Face Masks

Planigale said:
Who knows why? Or why they have different coloured masks, I suspect just to make the the picture more exciting. Do all NASA staff wear masks all the time at work?
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It's pretty obvious why: It's expensive to send people into orbit, so they try to isolate them from the risk of getting infected in the weeks before ad launch. The color of the respirators is pretty irrelevant. The main thing is to wear one. I have no idea if all NASA staff wear masks all the time. I assume that all NASA staf dealing with the astronauts in person do.

Planigale said:
What is the object of the mask? Is it to protect the medical staff from patients? If so the evidence doesn't show that this is a significant risk. The major risk to medical / clinical staff is from friends, family and colleagues in a non-work situation. Masking patients (with simple surgical type masks has been shown to be effective at reducing infection risk. The major risk to patients is not from staff but from other patients, family and friends.
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The object of respirators at hospitals is to protect both patients and staff.
Why do you think that the major risk to medical/clinical staff is from friends, family and colleagues in a non-work situation? Is there a study you can refer to? If you were right, one would expect all professions to be exposed to approximately the same risk, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hospital staff (and teachers!) appear to be much more exposed than others. Do you think that's because their friends and acquaintances are more contagious than the friends and acquaintances of people in other professions?
And what makes you think that the major risk to patients is not from staff but from other patients, family and friends? Patients probably see more hospital staff than family and friends, and hospital staff tend to get infected more than others, so, one on one, that would make hospital staff more contagious to patients than others.
I suspect that you don't like the idea that hospital staff infect patients and thus prefer to assume that they don't.
Studies, please, or at least an argument.

Planigale said:
You first have to define the problem, only then can you start looking for a solution. Yes FP95 masks do filter air more effectively than simple surgical masks, but there is no point in insisting on a more costly and complicated solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

You also need to go beyond the physics, to the behavioural, will people actually use these masks correctly if not the you lose the benefits.
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What makes you think that the problem doesn't exist?
I no longer see anybody with face masks/respirators. If I saw anybody with surgical masks or wearing respirators incorrectly, I would give them credit for trying and tell them what they were doing wrong. As it is, it's hopeless to do more than what I'm doing here.

Kathryn on X, Jan 30, 2026

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Planigale said:
As has been said, engineering solutions (e.g. ventilation) that aren't dependant on human behaviour are probably better. UK (especially Scottish) readers will be familliar with the issue.

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It's not a competition! Remember the Swiss cheese model. No single precaution eliminates the risk of contagion entirely. There should be better ventilation and air purification at schools, factories, offices, supermarkets etc. We know that it lowers the level of contagion, but so does masking up.
 
The Atheist said:
That's the same position other posters have taken in other threads, and while it's true, it's irrelevant because it's so utterly impractical.
UK, like NZ, and pretty much every country on the planet, has health services that struggle to cope with existing budgets.
Adding several billion to health budgets for better quality air isn't an option.
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Of course, it's an option!
That billionaires and the politicians they pay don't want money to be spent on children, students and workers doesn't make it a non-option.
It just stresses the necessity of doing away with those ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊!
(Unlike the covid conscious people I see on X all the time, I don't argue that there is money to be saved by making children, students and workers less sick. It's a stupid attempt to appeal to the calculations of billionaires and their bribed politicians.)
 
dann said:
Of course, it's an option!
That billionaires and the politicians they pay don't want money to be spent on children, students and workers doesn't make it a non-option.
It just stresses the necessity of doing away with those ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊!
(Unlike the covid conscious people I see on X all the time, I don't argue that there is money to be saved by making children, students and workers less sick. It's a stupid attempt to appeal to the calculations of billionaires and their bribed politicians.)
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Idiotic comment.

Nobody's going to take money off the rich to pay for it. Proposing impossible answers is delusional.
 
The Atheist said:
Idiotic comment.
Nobody's going to take money off the rich to pay for it. Proposing impossible answers is delusional.
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Idiotic comment.
The majority of politicians are more than willing to be paid by the rich to make decisions that serve the rich.
It goes without saying that the rich aren't interested in paying for measures that protect the poor and children other than those of the rich from airborne infectious diseases unless those diseases are so devastating to their work force that they don't have one anymore.

