[Altavia]

Long video but worth watching.

COVID-19 severity likely dose-dependent - Wear a mask - YouTube


One More Reason to Wear a Mask: You’ll Get Less Sick From COVID-19

As more and more states promote face masks as a way to control the spread of COVID-19, the top-line message has been: wear a mask to protect others. While it’s true that most face masks are more effective in preventing you from launching droplets into the air than breathing in already dispersed droplets – that doesn’t mean masks offer no protection to the wearer.

It’s likely that face masks, by blocking even some of the virus-carrying droplets you inhale, can reduce your risk of falling seriously ill from COVID-19, according to Monica Gandhi, MD, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco.

“The more virus you get into your body, the more sick you are likely to get,” she said.

In the latest wave of infections in the U.S., the wider use of masks may be one factor for the lower death rates – along with more testing, younger patients and better treatments – said Gandhi. A greater proportion of these new cases have been mild or asymptomatic, though more data is needed to see if they track geographically with higher rates of mask-wearing.

Worldwide, epidemiological patterns seem to provide a clue. In countries where mask wearing was already commonplace, such as Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Singapore, and in countries where mask wearing was quickly embraced, such as the Czech Republic, rates of severe illness and death have remained comparatively low.

These epidemiological observations are among the evidence that Gandhi and colleagues cite in a paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, in which they propose that masks can lead to milder or asymptomatic infections by cutting down on the dose of virus people take in.

“Masks can prevent many infections altogether, as was seen in health care workers when we moved to universal masking. We’re also saying that masks, which filter out a majority of viral particles, can lead to a less severe infection if you do get one,” said Gandhi. “If you get infected, but have no symptoms – that’s the best way you can ever get a virus.”

Not a New Idea

The idea that viral dose, also known as viral inoculum, determines the degree of illness is not new, said Gandhi. Descriptions of a dose-mortality curve – how much of a virus is needed to cause death in an animal – were first published in 1938. And after all, the earliest vaccines, which were documented in 16th century China, involved exposing someone to a small amount of smallpox virus to induce mild illness and subsequent immunity.

A small number viral particles is more likely to be quelled by the immune system before they can proliferate, said Gandhi.

Researchers have studied dose dependency experimentally with other viral infections, like the flu. In a study with healthy volunteers, those who received a higher dose of the influenza A virus developed more severe symptoms.

Because the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is potentially lethal, experiments on masking and disease severity have been necessarily limited to animals. In a hamster study, a surgical mask partition between the cages of infected and uninfected hamsters significantly cut COVID-19 transmission. Fewer hamsters caught the virus and those that did showed milder symptoms.

Tale of Two Cruise Ships

Gandhi believes the viral inoculum theory helps explain an unusual feature of the new coronavirus – what Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has called its “protean” manifestations.

Early in the year, as COVID-19 spread around the world, infectious disease experts began to notice this strange aspect of the new virus – the extreme variation in its symptoms and severity. Some who tested positive didn’t seem sick at all, some had symptoms of a cold, others lost their sense of taste or developed delirium, and still others suffered severe pneumonia that led to death.

Experts quickly focused on differences among patients, such as age and co-morbidities, that can affect their chances of severe illness. But the details of two outbreaks on cruise ships spurred Gandhi to think that viral dose could be another important determinant of the course of the new illness.

We’re also saying that masks, which filter out a majority of viral particles, can lead to a less severe infection if you do get one. If you get infected, but have no symptoms – that’s the best way you can ever get a virus.

In February, one of the first outbreaks of COVID-19 outside of China occurred on the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan. Of the 634 people on board who tested positive, about 18 percent of infections were asymptomatic. In March, an Argentinian cruise ship found itself in a similar predicament, but of the 128 people on board who eventually tested positive, 81 percent were asymptomatic.

A key difference, Gandhi noted, was that on the Argentinian ship, surgical masks were issued to all passengers and N95 masks to all staff as soon as the first passenger became sick.

More recently, an Oregon seafood processing plant where workers were required to wear face masks reported an outbreak of 124 cases, 95 percent of which were asymptomatic. Similarly, in a Tyson chicken processing plant outbreak in Arkansas where workers were provided mandatory masks, 455 out of 481, or nearly 95 percent were asymptomatic.

To Gandhi, these case studies suggest that if more people wore masks, we could see less serious illness from COVID-19 and a higher proportion of asymptomatic cases, currently estimated to be around 40 percent of cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Milder infections would ease the burden on the health care system, save lives, and even nudge us closer to herd immunity before a vaccine becomes available, said Gandhi.

And it means that the public health message on masks can appeal to more than altruism.

