live poker since the Hard Rock in Tampa re-opened back in May of 2020. They are still doing temperature checks, mandatory masks, hand sanitizer whenever you sit down to a table (or if you get up and return to your seat they make you use it again), plexiglass dividers and they still waste time wiping down seats and railings after a player leaves before they will call another player to fill the seat (despite the CDC ages ago saying the surface contamination concern was minimal)

Going out to eat, wear a mask when you come in and out, but you can order your food and speak to your waitress without a mask.

I had been a member of a gym that went under because of lack of business due to Covid. You had to wear a mask to enter or exit, but then you could work out on the machines without wearing one.

Likewise, roller skating rinks want you to wear a mask when you enter or exit, but if you have skates on you don't need to wear one.

It's insane to me that we can perform physical exertion that results in greater exhalation of breaths and not be required to wear a mask, but I have to wear one coming into and out of the entrance to "stop the spread"

If you want to take the vaccine, or wear masks, knock yourself out. But except for the Hard Rock in Tampa, I've recently stopped wearing my mask. Aside from that property, the other poker rooms in the area have all gone mask-optional.

I'm seeing more folks no longer wearing masks when they go to grocery or department stores as well. There are still more folks I see wearing masks than those without, but those without are growing each week as we start to return to normal.

 

[Taghkanic]

I already responded to this. No need to argue about the wording. We have as close to a cure as we could have hoped for a year ago. This is a virus, so we have a vaccine. Like we have for the flu. The CDC (finally) acknowledged that vaccinated people can stop wearing masks. Some states have said that masks haven’t been necessary for months because they look at actual data instead of guessing. And those states have bounced back the fastest. You can’t deny the data.

It remains that we only have vaccines, and using this term interchangeably with “cure” is either ignorant or dangerous or both.

Those who do still get the virus can’t ask for a “cure” because there isn’t one. There are strategies for managing it, or reducing the chance of death, and various therapies. But if you test positive you can’t ask your doctor to administer a “cure.”

 

[Josh Kifer]

I like wearing a mask around. Less likely I hear "Hey Josh" from across the store while I'm staring at cookies for 14 minutes.

Don't judge me.

 

[Josh Kifer]

I am not vaccinated, I have no plans to take the vaccine either. I am also done wearing masks unless I am being refused entry to a location.

I have been playing live poker since the Hard Rock in Tampa re-opened back in May of 2020. They are still doing temperature checks, mandatory masks, hand sanitizer whenever you sit down to a table (or if you get up and return to your seat they make you use it again), plexiglass dividers and they still waste time wiping down seats and railings after a player leaves before they will call another player to fill the seat (despite the CDC ages ago saying the surface contamination concern was minimal)

Going out to eat, wear a mask when you come in and out, but you can order your food and speak to your waitress without a mask.

I had been a member of a gym that went under because of lack of business due to Covid. You had to wear a mask to enter or exit, but then you could work out on the machines without wearing one.

Likewise, roller skating rinks want you to wear a mask when you enter or exit, but if you have skates on you don't need to wear one.

It's insane to me that we can perform physical exertion that results in greater exhalation of breaths and not be required to wear a mask, but I have to wear one coming into and out of the entrance to "stop the spread"

If you want to take the vaccine, or wear masks, knock yourself out. But except for the Hard Rock in Tampa, I've recently stopped wearing my mask. Aside from that property, the other poker rooms in the area have all gone mask-optional.

I'm seeing more folks no longer wearing masks when they go to grocery or department stores as well. There are still more folks I see wearing masks than those without, but those without are growing each week as we start to return to normal.

So yer saying kids Small mask was still too baggy and you gave up on searching?

That's what I got out of that.....

 

[Himewad]

It remains that we only have vaccines, and using this term interchangeably with “cure” is either ignorant or dangerous or both.

Those who do still get the virus can’t ask for a “cure” because there isn’t one. There are strategies for managing it, or reducing the chance of death, and various therapies. But if you test positive you can’t ask your doctor to administer a “cure.”

Everyone knows the vaccine isn’t a 100% “cure.“ As I said before, the vaccines are as close to a cure as we can get. They allow us to stop living in fear. You can beat on your chest that you won the Webster’s dictionary war of word definitions with me. Who cares? The fact is that the vaccines will let us get our lives back. We should all be celebrating that.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I still haven't heard anyone explain why the areas with the most strict mask mandates are the areas that have been hardest hit by this. If MOST of the bad COVID droplets are caught by these masks, then you wouldn't see these numbers. You would see exactly the opposite. Sorry, but I'm unconvinced. I'm done typing basically the same thing over and over again. I wore a mask for over a year. Now that I'm vaccinated, I'm done.

I keep hearing you say this, but it directly contradicts a number of studies that I've looked at. What are you basing this on?

Summer 2020: Kansas had mask mandates that were opt-out at the county level. All counties that kept the mask mandates (24) saw a reduction in COVID-19, all counties that opted out (81) saw an increase.

