Throughout the pandemic I was a proponent of the individual choice to mask. I favored airlines imposing their own mask requirements in spring 2020, long before the federal government made existing airline rules a legal requirement. I liked, though, that some airlines handled their exception policies differently, for instance Delta was more flexible with young children and so wasn’t kicking two and three year olds off of planes.
I’ve been a fan of properly wearing a high quality mask. A fitted N95 mask isn’t perfect protection, but it seems to afford quite a bit both to the wearer (from others) and to others (from the wearer, in case they are asymptomatically infected).
I do not understand those who continue to wear cloth masks in an airport and on planes at this point. It made sense when someone didn’t really want to wear a mask – these didn’t really provide meaningful protection, but were the most comfortable way to meet the requirement. Now I understand someone who doesn’t mas, and I understand someone who wears a P100. Voluntarily wearing low quality masks doesn’t seem to achieve any clear goal.
One Mile at a Time explains his approach to masking during travel. He will “still choose to selectively wear a [KN95] mask when traveling” in crowded airport spaces like security, and during boarding and deplaning and sitting in close proximity to others in economy. That’s less about Covid-19 and more about how people get sick generally and how to prevent spread of airborne illnesses. That framework seems right to me, though I’d note that the quality of KN95 masks varies greatly.
I no longer mask because of Covid either.
- I’m quadruple vaccinated. The long timeframe for the U.S. government to consider and approve updates to the vaccines means that by the time an updated formulation is released it’s largely out of date relative to the circulating virus, but it continues to confer strong protection against severe illness.
- I’ve recovered from infection. Vaccination plus prior infection confers the strongest protection. There’s still some debate over whether the current circulating virus is actually less severe or the tremendous amount of background immunity means outcomes aren’t nearly as bad. Either way, I have about the most protection possible.
- There are great treatments now. Paxlovid is basically a cure. When I get sick, I test myself for Covid. I can get treatment. We now also know that pegylated interferon lambda is highly effective against hospitalization as well, but we no longer consider Covid enough of a public health emergency where it is even likely to be approved.
[A] new class of variant-proof treatments could help restock the country’s armory. Scientists on Wednesday reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a single injection of a so-called interferon drug slashed by half a Covid patient’s odds of being hospitalized.
The results, demonstrated in a clinical trial of nearly 2,000 patients, rivaled those achieved by Paxlovid. And the interferon shots hold even bigger promise, scientists said. By fortifying the body’s own mechanisms for quashing an invading virus, they can potentially help defend against not only Covid, but also the flu and other viruses with the potential to kindle future pandemics.
However I carry masks in my laptop bag – and I’m grateful for the changing culture around mask-wearing since prior to the pandemic. I hate getting sick, I just don’t have the space for down time.
I don’t just write this blog (by myself, some similar sites have 100 or more employees) but I also have a full time job and other projects as well. I don’t want to get sick and I’ve long felt like I wanted to mask during flu season, something much more accepted in Asia over the couple of decades since SARS, but I’d have been looked at like a space alien in the U.S. for doing so.
Masks have become way too political. I always thought that Republicans should have been pro-mask in 2020 as the conservative alternative to lockdowns. Now they’re a choice. I don’t wear it for Covid-19 on its own, but am happy to wear it where my risk of flu, RSV, and other viruses is elevated.
I’m grateful not to have to wear a mask on a long haul flight in business class, but I’ve gotten sick after sitting next to ill seat mates too many times to want that for myself. Masks certainly aren’t going to provide protection against viruses spread via fomites. Instead they’re a limited strategic tool that won’t make sense for me in many situations. I am not masking close to a majority of the time when I fly throughout the year.
Just don’t rag on individuals who have a medical requirement to wear a mask.
Masks don’t protect against viruses now and they never have.
Masks don’t do sht to stop covid or any other airborne respiratory virus of that size. You’ve all been duped.
Masks do protect against viruses. Just look at the death rate among doctors and nurses that work with Covid patients.
The pandemic is ongoing. Every day, hundreds of Americans die from Covid, far, far worse and more than the flu. Proper fitting N95 masks should be worn by all on the plane unless there is a valid medical reason (not a made up reason) and, if so, then a tight surgical masks instead.
@Samuel
They do stop it. The reason is that viruses are bound to saliva particles or moisture from the lungs.
This pandemic has shown how awful peoples’ medical judgment is. Their judgment is in the toilet.
That face diaper and all those injections did jack squat to save you, or anyone else, from catching the Vid. People are dying from unhealthy lifestyle choices which make them unable to survive infection. Start eating cleaner and get to the gym. You’ve had 3 years now.
The Japanese tradition of wearing a mask when you are sick seems like a good place to settle.
