Thank You for the clarification.

Incredible stupid? Really? I wear a N95 mask. The same type mask doctors wear. You can can order them online. The 95 means it filters out 95% of all viruses. And yes….it’s a white cloth mask but with special construction to pass certification. You go to a hospital to visit a friend, you’re required to wear a N95, and they will give it to you.

Your welcome. And a little further clarification for those who apparently failed to grasp my meaning earlier and are conflating institutional/public health policy with individual protection. Why did the CDC/FAA/NIH advocate masks???? Because in groups it helps prevent the spread of COVID, primarily by decreasing the ability of an infected person to transmit droplets to others. This in turn will reduce the number of infected individuals which then decreases spread and so on. At the very least it spreads out the peak in time so hospitals aren't overwhelmed. However, as individual protection against contracting the virus, paper masks are as close to useless as you can get, which is the point I made rather bluntly. But, I still held out hope that many of those individuals were in the "altruistic" category.

If you were having major surgery, would you want everyone in the OR to wear a mask? I would! People breathe out germs from their noses and lungs, and droplets of saliva spray out when they talk. Cultures are taken from noses for Covid testing, so people who have it have it there, ready to share. Half a century ago I spent three years at an operating room table passing instruments to doctors. Two years were in the US, wearing good quality disposable masks designed to catch droplets. (They weren’t paper. More
Iike special non-woven fabrics.) One year was in Africa, where our sponges were made of the same absorbable, multi-layer cotton fabric as laparotomy sponges. These were laundered, boiled, dried in the sun, and reused. There were no N-95 masks yet. I like to believe those masks served a purpose and prevented the spreading of micro-organisms. They were required. When they were invented, their use cut infections. When I arrived in Africa, my OR had a 50% surgical infection rate. When I left, it was 2%. Required sterile technique works. Properly worn, high quality masks do filter out organisms, each way. I know of a study in the UK based on surgeries done without masks that says they don’t stop the spread of infection in the OR, but I’d like corroboration of that, and I still don’t want people coughing in my face.

It boils down to respecting what everyone feels toward this subject. Don’t let it allow anyone to lose any sleep because of what everyone is doing.

Agree, about N-95's

Now what does that have to do with PAPER masks?????

And all of that is true and well stated----about other people wearing masks around you. It does not change the almost nil value of wearing a paper mask to protect yourself

The paper masks are actually not paper.
The only thing worse than “paper” masks are cloth ones.
The lies perpetrated around this virus are sad.
The people who believe them are sadder.

I agree with your analogies. I suppose we could say the same thing about the triple vaxed who still wind up getting Covid. Why insist that passengers on a cruise ship be "fully vaccinated" if they can still get Covid and wind up in quarantine anyway?

Wouldn't it be better to just accept that there is a contagious and ever mutating virus going around and that if you go into crowded places like concerts, sporting events, cruises, etc - you accept the risk of doing so?

I've had the most recent variation of Covid and my symptoms were so mild that I thought it was seasonal allergies. It was basically a head cold. Most of the people that I know who have had it have experienced the same sort of thing. It's when it starts to go into your chest that you should get yourself into a doctor.

You don't have to be so nasty

High risk? Perhaps to you, not the rest of us. Keep doing what you're doing, I have a feeling it's working out for you.

The natural history of these viral pandemics is that the strains tend to become more contagious but less virulent and eventually fade away or turn into something much more benign. Many of our seasonal flu strains are direct descendants of the Spanish flu of 1918-19, and about 10-15% of "common cold" viruses are coronaviruses. Let's hope that is the case with COVID

Perhaps not, but back when I was "nice" about trying to shed light on fact and fiction regarding COVID, all I got was endless argument and debate from people who didn't have the slightest idea of what they were talking about, so, like Howard Stern, I'm trying the "shock jock" approach.

Same here, but friends and I have had long lasting yunny sinus and post nasal drip resulting from inflamed nasal passages which have lasted several months, and uncertain if it will ever clear up. . . this results in daily coughing, which constantly irritates the throat. . .

so lucky if you get no longer lasting symptoms. . . but not everyone is so lucky. . hopefully time will resolve

Covid or coronavirus?
 

There seems to be a lot of people that don’t realize there are many variants of coronavirus, and what is referred to as a positive test is just a positive test for one of the 7 or more coronaviruse. The test cannot distinguish one from another. My neighbor has had positive tests 4 times over the past 2 years and he has been vaccinated boosted etc. symptoms are mild (common cold). As long as Fauci is on TV though we will continue with this discussion.

