Vitriol01

In my opinion, masks, for the seemingly marginal efficacy (when taking into account degradation of the mask over time, the fact that people don't use them properly etc.), don't outweigh the negative social and societal impact. We are social creates after all, and this 'masks are here to stay' mantra I find very disconcerting.

Especially in light of all of the recent data to show (a) COVID is somewhere in the order of 10-20x less deadly than we originally believed it was, (b) the IFR is heavily, heavily skewed toward elderly populations (which could be shielded more effectively if we focussed upon them rather than the general population), and (c) that the previously believed/modelled exponential spread was incorrect, and countries seem to have gone through a similar pattern regardless of severity of lockdown.

sealsgod

Mask is important in COVID for everybody, using data from research to disagree the useful of wearing mask is a big mistake for euro and america. as in those lab test or case research is only telling what will be different if you have or having mask. but in the actual word, we need multiple measure defeat COVID. Mask is one of the important measure for stop the virus speaking in public area and for yourself to be less chance or I say less portion will immunity system need to defeat inside your body. no airline will want to risk passenger without mask in cabin, that why airline must ask everyone ware mask.

glob99

A) COVID is 10X more deadly than the flu. You are 100X more likely to need hospitalization than the flu. Look at Peru and India and see people dying in the streets because the healthcare system has collapsed.
B) Sweden didn't go into lockdown and were unable to protect its elderly. It has the highest death rate from COVID of the Nordic countries.
C) The exponential rate of infections did occur and is occurring in India right now! It was only going into lockdown that flattened the curve.

Japan had a spike of infections and then required mask wearing for all. The infection rate went down.

Vitriol01

(a) Where do you get the data that is COVID is 10x more deadly than seasonal flu, and 100x more likely to require hospitalisation? That certainly is not the case across the population spectrum.

(b) Correct, Sweden did not go into lockdown. 70% of its deaths occurred in care homes (definite failure there).Remove the care homes from the equation and their mortality rate is similar to many other countries. In fact its overall death rate is not dissimilar to the UK which had a very severe lockdown. And that's without going into the various other countries the didn't lockdown severely and yet watched the disease progress in a not-too-dissimilar way. (I'm not discounting locking down reduced infection - it absolutely did to some degree - but it probably was not the overriding or main factor based on information that we now have.)

(c) See point (b). And exponentiality seemingly did not occur - for reasons we don't know but perhaps has something to do with a greater resistance to COVID in parts of the population than was otherwise anticipated.

Japan never locked down. Masks do have an effect, I'm not denying that. What I'm arguing is that perhaps their constant is not worth the ultimate trade-offs as the effect is marginal (see various studies on mask efficacy in general population versus medical situations).

Global Adventurer

Back in February, I flew from Dubai to LAX. I was the only one wearing a N95. There was a sick woman constantly coughing who wore a regular mask. That was it. And she moved to the back of the plane from what I witnessed. I kept my respirator on the entire 16 hour flight with the exception of eating and drinking one time mid flight. I saved all the snacks and extra food and ate it when I arrived home. When I ate on the plane, I used a folded up bandana to cover my face between each bite. I've read so many times that "viral load" has a lot to do with if the virus taking hold, so if any were circulating on the flight, I would have been exposed to less than none. I had my own sanitizer and straight alcohol I used throughout the flight. And completely wiped down my entire area with straight alcohol before settling in. At that time all I had were safety glasses and a box of N95s. Now I have a much bigger collection of N100s and P100s and several industrial goggles, which I've worn more recently on 4 hour flights and refused any meals or snacks and just take the snacks with me. It's all a personal choice, but masks or respirators will definitely help prevent other people's spit and moisture cloud from directly going into your mouth, nose and eyes. I've been on six flights so far and I believe the protection I've worn has reduced my chance of contracting the virus. Especially the last flight I was on. It was jammed packed and most people only had their masks covering their mouths. Why even wear one then🙄

Metanoia

I reckon looking incredibly silly wearing gas-mask style N/P100's is worth it. I used mine to get a haircut the other day...

Global Adventurer

I rather look silly walking around than dead laying in a casket 😊😃

Editorield

All airlines are trying to strictly enforce face covering during flight journey. Mask is the first weapon to prevent us from corona, so please use mask while coming out and in your journey.

iFlyMoreThanYou

Interesting first post.

thijsseh

Yep, that's what I was thinking.
But I guess if someone feels strongly enough about these things, it's perfectly acceptable to sign up for FT. Hope he or she will contribute more in future.

Having said that, I agree with the post. We simply have to play by the rules the airlines impose on us. Even if one's personal opinion is that face masks are ineffective, a nuisance, or whatever. All airlines I know of (and now I duck because surely someone is going to mention an airline - or possibly several airlines - with different rules), require face covering. They must have calculated that insisting on face coverings is more viable than implementing social distancing (by leaving significant amounts of seats empty). The air circulation on aircraft helps but is not sufficient to mitigate the risk to acceptable levels (the airlines have decided).

For the record, I survived an 11 hour flight a few weeks ago, wearing a face mask all the time when I was not eating or drinking (and the catering provided did not require a long time without the face mask ). It was not comfortable, but perfectly doable.

nightkhan

I don't get why people make such a big deal about wearing masks. It helps to prevent you spreading your germs around, and as user pWei mentioned above, if everyone wears a mask, chances are it'll do more good than harm. Use common sense, take it off when eating and drinking, but if you're not doing anything, wearing a mask can increase the protection for people around you. Even if you don't believe it helps, it doesn't hurt to at least take some precaution. Take this flight for example, if I were a pax on this flight, I would feel much safer knowing everyone wore a mask. I would still get tested obviously and quarantine, but if everyone on the flight wore a mask, chances are it could've at least helped to prevent spreading the virus, and even if say it doesn't, wearing one wouldn't have hurt anyone. Potential upside, no negative downside:

https://onemileatatime.com/emirates-...g-coronavirus/
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...cases-covid-19

iFlyMoreThanYou

No negative downside? Wearing it for hours on end is horrible. I won't be wearing mine all flight.

nightkhan

So in your case the "negative downside" is just that you don't like wearing it because it's not comfortable? That's not a real negative downside, that's more like "I'm not going to wear a seatbelt because it's uncomfortable". True first few days took some getting used to for me, but now I don't even really notice it at all and I wear my mask for hours when I go out.

I'm meant upside/downside as in actual consequences. If everyone wears one then it could potentially reduce the spread of any possible germs. There's no downside/harm in wearing one, aside from people not wanting to because they think it's uncomfortable.

IntrepidAfrican2

I’m not sold on their efficacy, but if they must be worn and the advice is conflicting, I’ll wear them.

and even comfort is solvable. I ordered 3D-printed custom N95 masks with refill filters. Fits like a glove (wore it all day yesterday around the house) and doesn’t steam up my glasses when I wear them; after a couple of hit-and-miss experiences.

iFlyMoreThanYou

Yes.