So, if masks offer no protection against the virus (now or ever), how come I have never been infected with the virus? While many stayed home during the pandemic, I never did. I traveled all over the world during the pandemic. I simply followed the rules that were in place at each destination and I wore a mask. When they restarted cruising, I also did a few of them towards the end of the pandemic and when they lifted all of the protocols, I just kept wearing my mask and tested when I thought it necessary for peace of mind. On one cruise from New York to Italy, masks were no longer required. Most decided not to wear them. A few even laughed at us for wearing ours. In an elevator, one man saw us with our masks and proceed to cough all over the place. By the time the ship got to Italy, hundreds had tested positive and were isolated. Most found out that their stay in Italy would be extended at their own expense and many had to repurchase airline tickets. I will be wearing my mask on the three cruises that I still have scheduled before the end of the year. But I have changed my opinion about the pandemic, wearing a mask, getting vaccinated, and just doing the right thing. I’m actually looking forward to the next pandemic. Maybe mother nature will get it right the next time. But I really don’t give a shit. People should just do whatever they want. After all, they believe that they have a constitutional right to be assholes. The world is overpopulated as it is and maybe the next pandemic will help solve that problem. I no longer glance at the news in regard to people getting sick or dying. I could care less when there is a mass shooting. And if people believe that they have a right to infect others, including those close to them, with a deadly virus, so be it.
Four years. Four years, since the start of the pandemic, and I always masked and managed to never get COVID despite traveling by air each month.
I had to unexpectedly fly to Europe for a funeral. We flew SAS. We relented and did not mask. I am just now recovering from COVID. Of course, I am not sure where or how I got it. But both my wife and I did, mere days after returning (returned Monday night, in bed by Wednesday night). So yeah, I am going back to masking as I take to the skies again next week.
I hate getting sick and prior to covid I was a the virus police in my workplace, I would always tell anyone coughing or sneezing to go home and take a paid day off (that is why we have them), I have been traveling since 2021 with a mask on whenever I can’t stay away from people. There are far to many inconsiderate travelers that cough and sneeze all over their neighbors without any guilt
enough with the masks already ! It has been known for 60 years that the are useless against an aerosolized virus. Why are we still discussing this??
@ Robert. After reading your comments, “they” are obviously not the only ones that have “a constitutional right to be assholes.”
BTW, the WORLD in not overpopulated . . . some countries may be, but NOT the world.
More than 500 people a day are still dying from Covid 19. That’s 182,500 dead per year!!! At one level I understand why healthy people under 60 no longer wear masks. But they must understand that those of us who are older or who are at high risk are the victims of non-mask wearers. It is we that are dying and/or getting very ill. We are sacrificial lambs, collateral damage. Please keep this in mind when you decide whether to mask.
I tried my best to get C19 2020-23. I never wore a mask unless it was required, and even then I cheated as much as possible, in every way technically conceivable, rendering the masks completely useless. I didn’t wash my hands more than usual, and I never socially distanced. I went to the most crowded parties. I walked against the arrows on the floor. I have never been vaccinated. I fly nearly 200K miles per year across multiple continents, even when overall travel was down 80% or whatever. Result: I did not have a single sick day in 3 years.
Didn’t you post this EXACT same blog a few weeks (or maybe a month) ago?! Do whatever you want but don’t tell me what I should do. I’ll never wear a mask unless mandated by law (and then I do comply). If you want to wear one and look strange go for it.
@Bob – vaccinated and with a properly-fitted and worn N95 those over 60 are at very low risk, and having someone who probably doesn’t have Covid wearing a cloth mask (which always met the mandate requirement) wouldn’t protect you.
@Gary. Did you write this just to stir up the mask trolls?
BTW, your dissing of Kansas City last week was pretty pathetic. I’m sitting in the new terminal and it’s pretty great. Now if American will just bring us a lounge, we’ll truly be better than the dump called Austin.
Cheers
Bill
I wear a mask in places like airports and planes because I don’t trust the assholes, like those posting up-thread, that are incubators for everything awful on the planet. Plus it pisses those people off, so even more reason.
Some of these comments are literally hilarious.
From, mask don’t work to vaccines don’t work and the best so far is trying to get Covid.
Regardless of your political view, after you get your doctorate in contagious diseases and spend time in the ICU or Covid Ward, as it was designated, watching people die daily with their loved ones unable to physically be by their side and their bodies thrown in a truck trailer, feel free to come back and we can have a chat. I guarantee your view will change when your educated outside google and the news.
@Gary, why did you have to go down this rabbit hole again? Is it because the other site did and it was easy content?
Where were all the masks in 2019? The incremental risk between then and now is absolutely zero. This is an indisputable fact. If you were comfortable walking on a plane without a mask in 2019 and are not now – you have been duped.
I will not jump into the discussion of whether masks work or not because people will believe what they want despite the substantial evidence which exists now – and was not allowed to be discussed during the pandemic.
I will respond to the statement that the red party politicized the issue when it was clear that it became a political choice to control people and take away choice by the blue folks as evidence began to pour in around the world that many of the accepted public health measures weren’t making much if any difference. The fact that it was the blue parts of the country that were last to back away from mandates instead of allowing personal choice highlights precisely the issue.
There are a growing number of countries that took steps that were counter to what the blue team did. So the notion that this became a political issue because of the red team is actually counter to reality
Bill Cummings,
Delta has sparking new lounges in both AUS and MCI (plus BNA among non-hub cities). AA took a hard pass on a lounge in MCI.
Derek. with not from Covid. With not from. The bogus death numbers have been used to scare dumb people from the very beginning. Really sad to see they are still doing that today. Ask yourself one simple question – how many of those people would be alive today if Covid did not exist. The answer is about 4%. Death sucks. I wish it never happened. But it does. To make the whole world wear a useless mask because a few… less informed people are afraid is just plain silly.
*just here for the comments*
@ Meidcal geniuses — Yeah, and condoms don’t stop the spread of HIV either. Believe what you want, at your own detriment.
