Originally Posted by
Finkface
You are perfectly safe outdoors. We do not wear masks where I am and our numbers are very small, mostly all in long term care homes. The below is from our Provincial Health Officer who has been fantastic throughout this (and is a local hero now) and has years of experience working with infectious diseases, including ebola. I know everyone has their own risk tolerance but the overkill and overreaction to this has reached dizzying heights. This isn’t a poison gas cloud hovering in the air that merely being in the same square mile of will kill you. The best, most important thing you can do is wash your hands.
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The chance of catching COVID-19 from someone coughing as they walk past you in a park is "infinitesimally small," B.C.'s provincial health officer said Wednesday.
During her daily briefing on the pandemic, Dr. Bonnie Henry said people should still feel comfortable spending time outside, as long as they stick with members of their household and keep a two-metre distance from others.
"We always say 'never say never' in medicine, but the risk would be infinitesimally small if somebody walks by you, runs by you — even if they are within six feet," Henry said.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...UPEW-IRya4xq9w
Thanks for those observations and citation.
Granted, there is a lot of unknowns about this transmits in the wild. But, it went being considered to only spread through direct and sustained contact and breathing heavy airborne particles that drop within few feet, to a more recent study purporting to explain transmission in known cases based upon restaurant seating patterns and air conditioning airflow vectors.
Having come back from Japan when this started heating up, I was wearing masks very early on in this, and was only latter joined by others in my community. People used to comment that one was in more danger putting on/taking off the mask incorrectly, and that the mask could only be used once and then must be discarded. We now know that reusing masks is standard practice and the concept of reducing viral load supercedes lots of other concerns. The standard of practice has changed dramatically within weeks.
So, for this high-risk person, I'll continue to wear a mask, helping me avoid touching my face while hopefully reducing viral load from some errant waft of virus shed through aerosol by an infected runner passing too close by me.
Now, to return to topic, the 14-day quarantine, I heard on the local TV news that local college students returning to their neighbor island homes after completing school at UH-Manoa, will not be required to stay quarantined.
Best of health to all...