Re: Crazy (and not-so-crazy) shit about Covid-19
Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:36 pm
As Steve points out:
Viruses themselves don't fly around freely in any signficant numbers, it's the Covid-19 viruses being transported in droplets and aerosols that infect. And simple masks or other mouth/nose coverings certainly won't keep back or inhibit all the aerosols one produces. But even if it's only 50% or 20%, this can still make a difference stastically, maybe in some cases reducing the viral load other people get to a less hazardous level.
As regards Peacedog's remark: "Respiratory function is definitely stressed by wearing a mask and I can't see as how that can be healthy over a long period of time like on a trans-Pacific flight."
I talked to my sister in England today, who was in hospital for several days due to a severe leg injury and infection. The standard Covid-19 test on admission revealed that she was positive, although luckily asymptomatic so far. This meant that while lying in her hospital bed and hooked up to various monitors, she also had to wear a face mask. Not one of the more high-tech ones, it was a fairly basic one but close-fitting. Certainly created a little more discomfort and unwelcome warmth, but she had to keep it on all the time. She's also quite knowledgable about things medical, and for a period of almost 24 hours she could see the monitor readout for her oxygen saturation. And for the entire time she kept this mask on, her sats remained at 99 percent, just as they would without a mask. (A couple of times her sats fell to 95 but because she was breathing very shallowly because of pain. Once she managed to breath normally again her sats were up to normal again within a few seconds.) So that would indicate that wearing a normal mask does cause any degree of oxygen deficiency.
Viruses themselves don't fly around freely in any signficant numbers, it's the Covid-19 viruses being transported in droplets and aerosols that infect. And simple masks or other mouth/nose coverings certainly won't keep back or inhibit all the aerosols one produces. But even if it's only 50% or 20%, this can still make a difference stastically, maybe in some cases reducing the viral load other people get to a less hazardous level.
As regards Peacedog's remark: "Respiratory function is definitely stressed by wearing a mask and I can't see as how that can be healthy over a long period of time like on a trans-Pacific flight."
I talked to my sister in England today, who was in hospital for several days due to a severe leg injury and infection. The standard Covid-19 test on admission revealed that she was positive, although luckily asymptomatic so far. This meant that while lying in her hospital bed and hooked up to various monitors, she also had to wear a face mask. Not one of the more high-tech ones, it was a fairly basic one but close-fitting. Certainly created a little more discomfort and unwelcome warmth, but she had to keep it on all the time. She's also quite knowledgable about things medical, and for a period of almost 24 hours she could see the monitor readout for her oxygen saturation. And for the entire time she kept this mask on, her sats remained at 99 percent, just as they would without a mask. (A couple of times her sats fell to 95 but because she was breathing very shallowly because of pain. Once she managed to breath normally again her sats were up to normal again within a few seconds.) So that would indicate that wearing a normal mask does cause any degree of oxygen deficiency.