Mature take:
If you wear a mask – leave others alone.
If you do not wear a mast – leave others alone.
It’s fascinating that, with all the available evidence, Gary continues to spout his ignorant half–truths and more likely, outright lies. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Face diapers do nothing to stop the spread, check out the Cochran Study, the experimental gene therapies are an abject failure, along with Paxlovid, and every protection measure that was employed was more about control and had little to do with health.
I’ve sent Gary numerous articles, studies and evidence that has effectively destroyed the narrative he continues to promote. It’s patently obvious his ego won’t allow him admit his mistakes. He simply lacks the moral fortitude.
Of course, anyone who admits to being quadruple “vaxxed”, couldn’t possibly be in a normal state of mind.
I would agree with Gary’s take in the article if Long Covid didn’t exist.
There are more outcomes from Covid than recovery and death. Millions are out of the workforce because of lingering debilitating symptoms from Long Covid. It is akin to unemployment rates. If you have a job, you don’t care about job loss. If you or someone in your family has never gotten long covid, then it isn’t a factor in your decision-making.
https://news.vumc.org/2022/03/30/team-helps-patients-battle-post-covid-cognitive-issues/
Cahn’t make this stuff up.
There you have it in full view: the unhinged MAGA conspiracy theories and paranoia that politicized sensible mitigatory measures designed to limit the devastation of the greatest threat to global health in more than a century.
@James N — Please do not latched onto the poorly done and widely criticized “Cochran Study” to spread more canard. Mitigatory measures like “social distancing” and, yes, masking did save countless lives by “flattening the curve” until effective vaccines were developed.
So many medical and research scientist degrees inferred by FOX News onto millions of heretofore untrained people.
MT, or, alternatively, a little common sense in a covid mad world. The man on CNN was lying to you. I’m sorry to break the news.
Gary,
Being quadrupled vaccinated does not protect you from Covid or severe Covid symptoms. Actually, vaccinated people are more likely to have more severe reactions to Covid than people who are pure blood. Vaccinated people are more likely to get Covid. Of course, vaccinated people are more likely to suffer from complications due to the vaccine than they would if they got Covid and were unvaccinated.
I continue to wear a mask at all times in public as a personal choice. I think it’s great I can wear a mask without stigma to protect myself from the air of so many gross people. If in business class I don’t wear a mask after boarding is done because there is enough space.
Mask mandates are anti freedom and anyone who supports the government enforcing mask rules is a criminal in my book. Your body your choice means it should be your choice.
Pre-covid: On almost every long vacation we’ve taken I’ve come back with a cold, usually a pretty nasty one. Since we resumed traveling and we’re religiously wearing masks as much as possible, I’ve come back from all of our trips without being sick. Now, this isn’t a double blind study or anything with huge scientific merit, but I know we’re going to keep wearing masks when we travel for the forseeable future. and, you just never know what the next variant is going to do… For those of you who think wearing a mask us useless that’s fine, nothing is going to change your opinion. But, please consider wearing one anyway if you”re sick and contagious. That’s just common courtesy.
Amazing how many people here have no understanding of the situation.
@Heck Farr: “Masks” don’t provide much protection–but what you’re missing is the N95/KN95/KF94 and above are actually called respirators, not masks. When you lump them with masks you get very poor data.
@Lowe
> That face diaper and all those injections did jack squat to save you, or anyone else, from catching the Vid. People are dying from unhealthy lifestyle choices which make them unable to survive infection. Start eating cleaner and get to the gym. You’ve had 3 years now.
First, explain the more than one million excess deaths–did Covid cause a huge switch to unhealthy lifestyle choices?! And why is it so concentrated amongst the Republicans? Since the vaccines came out the Republicans have had about twice the excess death rate than the Democrats.
And you’re using death as the only yardstick of importance–we probably have more disabled by Covid than killed by it. (And the experience with SARS says they probably won’t recover.)
@Bob
> Where were all the masks in 2019? The incremental risk between then and now is absolutely zero. This is an indisputable fact. If you were comfortable walking on a plane without a mask in 2019 and are not now – you have been duped.
Risk is the same? 2019, zero Covid deaths. Now it’s competing for the #3 cause of death in the CDC lists.
@Dave
> Derek. with not from Covid. With not from. The bogus death numbers have been used to scare dumb people from the very beginning. Really sad to see they are still doing that today. Ask yourself one simple question – how many of those people would be alive today if Covid did not exist. The answer is about 4%. Death sucks. I wish it never happened. But it does. To make the whole world wear a useless mask because a few… less informed people are afraid is just plain silly.
Except for the little detail that the total excess deaths are well above the Covid deaths. We are undercounting, not overcounting. (It’s quite possible to die of Covid without ever being tested–Covid causes clotting issues. A clot into a bad enough place and you’re found dead, you never go to the hospital and thus are never tested.)
If they would have died anyway the excess death count should have gone negative, but it didn’t.
@Gene
> @ Meidcal geniuses — Yeah, and condoms don’t stop the spread of HIV either. Believe what you want, at your own detriment.
I recently noticed that the effectiveness of respirators against Covid is pretty close to the real-world effectiveness of condoms against pregnancy.
@James
> It’s fascinating that, with all the available evidence, Gary continues to spout his ignorant half–truths and more likely, outright lies. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Face diapers do nothing to stop the spread, check out the Cochran Study, the experimental gene therapies are an abject failure, along with Paxlovid, and every protection measure that was employed was more about control and had little to do with health.