The “paper mask” you are referring to I imagine is what is known as a “surgical” mask - “medical” face mask or “procedure” mask which fall under the category of PPE and is a barrier that reduces airborne transmission of pathogens. It is better than a cloth mask but of course not as effective as an N95. And most certainly the fit is very important. When indoors in a large venue, with a large crowd I certainly will continue to wear my mask. Last I heard the pandemic was not over… and a new more easily transmissible strain is on the scene. I hope you really are not that selfish that for 2 hours you cannot sit with a mask on to possibly prevent the spread of a virus you may be harboring??? Is it your - let me use your term “stupidity” that makes you uninformed about how Covid is transmitted??? I wear my mask to protect myself and whoever might be sitting around me. I don’t know who has a health issue and might not be able to fight this deadly virus even if they are vaccinated and boosted. It is not altruism or stupidity but common sense and curtesy!!!
If you don’t think masks work, would tell the surgeon that he need not wear a mask if you needed surgery???

The people on a cruise ship who get vaccinated and catch the virus usually do not get serious case and die from it.

Now that is truly laughable, best one yet. I'M UNINFORMED!:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:
Ok, I guess I'm stuck educating you. You get a partial pass since this is your first post.

You may certainly wear your mask to protect those around you---that fits into the altruism category and I applaud you. As far as protecting yourself, well, that has already been addressed. And again it is not "common sense", it is scientific and medical fact. The problem is that many have "made up their own minds" based on the internet, or their hairdresser, or the voodoo high priestess. And you close with a statement that completely delineates your misinformation----when I wore a mask while performing surgery, it was not to protect myself, it was to protect the patient. If the patient had something highly contagious, let's say meningococcemia, we used a whole different level of protection.

OR masks are not designed to protect anyone from viruses. It's BACTERIA, which are exponentially larger than viruses...

You're comparing apples to kumquats...

caribbean
 

we are sticking with the Caribbean now too. They stole 2 years from us and life keeps moving. We've been on 3 since September and thankfully have not gotten ill. In August I'm supposed to go to Iceland, but who knows how that will be (on a cruise). I can't stop living. IMHO

I think the same could be said for unvaccinated people - they usually don't get a serious case and die from it, either. Of course, there are no cruises for the unvaxed to use for comparison purposes.

I can say that I was at a hotel/casino/event venue that had the policy that the guests were responsible for assessing and mitigating their own risks. There were only a handful of people that I saw wearing masks and, of course, there was no way to tell who was/was not vaxxed. Some were, some weren't. No one seemed too worried about it either way. I would be fine going on a cruise with the same sort of policy.

As with so many that preach "personal choice," your remarks imply that any other's personal choice that disagrees with your personal choice is either incredibly altruistic or incredibly stupid...since you have no mind reading skills indicated, you also have no way of knowing anyone's "medical concerns." Additionally, mask wearing may be no more than a sensory reminder not to touch one's face when in public. Finally, why is someone else's mask wearing any of your concern or meriting your comment, at all..? How omniscient you must be, to be the arbiter of everyone's conduct! Exhausting, I'm sure! You should go take a nap, and give your commentary a rest!

i'm going to have to side with Eagles here. my own doc tells me the paper masks are useless, & now it's not required @ Creekside Medical, just OPTIONAL.

And here we have yet another ridiculous response that suggests "personal choice" over facts and science. May I suggest YOU make a "personal choice" to take a nap?
PS: Nice 2nd post in 9 years

From day 1 Villages refused to keep away from each other and still met at the town squares etc refusing to follow the rules because their master told them it was fake.

The vast majority were very good at social distancing. And yes there were too many people sitting at bars shoulder to shoulder however a small minority.

And? Was there mass death and bodies being burned in the streets because Villagers continued to socialize? I don't recall hearing anything about that.

What I do know is that elderly people living in stand alone Independent Living apartments were still able to see their families, go to the grocery and otherwise get out.

Whereas, people living in LTCs (continuing care, assisted living, memory care, nursing homes) were more or less on lock down and kept isolated away from their families and the rest of the world and even masked and socially distanced from each other within their facilities. Were they safer from Covid? Probably. But that isolation was very hard on many of those elderly and their worrying family members. That was a big reason for the push to get the vaccine out there in record speed.

Masks have been bones of contention since the very beginning of this ordeal. And that hasn't changed. Overall, I prefer to just live the life that the good Lord gave me and not obsess about things that are beyond my control.

So you can make general comments on mask wearing but no one else can. In general you don’t support it and that is fine with you but the rest of the world is wrong if they don’t agree with you. People can do what they want, I don’t care but don’t tell others they are wrong, it is not your business. I follow the rules that are in place and what my oncologist tells me to do, I do not question him. As for being up at 2:15, just about every night I am up to 3-4 as I don’t sleep much since going on chemo almost 9 years ago.

And again you are missing the point…as I said - would you tell a surgeon that a mask is not necessary??? Of course not because it certainly protects any transmission of a pathogen. Same for someone who chooses to wear a mask to protect others. Your post was not helpful - just divisive in my opinion and you are supposed to be a healer…

You all are aware that surgeons don't wear homemade cloth masks or dust masks when they operate on you, right? Even the medical grade surgical masks that they wear are intended more to keep the area sterile as they operate as opposed to stopping viruses.

A cruise ship is hardly a sterile operating room...and really shouldn't be viewed as such.

Too much sniping and name calling, as per usual with anything related to masks and Covid.
Enough.