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Comment by MaxBarraclough | Hacker News Reader

Slightly off-topic: shouldn't the 'new normal' be to wear N95/N99 masks?

We know they're far more effective, and there's been plenty of time to ramp up production. I don't see why the 'normal' option is to wear a non-medical mask.

It's also surprising that societies are entirely incapable of doing a hard lockdown for 3 weeks with mandatory testing at the end. I imagine that would be enough to reduce the case count to near zero, but it seems this cannot be done at a national scale even with time to prepare.

edit Turns out I'm not alone here, here's a Harvard professor pushing for mass use of N95 masks: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/26/n95-masks...

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It's just hygiene theater to make people feel better. 95% of time when I see masks in a situation that isn't particularly risky (outdoors), it's not an N95. People do it because it makes them feel safer and to virtue signal.

What's bizarre is that it's rare for public health officials to care, either. It makes me think they're actually very effective (which I doubt with delta), they want to people to feel safe to keep the economy running, or they're worried about how much more contagious it could get facing a real obstacle.

As for the hard lockdown, I think we're past the point of that being a theoretical option. Looking to Australia, it's still spreading. There's a level of contagiousness where the minimum amount of interaction is still to much to stop the spread. We'll see what happens in New Zealand.

You're right about the national scale for everywhere other than Singapore. There are just too many people too spread out to actually enforce it. Borders are too porous, and enough people are onboard with letting it spread that this option isn't practically or politically viable.

You think doctors wear surgical masks as hygiene theater too?

There have been countless looks at mask efficiency over the past year. "Normal" masks cut infenction risk in half. Yeah it's not 100%, but it's 50%!

Acting like everything is an "all or nothing" solution is going to be the death of us.

> It's just hygiene theater to make people feel better.

With the disclaimer that I'm not an expert: this is wrong. Cloth masks are moderately effective in preventing the wearer from infecting others. N95/N99 masks do this job much better, as well as significantly protecting the wearer, unlike cloth masks. We've known this for some time.

As far as I know there's no reason to believe the new variants have changed things, other than making it even more beneficial to switch to N95/N99.

A slight aside: apparently Austria now requires use of FFP2 masks (roughly equivalent to the N95 classification): https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n432

Germany too: FFP2 or surgical masks, with the majority of people using FFP2, at least around here.

You argument is in bad faith: because something is effective but not perfect doesn’t mean we should get rid of it. If people are not wearing a mask properly, we should explain why it matters and how to do it — not throw out a good idea.

Same thing for lockdown: it works. It might not be enough, or there are too many edge cases in Australia, but dismissing distancing because the first attempt wasn’t enough, or perfect is the opposite of what Hacker News stands for.

Just asking: would they also be effective in a slightly clueless general public? Eg they only work when they are in your face, fitted, etc.

It could be that cost/actual benefit looks worse when you factor poor usage.

That's actually what Dr Fauci initially talked about with regard to the general public. With how masks are worn and used in practice, he was probably right.

Fauci: There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

LaPook: And can you get some schmutz, sort of staying inside there?

Fauci: Of course, of course. But, when you think masks, you should think of health care providers needing them and people who are ill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gYAka7qSnM

Fauci later admitted to essentially lying to the public so there wasn't a shortage of masks for healthcare workers.

https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-dire...

> "Well, the reason for [not telling people to wear masks in March, 2020] is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected."

Laudable as his intentions may be, and while I doubt he makes it a habit, he lied.

Government employees have a habit of doing that.

Do you think government employees do it more than non government employees?

It isn't about who lies more, it is about who is in a trusted position.

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