He’s understating the threat, not overstating it. Paxlovid is a big help but by no means a complete cure and a lot of people can’t take it. (It has a long list of contraindicated medicines, including several that apply even from recent use–discontinuing them doesn’t help.)
The Cochran study really blew it because they looked only at the best of studies–almost none of which were about Covid in the first place! And even their own data shows they help if you disregard influenza–the signal was being buried in noise.
@MT
> So many medical and research scientist degrees inferred by FOX News onto millions of heretofore untrained people.
Yup, a huge number of graduates of Faux U. Sorry, they’re not accredited.
@Bob
> MT, or, alternatively, a little common sense in a covid mad world. The man on CNN was lying to you. I’m sorry to break the news.
While CNN isn’t too good they’re vastly above Fox. You’re better off with no news than Fox “News.” (People who watch Fox score worse than those who don’t follow any news on tests of knowledge of current events.)
Cahn’t make this stuff up! According to comments like the one below, vaccines have been ineffective. We are to believe that COVID simply decided to close shot and stop infecting people around the world !
Got any proof, as every single one of those claims is the opposite of what hard science has established, or did you make it all up to support Faux News- and MAGA-promulgated conspiracy theory, paranoia and unhinged view that
“Your body your choice means it should be your choice.”, except when it comes to a woman’s right to chose, right?
DCS,
ALL of the US including red states DID employ measures including masking and closing businesses and schools.
but they did NOT continue doing those things to the same degree as blue states when it became apparent that there was little statistical difference in outcomes.
Again, many countries in the rest of the world moved on from strategies that blue states held onto.
The US continues to refuse to allow the world’s best tennis player (unvaccinated) access to a US tournament – not because he is a risk to anyone but because a political ideology refuses to die.
you are free to call whoever you want paranoid and unhinged but the evidence is considerably contrary to what you espouse.
“choose”
*still here and really enjoying it*
@Tim Dunn — There is no hard science in anything that you said. The world was faced with a largely unknown global health threat and governments did what they could to address it, initially based on limited knowledge and then increasingly based on scientific evidence as it accumulated.
The notion the “the red party politicized the issue when it was clear that it became a political choice to control people and take away choice by the blue folks as evidence began to pour in” is just pure paranoid and unhinged bunk
Started wearing masks on flights long before Covid. JAL used to give them out as moisture masks and I found that they allowed me to arrive at my destination more refreshed and less likely to have bloody noses.
I still use cloth masks with disposable hepa filters and have continued to travel without illness. But to each their own… whether with their imaginary medical skills, knowledge or conspiracy theories.
SARS-Covid isn’t magical or evil—its a brainless corona virus transmitted through the air (and some surfaces) just like the common cold. It’s contagious and we lost two family members to it in the first wave before vaccinations were available.
Very serious infections are decreasing due to evolution, vaccinations and some community immunity buildup by infections. We’ve had five doses of vax, but each of us got very mild cases in the early stages of Omicron that went away quickly. Both infections were during travel when we were dining in groups with people who were infected (and knew they had symptoms at the time that they didn’t disclose).
We travel intensively around the world (205 day this year scheduled so far). We don’t want to get infected anywhere with anything, whether Covid, flu, or just the common cold. All sickness can lay us up and screw with our plans, even for just a few days.
So we’ve adopted a practical sense approach to masking: We wear KN94 masks when in crowded situations. That means airport lines, restrooms, and on airplanes until boarding is completed. Once boarding is complete and the full air circulation is turned on we assess whether anyone nearby is coughing or sneezing and make our judgment call. In almost all cases we are now comfortable without our masks for the flight until deboarding.
Surprisingly, we’ve notice a lot less coughing and sneezing while traveling now than we did before Covid. It could be that people are in the habit of washing their hands better now. (Except in Spain—COME ON GUYS—WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER GOING TO THE BATHROOM!!) E-coli and related yuck can also lay you up in a matter of a few hours.
On a recent flight, an A-hole across the aisle was hacking and sneezing openly throughout our flight and never bothered to cover his orifices at any point. That’s A-hole behavior in any environment except when alone at home.
We find they KN94 brands from Korea to fit the face better and be much more comfortable and easier to breath through than the N95 or C95 masks. Once we made the switch masking is only a minor inconvenience and not truly uncomfortable. Masks even have a separate side benefit: On long haul flights, wearing a mask for a while can help to trap and recycle your exhaled humidity to help moisturize your breathing passages.
Bon voyage and problem-free travels to all! Thank you all, except the bots, for your thoughtful comments. By bots I mean both the digital versions and the human versions. Both have been pre-programmed to spout the same nonsensical replies at the mere appearance of certain words, phrases, or viewpoints in the comments section.
@ Tim Dunn. You are correct on so many of your posts, but those who criticize opposing researched opinions in favor of MSM propaganda will never be convinced. Don’t give up to those who have already surrendered to groupthink.
Someone needs to let the WH and CDC know that Covid 19 is essentially over as a world health treat, just as the rest of the Western World has determined.