“We messaged that mask wearing will protect other people, and that did not seem to convince our country as much as we would have hoped,” said Gandhi. That’s not surprising given human nature, she said. “If you think something’s going to help you or your family, you are going to do it more than if you think you’re helping others.”

One More Reason to Wear a Mask: You’ll Get Less Sick From COVID-19 | UC San Francisco

[coffeebean]

OP.....thank you for posting this information. Good to know severity of the disease is dependent on the viral load into the body. GREAT case for masking when in public, especially indoors.

Anti-maskers should head this advice and information. Better to be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms than to be severely impacted by this virus or the worst case scenario.

[rphil11ort]

Does anyone have the latest count as to positive test and death count in the bubble?

[Dan9871]

I don't think there is a breakdown specific to The Villages but state data broken down by county and zip code is here:

Home | Florida Department of Health COVID-19 Outbreak

As of yesterday, there were a total of 67 deaths attributed to COVID in Sumter County.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by rphil11ort

Does anyone have the latest count as to positive test and death count in the bubble?

How cases are counted go by counties in Florida. I would like to know too.

My first acknowledgement that it was truly here came from two dear friends, sisters, who had gone to Orange Blossom Restaurant on St. Patrick's day with a group of ten neighbors.

I didn't hear from them for awhile..and when I checked I learned that six out of the ten in the group had become sick. The waitress appeared to have had the sniffles....The two sisters live together in Country Club Hills. One became very sick and was taken to Ocala Hospital where she was in intensive care for eleven days with difficulty breathing. The other remained at home but had severe gastro intestinal symptoms and became so dehydrated that she had to be taken to VHRC here for rehydration and a friend had to come and stay with her to see that she was eating and drinking. Unless I had known her I would not have known this and it immediately made our family aware of the spread and the severity in different ways. They both had Covid-19 and have recovered from it, thank heavens.

I wish we could know the exact statistics but I imagine that there may be all kinds of emotions with revealing that information from the individuals affected.

When I first heard about this virus and read the statistics and the mortality rate for older people, what stuck in my mind was that we live in a small isolated village of 54 homes. That two people that we knew and lived close to could be dead from this. That has not happened. I must say that most people have become very careful too.

So in answer to your question, no one knows how many people have died in The Villages but records show that 67 have died in Sumter County.

Many then will leap to tell you most of the deaths have been in nursing homes and jails. I don't know.

covid 19 deaths in sumter county florida - Bing


People have already made up their minds about Covid-19. I believe that is a mutated version of a virus. It does kill, but many are in denial. It is most dangerous to people over seventy.

I am sort of an amateur student of human behavior and I have observed that people react very differently to a fearsome and deadly threat. Many deny it. Many minimalize it. Many doubt statistics. Many make it political. I know that it is still out there and killing some people and I hope and wait for a vaccine that can make it a little less threatening to lives.

[Stu from NYC]

Very interesting thread

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Covid Tests

Wanted to share with you, that we have a brand new testing site that is right next to Lowe's and Wawa in Lady Lake.

It's a drive through as well for convenience. Our turnaround is 24 hours!!

We do both Antibody 15 mins results (If you've ever had it) and PCR (If you currently have it). We accept all insurances/ Medicare. ($35 dollar expedited option)


Hope this helps and stay safe everybody!!

LOCATION-
13535 US Hwy 441
Lady Lake, Fl 32159

There are free tests available. Here is the link;

Community-Based Testing Sites for COVID-19 | HHS.gov

[TOTV Team]

Originally Posted by Covid Tests

First and foremost, thank you for sharing testing sites period. We want people to get tested whether it's with us or another facility.


Ours tests have a $35 dollar service charge, the reason for that is we run ours directly to the lab same day and have them processed directly at Genesis Reference Labs in Orlando, Fl. This allows for 24 hour turnaround. All other sites have a 5-7 day window.

Our model cost a tad more, but we want to eliminate the 5-7 day window where as clients are in limbo of not knowing their results. Furthermore, does that individual go in public for essential items? We figured there had to be a better way.

We are making a plea with the State to cover the logistics cost for 24 hour results. We want to keep people safe!

Great information and explanation on the differences in service!

[Altavia]

Face masks could be giving people Covid-19 immunity, researchers suggest

Face masks could be giving people Covid-19 immunity, researchers suggest

Mask wearing might also be reducing the severity of the virus and ensuring that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.

Face masks may be inadvertently giving people Covid-19 immunity and making them get less sick from the virus, academics have suggested in one of the most respected medical journals in the world.

The commentary, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, advances the unproven but promising theory that universal face mask wearing might be helping to reduce the severity of the virus and ensuring that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.

