Mt Whitney Zone Forums Thread Like Summary - Face Masks - Recent Studies

This topic is only tangentially related to climbing Whitney, but I'm starting a fresh thread to present more recent research related to the effectiveness of face masks and the impact mask wearing can have on reducing community spread of COVID. The previous thread on this topic has become contaminated with misinformation from old and misleading studies, and partisan bickering. Let's keep this thread respectful without the conspiracy nonsense. If you think 92,000 Americans dying in a couple months is a conspiracy, please post elsewhere, you're not interested in science.

I spent considerable time on this topic with an engineering perspective and found a lot of irrelevant old research that needs to be called out. For example, one of those links in the other thread referenced a study based on reuse of the same mask for 30 days by hospital workers in a high-risk environment in Asia. Of course even the N95 masks eventually performed poorly under those circumstances. Many of the studies quoted previously are not new research, they summarize a subset of older studies with a variety of results and methods not suited to the COVID virus. Many of these summary reports complain about a lack of research on the topic, and then strongly conclude, "there's no evidence that masks work." Duh, no relevant research, no evidence.

Here are two recent studies demonstrating cloth masks are effective:

1. Argonne National Laboratory, Center for Nanoscale materials. This study looks at a range of particle sizes relevant to this virus using numerous types of masks from N95, surgical, to several homemade types of various fabrics.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03252?ref=pdf


2. Northeastern University, this one is so recent its still under peer review. Some of the multi-layer homemade masks with the right fabrics are more than 80% effective, better than surgical masks or commercial dust masks.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.17.20069567v4.full.pdf

> ...people who do their own research...

That's another name for anti-vaxers.

It’s simple. We get back to normal by defeating COVID-19. That means social distancing, testing, contact tracing, quarantining, and wearing masks when appropriate.

I stay the hell away from other people as much as possible. I can recall going inside businesses seven times since this all started. (At 71, I’m probably forgetting a trip or two.) I haven’t been to anyone else’s house, and only a few people have been to mine (all for outdoor horse activities). I usually climb alone or with one other person. I’m carefully staying away from doofus magnets like Whitney and Half Dome (sorry, Homer). I wear a mask indoors (except at home) and when I’m close to other people outdoors. I don’t wear one when I’m hiking or filling my car at the gas station. Wearing a mask keeps me a little safer. It keeps other quite a bit safer. Wearing a mask says that I care whether I infect other people. Not wearing one says the opposite.


Sorry to be an outlier again, Hobbs, but I’m “comfortable” enough that I’m giving away a lot more than I spend on myself. And my usual climbing partner this year is more “comfortable” than I am, and she wears masks more than I do.

I think Bruce states it pretty well. I'm a 68 yo RN and have been following COVID updates to have the best info on what's safe and not. I'm not eating inside a restaurant any time soon. Outside dining, okay. Just cut my own hair... But hiking/running/biking/etc. outdoors, risk is pretty close to zero. There was a Washington Post article a couple of days ago asking Dr. Fauci and five other experts what they're doing and not doing. Consensus: avoid close prolonged contact indoors, outdoors is fine. And chances of surface transmission are negligible.

Hobbes:

Don't you have other places to brag about your social/financial status? Let me brake it to you: your status does not automatically make you smart and it certainly doesn't not make you less vulnerable to SARS-Cov2. As multiple folks have already pointed out in this forum, your "scientific analyses" have serious logical flaws.

There we go again. Homer, didn't you notice that Dr. Fauci, whose credentials you seem to appreciate, and all other medical professionals always wear masks in public ? No-one here says you should wear them while hiking alone in the wilderness. The point is that masks DO reduce the chances of getting infected when you are in close proximity with people who are already infected and vice versa - infected people are less likely to infect others if they wear masks. Besides, where is the evidence that masks cause CO2 poisoning and where did you get the numbers suggesting that SARS-CoV2 mortality rate is comparable with regular flu? Please stop spreading the nonsense and, if you really want to know the truth, check your sources.

Edit to add:


At the time of posting, there are 3,040,833 confirmed cases in the US and 132,979 deaths. So, the mortality rate is 4.4%.