Paying for measures that protect workers and their children is obviously not something that the rich would consider paying their politicians to do, which only goes to show that sensible pandemic (and other sensible) measures aren't possible within the current systems of economics and government.

That some people are incapable of thinking beyond that particular box is idiotic, but people who are just a little smarter are beginning to realize the state of things.
The Atheist's thinking is Dickensian, i.e. fictitious and delusional:
If Scrooge doesn't want to pay for a healthy diet rich in vitamins D to cure Tiny Tim's rickets, Tiny Tim has to remain crippled and eventually die. Proposing any other answer is utterly impossible and delusional.

It's the kind of obsequious thinking that rebels are always up against when they try to help subservient sycophants take matters into their own hands instead of endlessly and unsuccessfully trying to appeal to the non-existent better nature of the rich.
 
catsmate said:
No, they haven't.
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Well, I have no idea where you live but the number of people I see wearing masks is virtually zero and I'm told that pattern is repeated in UK, Australia and France.

I have no anecdotal information from USA, aside from ICE goons in masks, but I don't believe that's for medical reasons.

If you have evidence of mass masking anywhere I'd be glad to see it.
 
I regularly visit a hospital, at least once a month sometimes more, I was there last week for blood tests, because of this thread I was looking for face mask use, probably saw 2 people, and they weren't staff. The blood test department is one of the busiest places (very well run) 6 bays each with a phlebotomist, appointments are timed for 10 minutes each. None of the phlebotomists were masked, and I didn't see anyone else masked.
 
The Atheist said:
Oh my, that is pure gold.
You're such a rebel, posting on the internet.
The Revolution is nigh!

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It is always funny to see The Atheist informing the world about internet posts being posts on the internet, i.e. arguments or, in his case, claims that anything that's not approved and paid for by billionaires is "impossible" and "delusional". (That the oligarchy is not nigh but already there gives his claim a tinge of realism.)
It goes without saying that The Atheist as always carefully removes all arguments from the post he responds to.
 
catsmate said:
No, they haven't.
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The masks have not only largely but entirely disappeared in Copenhagen at this point. I don't know about hospitals, but the last three times I got vaccinated I didn't see anybody wearing a face mask or a respirator.
This is something you have to grant The Atheist and the army of minimizers: They won. They freed the virus from all restraints other than 💉 - and that one restraint only exists to a very limited degree.
 
Darat said:
I regularly visit a hospital, at least once a month sometimes more, I was there last week for blood tests, because of this thread I was looking for face mask use, probably saw 2 people, and they weren't staff. The blood test department is one of the busiest places (very well run) 6 bays each with a phlebotomist, appointments are timed for 10 minutes each. None of the phlebotomists were masked, and I didn't see anyone else masked.
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Same here; I've visited hospitals much more often than usual in the last couple of years for various reasons (very few related to my own health, thankfully) and people, whether staff or patients, wearing masks tend to stand out due to the rarity. The only medical professionals I've seen wearing masks have been my dentist and hygienist. That said, there are at least a few people out and about wearing masks, something which was unknown before Covid; I've not asked any, but I assume they are either people with vulnerable immune systems or people who have something they don't want to pass on.
 
dann said:
It goes without saying that The Atheist as always carefully removes all arguments from the post he responds to.
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Posting an insane wish list of taking over the world and forcing the rich to give up their money to install air purifiers isn't an argument, it's an insult to the intelligence of anyone who can count past two, or spell difficult words like "think".

Self-delusion is a wonderful thing.

I'm setting up a colony on Venus if you want tickets. Face masks aren't optional.
 
dann said:
This is something you have to grant The Atheist and the army of minimizers: They won. They freed the virus from all restraints other than 💉 - and that one restraint only exists to a very limited degree.
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I do have to give you points for hilarity.

In the past 6 months the only person I've seen wearing a mask is me.
 
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