If this hypothesis is borne out, the academics argue, then universal mask-wearing could become a form of variolation (inoculation) that would generate immunity and “thereby slow the spread of the virus in the United States and elsewhere” as the world awaits a vaccine.

It comes as increasing evidence suggests that the amount of virus someone is exposed to at the start of infection - the “infectious dose” - may determine the severity of their illness. Indeed, a large study published in the Lancet last month found that “viral load at diagnosis” was an “independent predictor of mortality” in hospital patients.

Wearing masks could therefore reduce the infectious dose that the wearer is exposed to and, subsequently, the impact of the disease, as masks filter out some virus-containing droplets.

If this theory bears out, researchers argue, then population-wide mask wearing might ensure that a higher proportion of Covid-19 infections are asymptomatic.

Better still, as data has emerged in recent weeks suggesting that there can be strong immune responses from even mild or asymptomatic coronavirus infection, researchers say that any public health strategy that helps reduce the severity of the virus - such as mask wearing - should increase population-wide immunity as well.

This is because even a low viral load can be enough to induce an immune response, which is effectively what a typical vaccine does.

If this theory bears out, researchers argue, then population-wide mask wearing might ensure that a higher proportion of Covid-19 infections are asymptomatic.

Better still, as data has emerged in recent weeks suggesting that there can be strong immune responses from even mild or asymptomatic coronavirus infection, researchers say that any public health strategy that helps reduce the severity of the virus - such as mask wearing - should increase population-wide immunity as well.

This is because even a low viral load can be enough to induce an immune response, which is effectively what a typical vaccine does.

Still, Dr Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, and one of the paper’s authors, has stressed that the commentary has its limitations and should not be construed as anything other than a theory.

“To test the variolation hypothesis, we will need more studies comparing the strength and durability of SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell immunity between people with asymptomatic infection and those with symptomatic infection, as well as a demonstration of the natural slowing of SARS-CoV-2 spread in areas with a high proportion of asymptomatic infections,” she told the Sunday Telegraph.

“However, it is true that the proportion of asymptomatic infection being increased by masking might increase the proportion of the population who achieve at least short-term immunity to the virus while we await a vaccine.”

Dr Julian Tang, Honorary Associate Professor of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester, has shared Dr Gandhi’s cautious optimism.

“This idea of 'variolation' - a term originally derived from the smallpox pre-vaccine era - is quite feasible and may add to the protective physical effects of universal masking - by low level stimulation of the wearer's immune system as it is exposed to low levels of airborne SARS-CoV-2, which can induce an immune response but without any overt infection and disease,” she said.

She added: “This is after all the response to a typical vaccine - where the recipient's immune systems are stimulated, subclinically, to produce protective immune responses to combat the infection if exposed at a future date.

“Of course, more formal studies are required to confirm this effect, and there are likely natural experiments ongoing around the world at the moment.”

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by Covid Tests

First and foremost, thank you for sharing testing sites period. We want people to get tested whether it's with us or another facility.


Ours tests have a $35 dollar service charge, the reason for that is we run ours directly to the lab same day and have them processed directly at Genesis Reference Labs in Orlando, Fl. This allows for 24 hour turnaround. All other sites have a 5-7 day window.

Our model cost a tad more, but we want to eliminate the 5-7 day window where as clients are in limbo of not knowing their results. Furthermore, does that individual go in public for essential items? We figured there had to be a better way.

We are making a plea with the State to cover the logistics cost for 24 hour results. We want to keep people safe!

What is the specificity and accuracy of the test you offer?

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Re: the OP: That's what this is all about. All the precautions. It's not "prevention." It's "risk reduction." Hem and haw and whine about "muh freedumz" til you turn blue, you will be at increased risk if you don't wear a mask, wash your hands, and social distance. You also put other people at higher risk if you continue breathing in close proximity to people, even if THEY are wearing a mask, if you are not wearing it.

Me without mask, you without mask, standing close = highest risk. Not highest likelihood. Likelihood is not a synonym for risk. Highest risk.

Me with mask, you without mask, standing close = I have a higher risk than you.
Me without mask, you with mask, standing close = you have a higher risk than I do.
Both of us with masks, standing close = both of us have a reduced risk.
Both of us with masks, standing at at least a 3-foot distance from each other = we each have a significantly reduced risk.
Both with, standing at least 6 feet apart = profoundly reduced risk.
Neither of us in the same building as the other whether with or without a mask = lowest risk.

The takeaway from this:

If you want to REDUCE your RISK of being sick, then wear a mask, wash your hands, social distance.
If you want to reduce MY risk of being sick, do the same.
If you don't care about MY health, then feel free to cough in my general direction. Just remember this is a stand your ground state.
If you don't care about YOUR health, then enjoy the crowds on opening day in the town square.