I’m glad to have the option of wearing a mask in whatever situation I feel vulnerable to ANY kind of illness. If others don’t want to, that’s fine. I wear a seat belt in my car too, even though my chances of an accident are small. If masks didn’t work reducing the transmission of virus, why do surgeons, dentists, etc. wear them? It’s all about risk tolerance and we are each unique in both how we think about it as well as our own physical health. Happy Travels!
Gary and Lucky in the year 2090: We are still masking-join us.
It’s unbelievable the number of people who still haven’t figured out the scam and most likely, never will.
My approach is not to wear one! I am double vaxxed with two boosters. Nuff said.
DCS says “ Your body your choice means it should be your choice.”, except when it comes to a woman’s right to chose, right?“
Curious DCS shouldn’t the baby have a choice to live or die?
Scientists say that when it comes to airborne pathogens, dilution is the solution. Although most airplane filtration systems are capable of removing pathogens, the systems are almost always turned off or are operated at very low levels when a plane is on the ground. If stagnant air was visible as mist or fog, most travelers who understood the potential risk posed by it would don high quality masks.
My senses had always told me the air is often stagnant when a plane is parked at the gate. I had no proof until I started traveling with an aranet4, a hand-held carbon dioxide meter. The data is rather alarming. While at the gate the air is always stagnant and, in some cases, extremely so. On some occasions I’ve measured unacceptably stagnant air throughout the entire flight.
While the air quality at airports and airport lounges is almost always good, it’s a different story on planes.
Look for me. I’m the healthy guy in the front row window seat with the N95 mask. That little device in my hand is a carbon dioxide meter. I’m monitoring the unacceptably high carbon dioxide levels that continue to climb ever higher throughout the boarding process. It’s fascinating to watch you walk by totally oblivious to the potential health risks associated with the stagnant air you’re breathing.
@Gary Must have been a slow day on the blog, huh? You had to know what you were doing posting this one up. 🙂
I will refrain from opining, for once, since I know for sure on this subject, no-one’s having their opinion changed.
I write this as someone who used to wear (charcoal) masks on long flights pre-pandemic. Aerotoxic syndrome is real. Combustion by-products in on board air used to really F me up on occasion. AA 777s being the most prevalent offenders.
@CMorgan — Define “baby” and then pose the question to the one who is intimately linked to it: the woman carrying it. Neither you or I have a say in it…
@James N — I guess the SARS-CoV-2 virus is also part of the purported “scam” that we still haven’t figured out?
@DCS
Not killing an unborn child isn’t “taking away a right to choose” a right that has never existed.
The data on long Covid doesn’t make sense, if there were millions with it in the US we’d see so many people we know that have it but don’t, the studies exaggerated long Covid are methodologically really poor (claiming all sorts of potentially unrelated and often mild symptoms after covid as long covid).
Long covid is a thing but it isn’t statistically huge risk for most people, especially those who have been vaccinated and recovered from infection.
@ Tim Dunn
Love your aviation posts.
Your concept of “evidence” does not apply to the scientific method. Your attempts at logic are misplaced in the context of managing pandemics. Once or twice you said something about being reluctant to comment on the politics of other countries – how about applying that same principle (yours not mine) to restricting your comments when it comes to a topic outside of your personal expertise?
Now that we are all flying and traveling again – let’s focus on the positives of that shared experience, shall we?!
It doesn’t seem like any commentator has anything new to say on this topic. The same shite is being repeated by the same scientifically ignorant voices.
Move on, Gary…please lead the debate to new ground.
@ Gary Leff
“The data on long Covid doesn’t make sense, if there were millions with it in the US we’d see so many people we know that have it but don’t”
Seriously, Gary, that is one dumb statement – both your lack of knowledge and your “logic” are severely lacking on this topic. Move on.
@Gary — Long COVID makes sense and it is huge if you know what you are talking about. For a long time, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a mysterious post-viral illness that is symptomatically quite similar to long COVID, did not make sense either except that, like long COVID, CFS is for real. In fact, there are other such post-viral syndromes that are also claimed to “make no sense” simply because they remain poorly understood…
@ DCS
What don’t you understand. A foetus the size of a pea is clearly an independent life form capable of miraculous self determination and needs to be protected at all times by strangers with religious delusions from the nefarious and evil intentions of its mother….because, you know, women can’t be trusted to make an informed decision based on modern medical science rather than 2000 year old religious mores…;)
PS. You’re wasting your time responding to most of the commentators on this blog on matters scientific / medical…
Geesh. Exactly how many right wing nuts follow your blog?
Hi Loren, when you walked outside in 2019 you took a risk. You weren’t thinking about it because the man on TV wasn’t trying to scare you. When you walked outside today you also took a risk. The incremental risk is zero. Who is dying FROM covid? Average age? Health profile? And if you think CNN is “vastly above” Fox News you are truly delusional. COVID broke your brain. I’m guessing you were smart once. This is just so sad to watch.
Long Covid is the left’s last grasp at trying to scare everyone. It never was and never will be.
I was in a restaurant yesterday, and saw the patron walk in with a bright orange n95 mask. He was so proud to put it on. And then he takes it off while he eats. I was in the front row at a Broadway show a couple of weeks ago. Again, so many people seem proud to wear their mask. It’s so funny to see peoples glasses fogging up because they’re wearing a mask. These people are sick in the head. So many people no longer can think for themselves, and probably never could in the first place.
@DLF They flood any forum they can to spread their drivel. It’s a normalization strategy.
