Some people thought that surgical masks wouldn’t stop you from getting Covid
replyThey didn't. The point is that they stop you from giving covid to other people.
replyIt's a distinction without a difference. Masks served to reduce the herd from spreading covid. Including other people giving it to you.
replyThe distinction is important! The mechanism by which surgical masks prevent you from getting COVID-19 is peer pressure: it's important for people to know this, so they know how to protect themselves. (And there are fitted masks that protect the wearer: there was just a shortage of them, because despite all the warnings we were not prepared for a pandemic.)
replyYou do realise that surgeons don't wear those masks to stop them from catching something right?
reply> Some people thought that surgical masks wouldn’t stop you from getting Covid
replyYou do realize that masks would help prevent you from getting covid if other people are wearing the masks, right?
The comment just talked about masks, not whether you are the one wearing the mask.
Surgical masks don't stop you from getting Covid. That was never what they were for: they were to reduce the viral load you exposed others to, between when you got infected and when you noticed that you were infected. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgical_mask#Function.
replySome cloth masks can (when dry) also trap small particulates through electrostatic interactions, although they are less effective as a mechanical filter than surgical masks; and many washing methods destroy this effect.
Right, but that still makes the people who refused to wear one selfish assholes.
replyThank God I lived long enough to forget COVID-era terms.
replyI'm taking, Covid-era anti-masker (?)
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