It’s always reassuring to hear more evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, that the N95s work. There’s definitely still at least some risk though, my roommate is currently recovering from Covid themselves despite not going out often and always masking when they do. I believe it’s the only time they’ve been infected, so the masks have made a difference for sure, but still. We’ve thankfully been able to isolate and avoid giving it to each other at least.

Our behavior is still pretty limited by others behavior though, too. For instance, I can’t go drinking or out to eat with friends because I won’t take my mask off. At work it can be very difficult for me to even eat lunch safely because of this. Swimming is another thing, or concerts, I used to like going to punk and metal shows, but with how rowdy they are and how much close contact and heavy breathing there is, it’s just far too risky even with my mask on. Lots of things like these add up. I also feel it’s really unfair to those who are unable to mask, like for instance there’s a lot of homeless people in my city who definitely cannot remain masked all the time or even close, shouldn’t we be taking precautions to protect them, or people like them who can’t protect themselves?

Oh, okay, I think I misinterpreted what you said before, but rereading it now I understand.

This is somewhat misleading. Here’s a section from near the beginning of a scientific review I linked in my reply to @ChuckEffingNorris@lemmy.ml:

To reduce spread of respiratory diseases, we need to understand the mechanisms of spread. There is strong and consistent evidence that respiratory pathogens including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, tuberculosis, and other coronaviruses such as MERS and SARS-1, are transmitted predominantly via aerosols. Infected individuals, whether symptomatic or not, continuously shed particles containing pathogens, which remain viable for several hours and can travel long distances. [Emphasis mine.] SARS-CoV-2 is shed mainly from deep in the lungs, not the upper respiratory tract, and the viral load is higher in small aerosols (generated in the lower airways) than in larger droplets (generated in upper airways). Whereas large respiratory droplets emitted when people cough or sneeze fall quickly by force of gravity without much evaporation, those below 100 µm in diameter become (bio)aerosols. Even particles tens of microns in diameter at release will shrink almost immediately by evaporation to the point that under typical conditions they can remain airborne for many minutes. In contrast with droplet transmission, which is generally assumed to occur via a single ballistic hit, the risk of airborne transmission increases incrementally with the amount of time the lung lining is exposed to pathogen-laden air, in other words, with time spent indoors inhaling contaminated air.

Respiratory infections may theoretically also be transmitted by droplets, by direct contact, and possibly by fomites (objects that have been contaminated by droplets), but the dominant route is via respiratory aerosols. The multiple streams of evidence to support this claim for SARS-CoV-2 include the patterning of spread (mostly indoors and especially during mass indoor activities involving singing, shouting, or heavy breathing), direct isolation of viable virus from the air and in air ducts in ventilation systems, transmission between cages of animals connected by air ducts, the high rate of asymptomatic transmission (i.e., passing on the virus when not coughing or sneezing), and transmission in quarantine hotels when individuals in different rooms shared corridor air but did not meet or touch any common surface.

Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review

I recommend giving this a read when you have the time, it should hopefully answer any questions you have and better than I can.

An assumed droplet and contact mode of transmission leads to prevention policies that center on handwashing and surface cleansing, maintaining 2-m physical distancing, wearing medical masks (whose waterproof backing is designed to stop droplets) within that 2-m distance (especially when attending an infected patient), using physical barriers (e.g., plastic screens) and providing health-care workers with higher-grade respiratory protection only when undertaking AGMPs. However, if the virus is transmitted significantly by the airborne route, different prevention policies are needed, oriented to controlling air quality in indoor spaces (e.g., ventilation and filtration), reducing indoor crowding and time spent indoors, wearing masks whenever indoors, careful attention to mask quality (to maximize filtration) and fit (to avoid air passing through gaps), taking particular care during indoor activities that generate aerosols (e.g., speaking, singing, coughing, and exercising), and providing respirator-grade facial protection to all staff who work directly with patients (not just those doing AGMPs)

This is why I specified N95 respirators in my first comment. If you are unfamiliar, N95 is a NIOSH air filtration rating, which is used to describe the ability of a respirator to protect the wearer from airborne solid and liquid particulates. The review I linked goes into more details on this as well. I recommended N95 or better specifically because Covid is the illness I’m most concerned with avoiding, and the evidence suggests that they provide meaningful protection over lower grade respirators or surgical masks. Another quote from the link above that stood out to me:

The certification of surgical masks for particle/bacterial filtering efficiency (P/BFE) does not reflect equivalence to respirators as the filtration is typically compromised by poor face seal. The ASTM F2100-21 P/BFE certification, for example, requires at least 95% filtration against 0.1-µm particles and at least 98% against aerosolized Staphylococcus aureus, but this is on a sample of the mask clamped in a fixture, not on a representative face. In terms of filtering aerosols, N95 respirators outperform surgical masks between 8- and 12-fold. The effectiveness of certified surgical mask material against transmission when used as a filter was demonstrated in a hamster SARS-CoV-2 model. Infected hamsters were separated from non-infected ones by a partition made of surgical mask material; when the partition was in place, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was reduced by 75%.

In addition to protecting the wearer, respirators provide very effective source control by dramatically limiting the amount of respiratory aerosols emitted by infectious individuals. In one study, risk of infection was reduced approximately 74-fold when infected, and susceptible individuals both wore well-fitting FFP respirators compared to when both wore surgical masks.