I don’t understand why this is a subject to discuss. Covid isn’t deadly anymore. Mask mandate is off. Now it’s no different than discussing whether to wear a sweater when flying. You want a mask – you wear it. You don’t want a mask – you don’t wear it. End of story.
I don’t fly anywhere close to what I did before Covid. So when I enter the airport, I put a mask on. Unless I eat or find an uncrowded place at the airport, I keep wearing the mask until I exit at my destination. That’s my choice. I don’t push anyone to do the same. Although honestly some people should – too many clearly sick people coughing every few minutes still choose to fly. That sure was the case before Covid but we never paid attention. Would be nice though if people who don’t feel well internally felt obligated to put a mask on. Like they do in Japan. But yeah, we’re not in Japan.
I bring a mask in my carry-on. If the person next to me sniffles and coughs, I put it in for myself. If the person next to me wears a mask, I put it on as a courtesy to them. Other than that, I’ve gone mask-less.
ps. Don’t be too harsh on what may look like cloth masks. My HALO mask has a cloth shell, but is fitted and uses inline filters for N95-like efficacy.
@Brian, who clearly lets Faux News do the thinking for him sez:
Unaware of or in denial about the trove of messages released in the Dominion suit against Fox that has conclusively established Fox “News” to be Faux News, @ Bob writes, oblivious to the irony:
No, @Bob, you are the truly delusional one. Faux News broke your brain. I’m guessing you were smart once. This is just so sad to watch…
To the author:
You do realize you MUST get sick. Try as you might but the human body evolved to maintain natural defenses against microorganisms attacking you. Your immune system works instinctually to protect you – however this only works when it is exposed to your environment. If you could hermetically seal yourself off from every situation a sick person was around you, you’d eventually leave yourself extremely weakened from any sort of natural protections. You cannot possibly vax yourself away from ever getting sick. Vaccinations cannot replicate what the immune system does on its own. Some help… but it’s your immune system doing the heavy lifting against the MILLIONS of microorganisms that are around you everyday that you don’t see. We don’t have millions of vaccinations.
I laugh at the maskers for this reason alone. They are very uneducated about the microscopic world, the immune system, and how little influence they have over it.
Long Covid is real, full stop. But claims massively overstate it, usually covering anyone with symptoms blamed on long covid without even validating prior covid. Roughly speaking risk from long covid is proportional to regular covid risk… and vaccination remains protective against long covid.
Given vaccination and prior infection broadly in the community, the risk of long covid is much lower than it was a year ago. That’s what the data supports.
@Gary — Glad that you agree that long COVID is real. However, please provide evidence to support your claim that the prevalence long COVID is overstated. The risk of long COVID is ‘proportional’ to that of COVID only because, by definition, only those who have had COVID (irrespective of severity) can develop long COVID, but that does not into account the individual vulnerability factor that makes it that not everyone who gets COVID goes on to develop long COVID.
Vaccines are effective against long COVID only to the extent that they protect against COVID, but they are not an impenetrable barrier. The fact that the risk of long COVID is lower now because infections have declined does not mean that the prevalence of long COVID has also declined because millions were infected around the world before vaccines were widely administered, as well as during infection flare-ups due to new variants of the virus for which earlier vaccines were not as effective. I got COVID last August — hardly a year ago — despite getting 2 initial Pfizer injections and being boosted once (I since got boosted again with the ‘bivalent’ vaccine before traveling to Asia for a month). Vaccines have decreased the chances that one dying from COVID more than the chances of one being infected.
I submitted an application for a federal (NIH) grant specifically to study long COVID, for which I needed to educate myself. I suggest you do the latter, starting with familiarizing yourself with the “case definition” of long COVID by which its prevalence is currently assessed.
You took FOUR vaccines? Why not five?
@Loretta Jackson – Not to worry. I will take more than 5 over the coming years as COVID vaccines will be tweaked based on the prevalent variant and administered seasonally, forever, just like flu vaccines are…
@DCS – You realize that 90%+ of the time the flu vaccine does nothing right? They’re literally guessing which flu strain they think will be just prevalent each season. And even if they happened to guess the exact right strain to vaccinate you for it actually often does not work at all. But go on with your routine. Never mind that an entire industry is built on scaring you into taking more and more so soar.
I wear my N95 at all times, even while mowing my lawn or driving alone! Why? Because I care for others and so should you.
There out to be a law banning the use of derogatory word “face diaper” which some evil (particularly righties) use for something so integral to our livelihoods!
(Psst sadly there’s far too many who believe this is how we all should operate)
I hope people will one day understand masks have been a thing long before covid, and have their valid use including and beyond protection against respiratory diseases. A lot of people love to chant “masks don’t work”, but they don’t even know why the other person is putting on a mask.
Of course, one can make a baseless assumption that people put on masks never have a good reason and laugh at that. And I agree that playing with one’s own imagination is fun, but to say it out loud to everyone then it becomes childish.
@Army Turtle — Please cite your source for the claim that ” 90%+ of the time the flu vaccine does nothing.”
