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+--- Thread: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now (/showthread.php?tid=21564)
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - ironyak - 03-11-2020
masks/hand washing/vampire exhales/etc... are for people to feel like thay have control over an invisible enemy
Masks work! ~2x improved protection for masks from homemade tea cloth, ~4x for surgical masks, ~100x protection for N95+. That's why healthcare professionals use them. (link to source study in threads somewhere)
However, if you are considering a situation that justifies wearing a N95, you probably should simply avoid it unless there is no choice (such as caring for a loved one). No mask is perfect, and properly using an N95 often requires training and fitting. Trying to use a mask to maintain unnecessary public chores and routines is both a poor use of the very limited resource and often leads to a false sense of security.
https://multco.us/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/covid-19-guidance-taking-care-sick-person-home
Proper hand washing, and not touching your face, goes along way to reducing your chance of infection from those long-lived viruses on surfaces. Also regularly disinfecting high-touch surfaces (at least daily) helps.
https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-handwashing.html
Social distancing removes you from many of these sources of infection - use it (NSFW)
However, unless you completely self-isolate you cannot reduce your risk of infection to zero, but you can minimize your chances. If your going to gamble with your health (and the health of others) try and make smart bets?
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - knieft - 03-11-2020
Point being: most everyone will be exposed. Sooner or later.
Resulting in my post questions...relatively unanswered.
Cheers,
Kirt
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - ironyak - 03-11-2020
Sorry - one current estimate is 40% - 70% of the worlds population may be infected ultimately. If those all happen in a short amount of time, there is no heathcare system on earth that can handle the surge. In Italy, the hospitals are overun and people are being left to die without any care given as there are not enough resources.
Anything that can be done to stretch those cases out over a longer time allows for the heathcare system to keep up and more people to receive care and recover. As you said, it's all about flattening the curve which is what using masks, washing hands, and social distancing accomplish.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/science/coronavirus-curve-mitigation-infection.html
(kudos to NYTimes! now everyone can see their amazing articles for free)
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - ironyak - 03-11-2020
Social distancing is key - A 25% reduction in mixing (of people) results in more than a 50% drop in cases after 1 month relative to baseline (of doing nothing).
https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1237934525281259521
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - knieft - 03-11-2020
quote:
Originally posted by ironyak
Sorry - one current estimate is 40% - 70% of the worlds population may be infected ultimately.
Kinda mushy, but understandable.
“ Anything that can be done to stretch those cases out over a longer time allows...”
Stretch it out. I get it.
Cheers,
Kirt
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - ironyak - 03-11-2020
You're getting the 30 second summary - if you want to fully grok the science, then read the articles.
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - Guest - 03-11-2020
relative to baseline (of doing nothing).
Ah, is that how that works, Ige is taking care of the base?
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - knieft - 03-11-2020
quote:
Originally posted by ironyak
Social distancing is key - A 25% reduction in mixing (of people) results in more than a 50% drop in cases after 1 month relative to baseline (of doing nothing).
https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1237934525281259521
Twitter?
I don’t do social media beyond PunaWeb, so can’t do the link. Nevertheless, if I quit my job, and stayed home in total isolation until the zombie apocalypse was over, then came out to be exposed, wouldn’t I have a viral bullseye on my RNA or whatever? Or would it be all gone?
I’m all for social distancing...comes naturally to me, but might I be staving off the dreaded exposure to no end?
Cheers,
Kirt
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - TomK - 03-11-2020
Kirt,
"I’m all for social distancing...comes naturally to me, but might I be staving off the dreaded exposure to no end? "
The whole point of staving off the exposure is yes, you may ultimately become infected but we'll still have a feasible medical system where you can be treated. If people don't take precautions, then you overload the system because so many people have the virus at the same time and it's likely you won't get the best possible treatment.
RE: NIH urges Americans to take COVID-19 seriously now - knieft - 03-11-2020
quote:
Originally posted by TomK
Kirt,
"I’m all for social distancing...comes naturally to me, but might I be staving off the dreaded exposure to no end? "
The whole point of staving off the exposure is yes, you may ultimately become infected but we'll still have a feasible medical system where you can be treated. If people don't take precautions, then you overload the system because so many people have the virus at the same time and it's likely you won't get the best possible treatment.
PS. The link works even if you are not on twitter. It's a good graphical representation of what I wrote above.
Don’t do Twitter. Nevertheless I have conceded to the idea of flattening the curve...not arguing it at all.
There are those that think some sort of collapse might mean that waiting until the “end” might not mean the “best possible treatment”.
In any case, the idea that washing hands etc. is more of a psych out for control over an invisible badboy may never be considered. The lava went where it went. Too bad we didn’t have a way of flattening it out...
Just thinking outloud, but it may be something is somewhat amiss with the current paradigm. Or maybe not. I have no future knowledge.
Cheers,
Kirt