March 2021: Mandating masks was associated with a decrease in daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of implementation. Allowing on-premises restaurant dining was associated with an increase in daily COVID-19 case growth rates 41–100 days after implementation and an increase in daily death growth rates 61–100 days after implementation.

April 2021: Fourteen of the 15 states with no mask wearing policy for the general public through September reported a high COVID-19 rate. Of the 8 states with at least 75% mask adherence, none reported a high COVID-19 rate. States with the lowest levels of mask adherence were most likely to have high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month, independent of mask policy or demographic factors.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Going out to eat, wear a mask when you come in and out, but you can order your food and speak to your waitress without a mask.

I had been a member of a gym that went under because of lack of business due to Covid. You had to wear a mask to enter or exit, but then you could work out on the machines without wearing one.

Likewise, roller skating rinks want you to wear a mask when you enter or exit, but if you have skates on you don't need to wear one.

It's insane to me that we can perform physical exertion that results in greater exhalation of breaths and not be required to wear a mask, but I have to wear one coming into and out of the entrance to "stop the spread"

Agreed, none of these policies ever made sense. Welcome to Florida, home of the governor who not only refused any kind of statewide mask policy but also fought tooth and nail to keep local jurisdictions from implementing them in any meaningful way.

 

[pltrgyst]

I am not vaccinated, I have no plans to take the vaccine either.

*Now* I understand that fucking huge chicken on your hood.

 

[Himewad]

I keep hearing you say this, but it directly contradicts a number of studies that I've looked at. What are you basing this on?

Summer 2020: Kansas had mask mandates that were opt-out at the county level. All counties that kept the mask mandates (24) saw a reduction in COVID-19, all counties that opted out (81) saw an increase.

March 2021: Mandating masks was associated with a decrease in daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of implementation. Allowing on-premises restaurant dining was associated with an increase in daily COVID-19 case growth rates 41–100 days after implementation and an increase in daily death growth rates 61–100 days after implementation.

April 2021: Fourteen of the 15 states with no mask wearing policy for the general public through September reported a high COVID-19 rate. Of the 8 states with at least 75% mask adherence, none reported a high COVID-19 rate. States with the lowest levels of mask adherence were most likely to have high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month, independent of mask policy or demographic factors.

https://blogs.umass.edu/covidbalanc...mandate-enthusiasts-please-confront-the-data/

Key sentence following the chart in the article: “Overall, there is no indication that the impact of Covid-19 has been greater in states that have lacked a mask mandate.”

 

[ovo]

I currently have a case of covid arm, a rash on the arm, at least I think it is. It developed about 14 days after my 2nd shot, not itchy or painful, but there, and mild on my shot arm, but more so on the other arm.

 

[Himewad]

I currently have a case of covid arm, a rash on the arm, at least I think it is. It developed about 14 days after my 2nd shot, not itchy or painful, but there, and mild on my shot arm, but more so on the other arm.

Two weeks after? That seems odd.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Two weeks after? That seems odd.

My wife experienced a long lasting painful spot on her arm many years ago from the flu shot

 

[ekricket]

I currently have a case of covid arm, a rash on the arm, at least I think it is. It developed about 14 days after my 2nd shot, not itchy or painful, but there, and mild on my shot arm, but more so on the other arm.

Run some hot dirt on it and walk it off. Not a doctor, just fatherly advice

 

[Schmendr1ck]

https://blogs.umass.edu/covidbalanc...mandate-enthusiasts-please-confront-the-data/

Key sentence following the chart in the article: “Overall, there is no indication that the impact of Covid-19 has been greater in states that have lacked a mask mandate.”

I appreciate the link. I do have a lot of issues with the content, though.

First, this is a blog, not peer-reviewed in any way. The article's author, Adrian Staub, is a psycholinguistics professor at UMass Amherst - on quick glance he seems like a smart guy and has a number of publications in his field, but I don't know what, if any, credentials or experience he has in epidemiology.

Second, this blog seems to contain a pretty significant bias against government policy that encourages or mandates "anti-COVID" behavior (judging from the titles of other blog entries like "Oops, We Forgot the Democracy" and "Pandemic Fears: When the ‘availability heuristic’ meets ‘belief bias’."

Finally, the specific article you link to shows declines in COVID-19 in states with and without mask mandates, and tries to use this to validate the premise that mask mandates have no effect. The big problem with this is that the data is from March 2021 - three months after vaccine rollout began, and after the vast majority of the most vulnerable population (elderly adults) had been vaccinated. It makes logical sense that COVID hospitalizations and COVID deaths are going to drop across the board at this time.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Run some hot dirt on it and walk it off. Not a doctor, just fatherly advice

I've heard Windex works wonders on that type of thing.

 

[ekricket]

I've heard Windex works wonders on that type of thing.

That’s just old bullshit talk. Everyone knows the truth of the matter is it’s WD-40

 

[Schmendr1ck]

That’s just old bullshit talk. Everyone knows the truth of the matter is it’s WD-40

Hey @ovo, I just want to remind you that #ThisIsNotMedicalAdvice.