It won’t matter what source I post, you’ll just attempt to downplay it so your thoughts on the matter still make you feel adequate. That’s how comment sections go. But anyway, here ya go.
https://www.science.org/content/article/why-flu-vaccines-so-often-fail#:~:text=The%20most%20commonly%20used%20flu,to%20as%20low%20as%2010%25
You really only get to the first paragraph before they cite it often being only 10% effective. And yes, while they do say “10-60% effective is better than nothing” but remember, a water placebo could show a 10% effective rate as well (yes, this happens and I CAN cite a 12% effective rate from a placebo on an unrelated scientific test). So, yes, I laugh at people who act as though others are “endangering the public” should they not wear a mask or get vaccines. Actually it’s these people that will develope a true natural immunity to disease that benefits the public (not all of them, but many from within these groups) as that’s how biology and genetics works.
I’d take the position that we need people to gain natural immunity to diseases FIRST and then synthesize pharmaceuticals based on that person’s blood to see the highest effective rate for a vaccine. Otherwise you’re essentially guessing and in my opinion, toying around with unproven changes to our physiology. I’ll not be taking any of THOSE “vaccines” thank you very much. And for the Nazi’s who think you shouldn’t have the freedom to choose, or to speak the words “face diaper” when referring to ppl wearing one on their own in their vehicle… I say you’re in the wrong country. Go back to a place that has a monarchy if you don’t like freedom of speech.
All of this is dumb. For three years, I wore an N95 to and from DXB via AMS and CDG. Except once, when the AF flight staffer told me that I had to wear the normal blue and white mask that she freely handed out to me and told me that the N95 mask was not to be worn. I still wear an N95 flying everywhere and in airports, to guard against everything else in what is popularly called the petri dish of flying with bacteria, disease, virii, etc.
Weird: for three years flying to and from DXB (which stayed wide open), I was the oldest person, like the 1970’s bad film, “Logan’s Run.” (I flew without telling people, lest I be accused: “Youre one of THOSE PEOPLE!”) There were no old people at CDG. There was no line up of wheelchairs and wheelchair attendants at the jetway. So bizarre.
The N95 is not 100% but is worthwhile. Any other mask is cosmetic or political theatre.
So much fun. Masks and hoods are great for low-level thuggish activity……ride the trend….
“How can an otherwise sane individual become so enamored of a fantasy, an
imposture, that even after it’s exposed in the bright light of day, he still clings to it
– indeed, clings to it all the harder? No amount of logic can shatter a faith
consciously based on a lie.”
Lamar Keene, a scam artist who posed as a psychic, describing why it was so
easy to fleece people.
@DCA – @Army Turtle is simply wrong. As we know, how well the vaccine performs against symptomatic disease depends on how well matched each year’s vaccine is to the virus that actually circulates that year. Surely this commenter is looking at ‘the worst performing years’ against symptomatic disease and claiming that it how the vaccine always works. And this also conflates ‘effectiveness against symptomatic disease’ and ‘effectiveness against severe disease.’
Gary – you should just go ahead and change your name to Gary LefT. Enjoy the koolaid man.
Gary the director of the authoritative Cochrane study concluded that face masks INCLUDING N95 MASKS – “make no difference – full stop”. Stop kidding yourself that your N95 mask protects you or others near you. It’s nothing but virtue signaling at this point – admit it, you’re more virtuous than all those plebians who go maskless.
@ Phil Watkins
You are fundamentally misrepresenting the Cochrane Report.
To quote the actual report itself:
“The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.”
So, no, it’s not the authoritative statement that you want to believe.
Just in case anybody is genuinely interested:
– The report appears not to be a peer reviewed publications – it’s a “report” and not a “scientific publication”: it’s not a scientific paper with original experimental research by its authors
– The data were collated from various sources, which represent COVID and non COVID, pandemic and non pandemic, viral control versus limiting physical splashes in operation theatre, etc: it’s a mash up of disconnected pieces
– You can’t create more robust data by adding smaller datasets together – the limitations of the original datasets will always be implicit: the quoted research from which the collated data were harvested were not necessarily good enough to reach definitive conclusions
There are plenty of articles explaining the strengths and weaknesses of this report, which you can read to balance your perceptions and can find in seconds through Google. It’s up to you. To make a reasoned and knowledgeable assessment you would to know more about science and have developed skills critical analysis that evidently you, most commentators herein and Gary left are utterly lacking.
@ Army Turtle
No, your cited article does not state that a flu vaccine is “often” 10% effective. That’s the projection of your personal and deluded perception.
You may or may not be aware that viruses evolve. Yes, I know that’s bad news for the over 40% of Americans who are creationists, but regardless of their god delusions, viruses do evolve.
Vaccines are therefore being developed in a game of catch up….;)
Wrong, again, Gary, as usual. Army Turtle is absolutely correct. The flu “vaccines” are a joke and are rarely ever more that 20-30% effective. For gosh sakes, the formulas are created 6-8 months before flu season. It fascinates me how ignorant you are on each of these subjects. Again, anyone who chose to get quadrupled jabbed is clearly incapable of intelligent thought.
Sigh. We wear N-95 in Asia for PM2.5 air pollution. Essential.
Masks don’t work. Cochrane report is correct. Full stop.
@Robert – Size in microns between air pollutants and viruses are worlds apart. Your N95 mask isn’t going to stop viruses. If it did, you wouldn’t see biological virus lab techs wearing hermetically sealed suits with respirator devices that have clean air fed in by compressed air connector hoses – they’d simply be wearing your N95 mask. Clutch your pearls though man.
@Army Turtle – I don’t know why you are injecting another topic into the conversation. Yes, we know apples are not oranges. There is no need to tell us that.
