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Comment by klyrs | Hacker News Reader

Vaccines are effective at reducing death and hospitalization. They don't reduce transmission to zero, for the Delta variant in particular. Children and many teens are not vaccinated, and they're also particularly vulnerable to the Delta variant. Masks are most effective at stopping transmission. For the same reason cars are equipped with brakes and seatbelts.

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When will masks go away? What is the exact needed to stop mandating them?

And vaccomated people don’t need masks. It isn’t a science thing. It’s just plain stupid to keep wearing them. Life has plenty of other things for people to worry about besides just this myopic fixation on covid.

Are they? Are masks the most effective at stopping transmission? Even cloth masks? Masks mandates don't seem to make a difference. And studies sure cloth masks are mostly useless

Masks are an amulet and nothing more. It’s like religion. Deep in most peoples heart they know their religion isn’t real but they’ll never admit it, even to themselves.

Same with masks… deep in most peoples hearts, they know masks don’t do a darn thing. But they’ll never admit it… don’t wanna be thought of as “the others”…

Define "vulnerable" for children? Please. Using actual data.

Please stop spreading misinformation. There is no reliable evidence that the Delta variant produces more severe symptoms in children.

Sorry, I should have said "susceptible." But I did not say that children are exhibiting more severe symptoms; those are your words. However, the infection rate of children is much higher with Delta than other variants.

As an aside, I know that this is a hot-button topic. It would be appreciated if you follow the site guidelines, and be more charitable in conversation.

The infection rate for children isn't any higher than adults.

So what if the infection rate in kids is higher? They still aren’t at risk of serious illness. They are far more at risk of house fires, swimming pools and driving.

They increase the overall rate of transmission, putting everybody they're in contact with at greater risk. Especially since they're in schools, often in close contact with multiple cohorts per day. Diseases spread most quickly through densely-connected social networks. We didn't see significant transmission in children with the early variants, but with Delta, the game has changed.

Risk of what? Who cares if people catch covid. It’s never going away. Covid is here forever. Get your vaccine and move on. Vaccines work.

The people who catch it care. The people with dead relatives especially care. The hospitals full beyond capacity care. The patients denied treatment because hospitals are overloaded care. The health care professionals who are overworked and have PTSD from working under these conditions care. Not everybody has, or even can, get a vaccine. For those people, and because of those people, masks are used.

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