Quote (EndlessSky @ Oct 28 2020 02:14am)
Masks still show little to no effect on overall death rates.
The other social harm of the masks have also been ignored.
The only harm is people having biases against idiots who won't wear one. They're breaking a social contract where we all agree to work together to help each other not die. Shaming works, and people should continue to shame them.
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https://www.pnas.org/content/117/36/21851The results from both data analyses indicate that, independent from policies, wearing masks is a social contract wherein compliant people perceive each other more positively, and noncompliance is socially punished. Mask wearing is also related to adhering to other protective behaviors, and it signals prosocial concerns. This is consistent with previous work from the severe acute respiratory syndrome pandemic demonstrating that more empathic people are more likely to wear masks (15) and that empathy can be regarded as a prerequisite for prosocial behavior (16). The results are based on self-reported survey data, not real-life observations. Thus, the answers may only approximate actual behavior under different policies. Nevertheless, they provide a useful estimate of the policies’ potential social and behavioral consequences. Modeling results suggest that “universal (80%) adoption of moderately (50%) effective masks could prevent on the order of 17–45% of projected deaths over two months” (calculated for New York state) (4). While uptake under a voluntary policy is reasonably high, it is still not sufficient to meet these required thresholds (4). Importantly, since mask wearing is a social contract (12), high uptake is necessary to prevent stigmatization. While this social dynamic can, in fact, increase mask wearing under a voluntary policy as well, it comes at the cost of social pressure, and it could increase the potential for polarization (e.g., when not wearing masks becomes a social sign of rejecting measures; see Fig. 1A).
In conclusion, should countries or communities want people to wear masks (e.g., to curb local outbreaks or to reduce transmission in future waves of the pandemic), introducing a mandatory policy along with explicit communication of the benefits of mask wearing (risk reduction, mutual protection, positive social signaling) and the benefits of the mandatory policy (fairness, less stigmatization, higher effectiveness) appears advisable.
Republicans are less likely to abide by this social contract.
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https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/23/most-americans-say-they-regularly-wore-a-mask-in-stores-in-the-past-month-fewer-see-others-doing-it/In recent months, mask-wearing has become a partisan issue. This partisan divide is also found in the behaviors of the general public: Democrats and those who lean Democratic are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say they personally wore a mask all or most of the time in the past month (76% vs. 53%). Even after controlling for differences in the COVID-19 health impact in the communities where people live, Democrats are more likely to say they personally wear a mask all or most of the time.
Conservative Republicans are among the least likely to say they have worn a mask all or most of the time in the past month – 49% say they’ve done so, compared with 60% of moderate Republicans. Liberal Democrats are the most likely to say they have worn masks (83% say they’ve done so all or most of the time, vs. 71% of moderate Democrats).
On mask effectiveness
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1132-9There is now growing evidence that face masks can considerably reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2, thereby limiting the spread of COVID-19 (refs. 22,23,24). We updated a recently published review24 to generate a new meta-analysis of peer-reviewed studies and preprints to assess the effectiveness of masks at preventing respiratory viral infections in humans25. This analysis indicated a reduction in infection (from all respiratory viruses) for mask wearers by 40% (relative risk = 0.60, 95% uncertainty interval (UI) = 0.46–0.80)) relative to controls25. This is suggestive of a considerable population health benefit to mask use with great potential for uptake in the United States, where the national average for self-reported mask wearing was 49% as of 21 September 2020 (https://covid19.healthdata.org/; Supplementary Information).
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22.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2We identified seasonal human coronaviruses, influenza viruses and rhinoviruses in exhaled breath and coughs of children and adults with acute respiratory illness. Surgical face masks significantly reduced detection of influenza virus RNA in respiratory droplets and coronavirus RNA in aerosols, with a trend toward reduced detection of coronavirus RNA in respiratory droplets. Our results indicate that surgical face masks could prevent transmission of human coronaviruses and influenza viruses from symptomatic individuals.
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23.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltextThe findings of this systematic review of 172 studies (44 comparative studies; n=25 697 patients) on COVID-19, SARS, and MERS provide the best available evidence that current policies of at least 1 m physical distancing are associated with a large reduction in infection, and distances of 2 m might be more effective. These data also suggest that wearing face masks protects people (both health-care workers and the general public) against infection by these coronaviruses, and that eye protection could confer additional benefit. However, none of these interventions afforded complete protection from infection, and their optimum role might need risk assessment and several contextual considerations.
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24.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7253999/A total of 21 studies met our inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses suggest that mask use provided a significant protective effect (OR = 0.35 and 95% CI = 0.24–0.51). Use of masks by healthcare workers (HCWs) and non-healthcare workers (Non-HCWs) can reduce the risk of respiratory virus infection by 80% (OR = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.11–0.37) and 47% (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.36–0.79). The protective effect of wearing masks in Asia (OR = 0.31) appeared to be higher than that of Western countries (OR = 0.45). Masks had a protective effect against influenza viruses (OR = 0.55), SARS (OR = 0.26), and SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 0.04). In the subgroups based on different study designs, protective effects of wearing mask were significant in cluster randomized trials and observational studies.
You're drinking a very dangerous kool-aid and that misinformation is getting people killed, you selfish little propaganda disseminater.