So, PM2.5 is real. N95 masks stops PM2.5. Therefore, people who doesn’t enjoy breathing in PM2.5 wears N95 masks.
Now why do we need the mask to stop viruses when we just want it to stop PM2.5?
@ Army Turtle
Mate, it’s not the size of the virus that matters.
The viruses are hitching a ride, dude, on droplets and particulate matter – those viruses have an electrostatic charge, so on the one hand they “stick” to stuff, and on the other we have a method to filter them…..;)
Please keep an open mind because it’s obvious you have some ill-informed ideas rattling around that chelonian brain of yours!
@ Brian
The Cochrane report is correct in identifying its own limitations and why the conclusions you ascribe to it in your deluded world view, it does not even ascribe to itself as being conclusive.
Read it. I’ve already quoted its opening caveats in the post above. Now go and read it for yourself.
@ James N
Strangely enough whenever we look at any reference put forward by yourself or any other of the covidiots herein that there is a sad disconnect between your deluded interpretation and what the reference actually says. There are two examples exposed in the posts above. Claims made with a citation wherein the citation does not support the delved claim asserted.
You’re out of your depth and just as gullible.
@ Gary Leff
“But claims massively overstate it…that’s what the data supports”
Gary, go to the website “pubmed” and type the words ‘long covid’ into the search field. It will return 23,099 matches itemising medical / scientific research papers on the topic.
As a former research scientist in the bio-sciences I would expect somebody to have read the key references out of that list (starting with the summary articles and drill down into topics of personal interest), to put some sort of figure on it at last dozens, if not hundreds, before they could offer a scientifically informed opinion.
That’s exactly what I expect @ DCS would have had to do to have any chance of being part of a team worthy of applying for research grants on the topic (together with proven track record in parallel fields of research).
I personally would hypothesise that identified cases of long covid will continue to increase, but it’s just that, a hypothesis open to be tested as we accumulate more data.
Making grandiose claims about scientific / medical matters per those in your posts above is arguably ill advised when you have extremely poor knowledge and apparently zero experience. Your website your choice, and there’s nothing wrong with stimulating informed debate.
Ironically, @ Army Turtle did a good job in bringing a reference to the discussion. That was laudable. But the really interesting stuff in that article came after the misinterpreted statistics cited by a couple in their posts above – the role of unique trajectories of individuals’ immune systems – an understanding that requires systems analysis paying obeisance to complexity and how few stable states pervade in biological systems depending upon starting conditions and environment triggers.
It might be fair to presume that the real action in that realm is beyond the comprehension of most who read your blog (great as it is on matters travel) – kinda a good idea to stay in lane, buddy – more than happy to bring you up to speed on complexity in biological systems over a few drinks sometime….you may see some parallels in economic theory…..;)
For a simple but generally accurate explanation of what’s wrong with the Cochrane study, this popular piece did a good job:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/2/22/23609499/masks-covid-coronavirus-cochrane-review-pandemic-science-studies-infection
Gary picks Vox and Kelsey Piper to refute the above-mentioned scientific study. Now, it’s a guarantee he’s as ignorant as I thought.
How much longer will these Covididiots continue to deny reality?
@ James N
Don’t take my word for it – don’t take Gary’s word for it – don’t take @ DCS’s word for it – don’t take anybody else’s word for it – read the actual report for yourself and put your brain into gear.
And yes, it’s a REPORT and NOT a scientific study published in a peer review journal, despite your blatantly incorrect claims to the contrary.
This is a direct quote, the words of the authors of that report:
“The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions. There were additional RCTs during the pandemic related to physical interventions but a relative paucity given the importance of the question of masking and its relative effectiveness and the concomitant measures of mask adherence which would be highly relevant to the measurement of effectiveness, especially in the elderly and in young children.
“There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect.”
The authors are saying, buddy, that you cannot make a definitive conclusion based on the data that they pooled and using the methods of pooling datasets which they attempted to employ. Accordingly, they state:
“There is a need for large, well‐designed RCTs addressing the effectiveness of many of these interventions in multiple settings and populations, as well as the impact of adherence on effectiveness, especially in those most at risk of ARIs.”
Therein the problem – the lack of RCTs.
The most comprehensive study, done to date of which I am aware remains the Bangladesh study. The most indicative due to the sample size and effectively controlled nature of the study.
Sample size is important since you need to have enough data to do the statistics with a certain levels off confidence.
Controlled experiments assist in focusing in on the relevant parameter.
This is extremely basic stuff if you understand science and statistics- which you clearly (like Gary and others herein) don’t.
That makes you the covidiot, buddy, not the scientists and medics trying to save lives and mitigate long term health effects of individual members of the community.
i
@ Gary
Good to see you posting some counterpoint citations.
Here’s another perspective on the Cochrane Report from a university website:
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/yes-masks-reduce-risk-spreading-covid-despite-review-saying-they-don’t
Unfortunately, @James N, it appears that to see a ‘covidiot’ and one who is “denying reality” you only need to look in the mirror and you will see him staring right back at you. Even the editor in chief of the Cochrane Library is not sold on your interpretation, based on quotes attributed to her in a NY Times oped piece titled, “Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work”.
Here’s the final nail in the coffin of the Cochrane report that @platy has already put a lid on pretty well:
So much for for characterizing a poorly done meta-analysis as “authoritative”…