Although theme parks have reopened, they’ve seen low attendance, below the limits set to allow for social distancing.
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Anecdotal data
So far I only know maybe 3 people, personally, to have caught the infection. None seem to have had the lasting symptoms like I’ve had.
All 3 had the cough and fever and that’s it.
Can’t say for sure why that might be, my guess is genetics. * big shrug *.
Only now 5 months later starting to see some normality.
Related to this, I was recently thinking about the fact that so far nobody that I know personally has had Covid-19, even with friends all over the US and the world. It makes me think about the significance or lack thereof of that fact. Is everyone in my social network doing a good job of taking appropriate precautions? How much does luck account for this result? As widespread and bad as Covid-19 is, is this a case of human perception not being good at groking large numbers and melding infection & death rates with the size of my social network?
I’m happy about this fact and it doesn’t lessen the precautions I am taking, but now that it has been going on for a while I am not sure if I should be relieved or waiting for the other shoe to drop.
My partner had a COVID 19 test and they had to send the results in a secure form:
Fax!
It’s 2020 and we needed a fax machine number!
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Basically, letting people to their own demise if they decide to travel during this crazy times. This is very irresponsible.
This is sad, but athletes should now better. The damage that corona will do to lungs could potentially end his career. I hate it when people have the “It is not going to happen to me complex”.
I don’t know why the discussion (more broadly not like here) has centered on masks specifically. I see so many articles focusing on this guy doesn’t have a mask, these nut jobs believe masks impinge on their free speech, etc. etc. Masks are like the second most important thing about dealing with this.
This focus on masks leads me to believe one of two things:
1: Everyone just agrees that we should social distance (not going to things in person or when absolutely forced to go to in person staying outdoors and 6 feet away from other people) as much as possible, wash our hands frequently, not touch our faces (or our masks ffs), use hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available, etc.
2: We don’t agree on that and for those who don’t agree on that we’ve decided masks are the most important thing to emphasize, which… well. I’m not an expert or anything but it strikes me as odd that we focus on masks to the exclusion of all else.
tl;dr: Yes masks AND perhaps more importantly, the things from point 1.
Most people can’t avoid going out to buy food, work an essential job, etc… So “just socially distance” literally isn’t an option for them.
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I thought researchers were pretty clear that airborn transmission was by far the largest vector of transmission and that other vectors were not terribly important.
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MAGFest is asking if people would attend in-person.
I would highly encourage any of you who have attended MAGFest in the past to tell them No. For obvious reasons.
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I hate to nitpick, but could you point to where I said something that transforms (like mathematically, the way a fork is actually a sphere, or a coffee mug is a torus) into “just socially distance”?
The first one is like subjective, exact rates among transmission vectors will likely not be known for years, there seems to be broad consensus droplets are the most common but by how much is very much not known, the second one is dangerous wrong.
Here’s the CDC saying please do more than just wear a mask: How Coronavirus Spreads | CDC
Masks are the most effective and obvious thing to focus on. We can’t change people’s other behavior, and we can’t prevent people from going out to do essential things like buy food.
We absolutely should require masks in all indoor spaces, and allow for no exemptions to these rules. We should also absolutely ban most indoor group activities.
America isn’t set up to enforce social distancing everywhere due to our broken capitalist hellscape. The best we can do is ban truly optional group activities and heavily enforce indoor mask wearing.
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One major problem is that no, not everyone agrees to that even though it’s objectively true. Some people literally cannot, and some people literally do not believe it’s a necessary step, and you cannot convince them otherwise. Perhaps everyone believes that we as a whole should socially distance, but nearly every person has also defined a set of people for whom they do not need to distance, and this creates laxness. It’s basically impossible to actually enforce distancing measures.
Let’s also be realistic about distancing guidelines - the number is semi-arbitrary. It’s not the distance at which no viral transmission occurs, it’s just a reasonable distance at which transmission from normal breathing activities is a minimal concern. Are you a loud talker? Is there a breeze? Are you exhaling hard? 6 feet is not a panacea, it’s just “what we think people can do.” The actual most effective distancing is “do not leave your house.”
Why the focus on masks? There was a lot of uncertainty about the use of masks at the outset of the pandemic, at least here in the US, and so the public got it into their heads that “masks were pointless.” This is not the case, and so part of the reason to focus on them is to counteract the effect of that narrative.
It’s not “more importantly.” The correct answer is actually “always a mask, and also social distancing as much as is feasible.” This is because public health intervention strategies have to consider both the effectiveness of an intervention on its own merits AND based on its practical ability to be implemented.
It is very literally impossible for enough of society to isolate to the intense degree required to actually eliminate the virus - countries that have had the most success have done so with an aggressive public health response, aggressive testing strategy, mandatory quarantine measures, and mask-wearing - so the mask is actually a more reliable intervention despite lower actual efficacy than distance.
Basically, the effectiveness of a mask is independent of social distancing, and distancing alone is not a sufficient barrier because it is unreliable at best.
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I think going around telling people to sanitize their groceries, for example, does more harm then good, especially given the research (including as referenced by the link by the cdc) that says otherwise. It adds emotional and physical burden to people for very dubious benefits and hurts adoption of more important measures by focusing on the “more” aspect(like masks and social distancing).
So basically masks are more important to focus on in the sates for a variety of reasons, mostly cultural.
I still feel like we could also focus on the importance of frequent hand washing and not touching your face but that’s more of a yes and kinda thing. I now understand why we culturally seem to focus so much on masks. Obrigado.
Hard agree, for the reasons you said.
‘Experts say other vectors aren’t terribly important is’ is still dangerous for obvious reasons.
Well yes, it’s a lot to do with culture in the US, but even without culture, a mask is an intervention that has a reliable effect, and distancing is less reliable.
Like, if a mask results is a 90% chance of a 30% reduction in transmission, and distancing is a 50% chance of a 90% reduction in transmission (I’m pulling those numbers out of thin air), that’s not as clear-cut a case as we’d like.
Put 'em together, though, and a mask enhances the effectiveness of distancing. You could think of it that way too - masks unlock the full potential of distancing.
Unfortunately, public health communication is a difficult field. I mean obviously the right answer is “all of the above,” but in reality consumers the world over can only absorb so much information before it all turns to noise, so you have to pick and choose what message to send.
We do focus on handwashing in the states, but it’s usually part of the total package: “wear your mask, keep your distance, wash your hands.” A nice 3-hit combo of straightforward public health advice. Should be easy, right?
The major cultural obstacle in the states is, honestly, proud entrenched ignorance. You put out a mask order, and people will defy you just because. Distancing measures? We will hold a block party specifically to stick it to the government. Any measure has to be run through the filter of Americans distrusting orders on principle.
Makes me wonder why I bother being a public health scientist at all.
So in principle I agree with your assessment of “advocate all the things,” but on-the-ground messaging here needs a different strategy because we have an intransigent population.
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