i0wnj00

I don't get it, we have been munching on food and drinking beverages on flights even before the mass vaccinations began. Where was this guy when airlines were still transporting passengers? When terminals and jet bridges had people on top of each other? I had no vaccine back then and didn't even want to fly (things you gotta do for your mom, regardless if there's a virus or you just don't have the bandwidth). It's even better now with the vaccinations, I have some of kind of immunological barrier to protect me when I'm snacking. I returned the face shields I purchased from Amazon because I they looked flimsy and didn't think it was practical. It was something else which was going to wear out and would have to be replaced,

lobo411

For four solid reasons:
1. The guy's advice is contrary to that of the CDC

2. His advice seems illogical based on widely reported clinical trial and real world data

3. He's not an epidemiologist or an immunologist

4. Having a fancy job at a top tier med school doesn't make him automatically right. Remember Dr Scott Atlas, Trump's chief covid advisor and former head of the Radiological Department at Stanford University Medical School? He's the one who said that we should have just let everyone get covid at once. Let the wave wash over us, and get it over with. So was his advice good or bad? After all, he had a fancy title...
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zappa42m

Did you think just one second about others? Wearing a mask is mainly to protect other people around you.

Points Scrounger

When I flew Alaska Airlines nonstop from Seattle to Florida a couple of months ago, the FA covering First explained to me that the "rule" for eating/drinking was mask not required if partially consumed items present; in other words, lowering mask for individual bites/swallows only was optional. I suppose if one were truly mask-hating they could leave a small amount for most of the flight, but that's rather a remote possibility.

Often1

The FA was full of something not generally described as wisdom.

squeakr

Maybe he’ll see that Stanford professors are suspect, but he has been intimately involved with the Covid response here in California and although he is now primarily an academic position, he has a great deal of training and expertise in epidemiology.

Dublin_rfk

Fly much? :-)

lobo411

Are you sure? His bio at UCSF doesn't list any expertise, training, or scholarship in the field of epidemiology:

https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-robert-wachter

ani90

Can you point me in direction of one such study? I work in healthcare and have never once been tested for COVID-19 in work setting. Only tests I have ever done was for international travel. I am not aware of any such studies or indeed any healthcare facilities that undertake non voluntary systematic testing.

LostInAmerica

There will always be those that take every risk or potential danger too seriously and those that do not take them seriously enough. In the gloom and doom camp, we have those saying that just leaving your home could lead to DEATH and therefore we should remain as isolated as possible. Yes it could, but that is not something new that just started in 2020 with Covid. Life is not without exposure to risk and potential disease. We can either become prisoners of fear or embrace life while we can. After all, no one gets out of here alive.

Doppy

Many workplaces in California have weekly testing requirements, including many (but not all) hospitals and colleges. This article reports results at UCSD, which has a weekly testing requirement, even for the vaccinated:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2101927

FlyDeltaMD88

The guy is a quack and I can't believe people are taking him seriously.

vanillabean

Intermittent fasting, a possible priming tool for host defense against SARS-CoV-2 infection?

ani90

Thanks for sharing. Reading the article though, the vast majority of health care workers did not actually undergo weekly testing. Also of note is that the infection rates were 1 in 100 for vaccinated workers who were asymptomatic. That would mean in every plane with vaccinated health workers there could be up to 1 to 3 person's with asymptomatic COVID. Small but but still a real risk to unvaccinated person's on same plane (if testing and mask requirements are different for vaccinated passengers).

I would also differ with the authors and posit that the incidence of asymptomatic infection in hospital workers is likely lower, rather than higher than in the general population; and if they repeat the study in say transport workers one will find more infections. Healthcare workers are specifically trained in infection control and mostly wear masks - often N95 - for all contacts with others in the hospital. They also mostly use masks in appropriate manner, use medical grade masks only ( which are more protective than cloth masks used by public), use PPE as necessary, and wash hands or use alcohol systematically. And contrary to what article suggests, US health workers do not necessarily have increased exposure to COVID, as most hospitals test all (non-emergent) patients before they come through door for treatment. Only those workers in emergency rooms and COVID wards face predictably higher exposure.

I suspect that the vaccinated college student, school teacher, TSA worker or police officer will face a higher risk than what is reported in this article.



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Dublin_rfk

Oh, No not for one second do I concern myself with another person's health or welfare. Some of us are wearing masks today even after having had the virus and being vaccinated when studies say it's not necessary.