I've got to agree with @Himewad that getting a rash two weeks after the shot seems like a long time, but a little quick googling indicates that these post-vaccination rashes do occur as long as 14 days after the shot, and it seems to just be a part of the immune system reaction for some people.

Luckily, no one in my family has had such a problem. Four of us are fully vaccinated, and my youngest just got shot #1 last week.

 

[Forty4]

George wouldn't wear a mask, then the entire pandemic would be cured but he would get it from using a towel on the floor of his Yankees office the janitor left and die over the course of 2 weeks while he's yelling on Oxygen.

It's the Seinfeld way.

George would wear a mask in an effort to make himself look more attractive. By covering up his face he would get better looking. I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of the episode he was in a burka

 

[Himewad]

I appreciate the link. I do have a lot of issues with the content, though.

First, this is a blog, not peer-reviewed in any way. The article's author, Adrian Staub, is a psycholinguistics professor at UMass Amherst - on quick glance he seems like a smart guy and has a number of publications in his field, but I don't know what, if any, credentials or experience he has in epidemiology.

Second, this blog seems to contain a pretty significant bias against government policy that encourages or mandates "anti-COVID" behavior (judging from the titles of other blog entries like "Oops, We Forgot the Democracy" and "Pandemic Fears: When the ‘availability heuristic’ meets ‘belief bias’."

Finally, the specific article you link to shows declines in COVID-19 in states with and without mask mandates, and tries to use this to validate the premise that mask mandates have no effect. The big problem with this is that the data is from March 2021 - three months after vaccine rollout began, and after the vast majority of the most vulnerable population (elderly adults) had been vaccinated. It makes logical sense that COVID hospitalizations and COVID deaths are going to drop across the board at this time.

Whether it’s a blog or not, it’s the data that is important. Don’t even pay attention to the declining numbers in the state by state charts. Just look at the deaths per 100,000 chart that shows all states. There is zero correlation between death rate and mask mandates. 15 of the worst 17 states had a mask mandate.

As for the bias ... I could reference a million articles with a left-leaning bias. But it Is what it is. Just need to point out the science fairly.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Whether it’s a blog or not, it’s the data that is important. Don’t even pay attention to the declining numbers in the state by state charts. Just look at the deaths per 100,000 chart that shows all states. There is zero correlation between death rate and mask mandates. 15 of the worst 17 states had a mask mandate.

I could counter by saying that 16 of the 20 states with the lowest per capita death rates also had mask mandates, so therefore they work. Obviously we're both just cherry-picking data. And even if we take this blog post at face value, it doesn't support your original statement, which was:

the areas with the most strict mask mandates are the areas that have been hardest hit by this.

At best, it shows no direct correlation between statewide mask mandates and COVID deaths per capita by state. And honestly, that's probably right.

Simply looking at whether or not a state had a mask mandate is a woefully incomplete picture. The specifics of the mandate are important, as well as lots of other factors like population density, proportions of at-risk demographics, mask adherence, presence of more contagious variants, and a bazillion more. This type of thing is messy, and you can't just point a finger at one data point and say, "See, mandates don't work!"

For what it's worth, I'd argue that mask adherence is way more important than mask mandates. A state with no mask mandate but high adherence is going to do much better than a state with a mask mandate but low adherence. It's not the law that makes a difference - it's whether or not people are actually wearing masks.

As for the bias ... I could reference a million articles with a left-leaning bias. But it Is what it is. Just need to point out the science fairly.

Of course, but if you look at my citations above, they aren't blog articles. They're peer-reviewed scientific research.

 

[JeepologyOffroad]

 

[Schmendr1ck]

View attachment 701295

Embrace the new normal.

 

[pltrgyst]

I've got to agree with @Himewad that getting a rash two weeks after the shot seems like a long time, but a little quick googling indicates that these post-vaccination rashes do occur as long as 14 days after the shot, and it seems to just be a part of the immune system reaction for some people.

Agreed, but the symmetry of the other arm makes any relation to the injection highly implausible.

 

[allforcharity]

Delayed reactions to drugs can happen all the time. A bit strange to see bilateral symmetry (usually a little more diffuse), but probably not impossible.

 

[Mike mac]

this is a mask thread , so it is associated with the topic i am going to inject into this thread....

for the people here that are vaccinated, go to your fridge and grab a magnet, place over injection site and see if it sticks.

i have seen many videos online and i have seen this happen in person, i have also seen one PCF'er post a picture of it happening to him/her.

is it happening to any of you ? and if so why ? lets discuss

 

[buzzmonkey]

this is a mask thread , so it is associated with the topic i am going to inject into this thread....

for the people here that are vaccinated, go to your fridge and grab a magnet, place over injection site and see if it sticks.

i have seen many videos online and i have seen this happen in person, i have also seen one PCF'er post a picture of it happening to him/her.

is it happening to any of you ? and if so why ? lets discuss

Didn't stick.

 

[pltrgyst]

No for me, no for my wife.

But when I pulled mine away from my arm, it had a little teeny-tiny dish antenna stuck to it, and my cell phone started going crazy...