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    Sciencemag.org: Not wearing masks is a ‘big mistake,’ top Chinese scientist says

    Hello Daggers...

    As our member librewolf said...

    To mask or not to mask. Everyone who is out in public should be wearing a mask if they can (in my opinion). The only reason I can see for the recommendations to NOT wear a mask is that they are in short supply (like the tests).

    I agree fully...

    sciencemag.org

    Not wearing masks to protect against coronavirus is a ‘big mistake,’ top Chinese scientist says

    By Jon Cohen - Mar. 27, 2020 , 6:15 PM
     
    10-13 minutes
     

    George Gao, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

    Stephane AUDRAS/REA/Redux

     

    Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

    • © 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

     

    Chinese scientists at the front of that country’s outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have not been particularly accessible to foreign media. Many have been overwhelmed trying to understand their epidemic and combat it, and responding to media requests, especially from journalists outside of China, has not been a top priority.

    Science has tried to interview George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for 2 months. Last week he responded.

    •  

    Gao oversees 2000 employees—one-fifth the staff size of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and he remains an active researcher himself. In January, he was part of a team that did the first isolation and sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. He co-authored two widely read papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that provided some of the first detailed epidemiology and clinical features of the disease, and has published three more papers on COVID-19 in The Lancet.

    His team also provided important data to a joint commission between Chinese researchers and a team of international scientists, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), that wrote a landmark report after touring the country to understand the response to the epidemic.

    First trained as a veterinarian, Gao later earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Oxford and did postdocs there and at Harvard University, specializing in immunology and virology. His research specializes in viruses that have fragile lipid membranes called envelopes—a group that includes SARS-CoV-2—and how they enter cells and also move between species.

    Gao answered Science’s questions over several days via text, voicemails, and phone conversations. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

     

    Q: What can other countries learn from the way China has approached COVID-19?

    ---snippet---

    Q: What mistakes are other countries making?

    A: The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.

     

    There is a much much more to learn.

    You may... read the rest here-->>

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    Stay home... Stay Safe

    Larry aka/ ~OGD~

    .

    Comments

    The powers-that-be lying about this will be over soon

    NEW: CDC guidance on masks expected to change in next 10 days. Americans will be advised to wear masks in everyday life. Current recommendation is for high-risk groups only.

    — Matt McCarthy (@DrMattMcCarthy) March 28, 2020

    I saw another tweet yesterday I can't find which voiced my feelings exactly. It was something along the lines of "how stupid do they think people are to instruct that regular people who aren't ill don't need masks while at the same time saying that health care providers who aren't ill desperately need to wear them?"

    And it wasn't just government peeps trying to pass that "disinfo" that we don't need no masks, I was seeing it allover the place, was hogwash. I learned long time ago, with severe mold allergy, had to wear masks when I raked fall leaves or would get real sick. Now I know that mold spores are bigger than viruses, but so are moisture droplets from other people's mouths and nose!

    Was it a public health top-down rationing decision? YES, clearly. And I now know what health writers to trust, the ones that don't just parrot the press releases from the CDC.


    (Conrad is not just a guy on the internet, he is Senior Demographer & Associate Director of Research at @PewResearch. So if he retweets, it's usually worth one's while.)


    Slacker mask
    (for the "Qurantine" as someone wrote - no offense intended)

     

     


    ^That'll work^

    Here's what my wife put up in her FB feed...

    I'd use a jock-strap stuffed with a cut-up towel.

    Stay home. . . . . .

    . . . . . . Stay Safe

    Larry aka/ ~OGD~

    .


    Larry, here's instructions for a more elegant jock strap mask (queer eye for straight guy styling), with which you can oneup her. wink

    I made a Jockstrap Mask Tutorial, because I’m ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/JiYhV3K8uh

    — Emerson Collins (@ActuallyEmerson) April 3, 2020

     


    I'd seen a brief design, but a jockstrap gets to the point.


    Jerome Adams is a tool... Who?
     
    As cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ballooned last month, people in Europe and North America scrambled to get their hands on surgical masks to protect themselves. Health officials jumped in to discourage them, worried about the limited supply of masks for health care personnel. “Seriously people-STOP BUYING MASKS!” began a 29 February tweet from U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have both said that only people with COVID-19 symptoms and those caring for them should wear masks.
     
    --snip--
     
    Health authorities in parts of Asia have encouraged all citizens to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the virus, regardless of whether they have symptoms. And the Czech Republic took the uncommon step last week of making nose and mouth coverings mandatory in public spaces, prompting a grassroots drive to hand make masks.
     
    Even experts who favor masking the masses say their impact on the spread of disease is likely to be modest. Many are also afraid to promote mask buying amid dire shortages at hospitals. But as the pandemic wears on, some public health experts think government messages discouraging mask wearing should shift.
     
    Oh, and one more snippet... About homemade masks...
    The shortage has inspired do-it-yourself movements in many countries to produce cloth masks—which CDC acknowledges can be a last resort for health care workers lacking other protection. Rigorous studies comparing cloth masks to surgical ones or investigating the ideal material for homemade masks are lacking.
     
    There is much much more to learn.

    Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic?

    Sciencemag.org  - by Kelly Servick - Mar. 28, 2020

     

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    Stay home... Stay Safe

    Larry aka/ ~OGD~



    only do it in the shower?




     


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