As for one-way masking, well, it is unfortunately significantly less effective (from what I understand), and is a big part of why I’m so concerned by others not masking. I simply cannot avoid being around others all the time, and their lack of effort is directly endangering me and my wife. If it really all came down to personal choice, I wouldn’t care if people wanted to risk their health. Still, while I don’t have any studies or anything to link you at the moment specifically on the effectiveness of one-way masking, all I know is that I mask and don’t get sick, and they don’t mask and do get sick. It’s anecdotal, sure, and I’m certain the mask is not the only thing affecting this, but as far as I can see it’s the largest difference in our behavior. I’ve heard as well that wearing a respirator will reduce viral load should you be infected despite the filter, and so your sickness will be less severe, but I don’t have any evidence on hand for this.

I would like everyone to wear them until the pandemic is over, at least. After that we can reassess the situation, and preferably during flu season. To me it seems cruel to not mask for that seeing as it would greatly reduce the number of preventable flu deaths.

I think if all, or more realistically enough, of us were masking, that would eliminate the social stigma surrounding it. Personally, I don’t receive much pushback about my mask aside from the occasional staring anyways. What’s far more ostracizing to her, I, and several other people I know, is the fact that all of the social gatherings and hobbies we used to participate in are no longer accessible to us because not a single one is taking any acceptable precautions. In fact, I can think of exactly two social events I wanted to participate in this year that still “required” masks, and neither actually enforced the rule. This is sadly not a new problem for disabled people either. Many, if not most, are alienated from society and forced away from any participation in social activities due to a blatant disregard towards making those activities actually accessible to them. I cannot stress enough how painful this is for those people on the receiving end of this ableism. So, frankly, I have little sympathy for those who fear ostracism from choosing to wear a mask. If they really care about people being ostracized, they should do what they can to make their social circles safe for everyone, not just those without disabilities.

We’d rather not take risks. Plus, we’d like to not accidentally contribute to the spread of disease ourselves if we can help it.

I do not have kids, and I don’t know about all of my coworkers, but I know the overwhelming majority of them do not have kids either.

Key word being occasionally, and also not with a disease that causes serious health complications, cognitive decline, and that itself damages your immune system.

COVID linked to 65% of new onset cognitive impairment, dementia

Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including significant drops in IQ scores

Every COVID Infection Increases Your Risk of Long COVID, Study Warns

SARS-CoV-2 infection weakens immune-cell response to vaccination

Yes, Everyone Really Is Sick a Lot More Often After Covid

Cognitive performance of post-covid patients in mild, moderate, and severe clinical situations

Incidence of diabetes after SARS-CoV-2 infection in England and the implications of COVID-19 vaccination: a retrospective cohort study of 16 million people

Mask. N95 or better. My wife and I never stopped, and she never gets sick despite being immunocompromised. I work in a place where illness is common due to the environment and I’ve been sick once in the last year, meanwhile all of my coworkers come in sick like twice a month. Apparently they’d rather be sick and miserable all the time than wear a mildly uncomfortable thing on their face.

Regardless, women’s sports were definitely created to exclude men, if not explicitly, then by necessity, since prior to that there was only one category that men or women were allowed to compete in, but women couldn’t truly compete in those sports against the men.

I’m pretty sure we are talking about the same thing here, but you are attributing it to women being physically unable to compete versus men, which while it can be a relevant concern depending on the sport, was historically not really the reason they were excluded. Women were heavily discouraged by men to participate even though they were technically allowed to. There’s actually some really interesting connections between women’s sports and feminist movements that help make this connection more apparent, particularly biking and the suffragette movement. I don’t have anything to link on hand but I definitely recommend reading about it. It’s still easy to see this in the modern day if you look at competitive activities where there is no possible argument of a biological advantage, like e-sports or chess, where women could easily be just as successful as men, if the cultures of those games weren’t so dominated by men who view those spaces as theirs, and who view women who come to participate as invaders.

and yet they definitely have a genetic advantage over the vast majority of women, to the point where certain events could conceivably be dominated by people with their condition

Do you have a source for this? Here is a study that came to a very different conclusion.

Key Biomedical Findings

• Biological data are severely limited, and often methodologically flawed.
• There is limited evidence regarding the impact of testosterone suppression (through, for example, gender-affirming hormone therapy or surgical gonad removal) on transgender women athletes’ performance.
• Available evidence indicates trans women who have undergone testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantages over cis women in elite sport.

The category was literally made to exclude a segment of the population from competing (men).

Women’s sports weren’t invented to exclude men, they were invented to include women. This may seem like a minor distinction, but I don’t believe it is because of the clear connection between cis women being excluded from sports due to misogyny, and trans women being excluded from sports due to transphobia.

(I made this comment on my lemmygrad account originally, but realized you wouldn’t see it then, so I’m reposting it on this account.)

nice, good work mods

Good read, thanks for sharing this! It’s very frustrating to me how often discussions of the Biden administration completely ignore COVID, so the criticism is refreshing.

Trump and Biden, or rather Democrats and Republicans, are functionally the same. If you don’t see that it’s either because you aren’t affected by their violence and don’t care about people who are, or because you’re a fool. Quit wasting your time on these dead ends and recognize reality, the bourgeoisie are the only people with real power in the US. Any choices the masses are given electorally that may come to pass are insignificant to the greater capitalist and imperialist power structure. At most they are concessions (which can later be rolled back) to pacify you. Stop being the obedient dog of your owners! If you really want to improve this dumpster fire of a country, join your local communist party and start building the foundation for a better future. And for fucks sake, read some books about how capitalism works so you stop getting caught with your pants down. If you actually care at all and want some recommendations or links I’d be happy to provide what I can.

Fascists are already in power, that is the whole problem! No matter who you choose, all of the problems I listed and more will continue to get worse and worse.

lmao speak for yourself, i sure as fuck won’t be voting for butcher biden

He sure is effective at killing brown people at least! Good at disabling as many people as possible with COVID too. He’s quite effective at opposing the rights of trans people as well. Oh, and he’s the best at deportation, can’t forget that!