Originally Posted by blueash
(Post 1988802)
I completely agree with this post. Masks are not encouraged to be worn to protect the wearer, they are encouraged to prevent spread to others should you be infectious. But understanding that masks, as GE wrote, ARE EFFECTIVE for preventing one infectious person from spreading COVID to many "unvaccinated" people indoors when not socially distanced.. It behooves him and us to consider whether Delta changes the equation.
The data is strongly suggesting that Delta can infect vaccinated people at a much higher rate than previous variations of Covid. Further that while those vaccinated are still extremely well protected against becoming seriously ill, they shed virus at a rate very similar to unvaccinated infectious people.
I think the correct statement with Delta Covid should be that
The usual paper mask is useful for preventing one infected person from spreading COVID to many people, indoors when not socially distanced
That being the case and with Delta being so highly contagious it would be reasonable to require masking. Everyone seeing the data on the prevalence of Delta in Florida, and elsewhere, can see that it is likely some or several persons in the Savannah that night were contagious. It would have been helpful to containment of Delta had they been masked. Masking reduces spread as GE wrote.
All of us expect that workers in a restaurant will wash their hands after defecating. We consider that a public health issue, we have regulations requiring it, and health inspectors looking for compliance regularly. That is done to prevent spread of diseases that are extremely infrequent and of low severity. All the excitement about Hepatitis A and how critical it is to have rules to prevent transmission to the innocent members of the public is reasonable.
But Hepatitis A is a trivial disease compared with Covid both in terms of loss of life and infectious spread. Do all of you who find wearing a mask to protect others such an imposition also support not requiring your server to wash after defecating? After all if you are so afraid of Hepatitis maybe you should just stay home. Maybe we should all be having Hepatitis parties where we all wipe our butts, stick our unwashed fingers in the M&M bowl, and share our viruses to build "natural immunity" which is after all so much better than vaccine immunity or prevention. /s
Maybe we need to take down those signs reminding people to wash their hands. Maybe we should have a statewide ban on enforcing handwashing, make it voluntary. Those who want to wash can, those who don't want to can express their freedom to not wash. Maybe we should only require post-poop handwashing for those unvaccinated against Hep A or lacking natural immunity.
Or instead we can say it doesn't matter if you had your Hep A shots, it doesn't matter if your blood works shows you had Hep A as a child, it doesn't matter if you think you're healthy and not a risk to others.. If you want to work in a restaurant, wash your damn hands to protect the public.
And I'm glad we have those rules. You are too. I've had Hep A vaccine. I'm protected, unless the effect has worn off. But even with my protection, having done all I can to make myself safe while eating out, I still expect that the worker who handles my food is doing what they can to not put Hepatitis on my plate. Reasonable public health and safety rules that people on both sides of the political divide can support. Nobody is screaming "handwash Nazi" about issues to mitigate Hepatitis.
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