Good lord. “The CDC cut the quarantine time in half, from ten days to five, so society can keep functioning.”
Never mind that there’s no evidence in favor of this. Never mind that doctors, who are aware there’s no evidence, are complaining about this decision. And never mind that the rest of the modern world is doing no such thing— just t…
Good lord. “The CDC cut the quarantine time in half, from ten days to five, so society can keep functioning.”
Never mind that there’s no evidence in favor of this. Never mind that doctors, who are aware there’s no evidence, are complaining about this decision. And never mind that the rest of the modern world is doing no such thing— just the US, with death rates for this disease that already distinguish it from the rest of the world (in a bad way).
“So society can keep functioning,” indeed.
The problems we’ve had with society functioning have _not_ been so much with the patchy, ever-changing public health guidance (ever-changing guidance, by the way, is normal in a situation in which we started with no information, and gradually accumulate more over time).
Rather, the problems with society functioning are related to the virus which has killed 800,000 of us so far (and disabled many more) and has pushed our already marginal health systems to their breaking point. A lot of good doctors, nurses and others have been retiring early or just leaving front-line heath care.
A major problem with society functioning has been caused by the political noise and petty jabs launched continually by both “sides,” turning this completely apolitical disease into a political issue. We need to stick to facts.
The problem with “society functioning” these last two years _has been the pandemic itself_. It is not a problem, say, with public health folks asking you to wear a mask that might or might not be too effective pending further data.
Cloth masks were somewhat effective with earlier variants (combined with other measures such as distancing) because while SARS-CoV-2 _is_ indeed airborne (aerosolized, ie, hanging around in the air which can get through a mask), you can _also_ become infected from droplets from other people coughing and sneezing. The masks stop droplets (the bigger things, containing viruses) from getting in or getting out. They decrease the amount of virus in the immediate environment.
If there is still virus in the air at the grocery store—and there is—you are less likely to get sick from it if you’re exposed to fewer particles (for example, by stopping droplets and by keeping your distance from others). That’s just a fact: less virus is always better. If cloth masks take some of the virus out of the immediate environment, with a moderately transmissible virus that is a helpful thing.
Now, with omicron, the evidence seems to be that this variant is so highly transmissible that the cloth mask won’t make enough of a difference to prevent you from getting sick. Indeed that is what we’re seeing. It’s a new piece of information, in response to a new variant.
So the conclusion about masks isn’t “masks never did any good, har-de-har-har; way to own the libs.” No. And frankly I expect better from this substack than to see cheap shots at “hypochondriacs.” The conclusion about masks is: cloth masks helped, some, with less transmissible variants. With this highly transmissible variant (the transmissibility of which has been compared to measles) the cloth masks don’t seem to help.
And the way to address this new information and use it is not to crow, “The anti-maskers were right all along! Masks were for pussies and hypochondriacs! We can now be free of the tyranny of the ‘face diapers’!”
The way to address this new information and use it is to consider a more effective mask, such as a well-fitting N95, when you are in public (grocery stores, airplanes, classrooms) and minimize inessential trips until we have a better handle on the new variant and/or this present wave passes.
Edited to add: no one is more sick of masks, restrictions, new variants, new waves, staying home, socializing mainly outside than I am. But the fact that we all _wish_ this misery were over does not _make_ it over. People who work in or adjacent to health care see this more clearly than others, perhaps, regardless of our politics.
Good lord. “The CDC cut the quarantine time in half, from ten days to five, so society can keep functioning.”
Never mind that there’s no evidence in favor of this. Never mind that doctors, who are aware there’s no evidence, are complaining about this decision. And never mind that the rest of the modern world is doing no such thing— just the US, with death rates for this disease that already distinguish it from the rest of the world (in a bad way).
“So society can keep functioning,” indeed.
The problems we’ve had with society functioning have _not_ been so much with the patchy, ever-changing public health guidance (ever-changing guidance, by the way, is normal in a situation in which we started with no information, and gradually accumulate more over time).
Rather, the problems with society functioning are related to the virus which has killed 800,000 of us so far (and disabled many more) and has pushed our already marginal health systems to their breaking point. A lot of good doctors, nurses and others have been retiring early or just leaving front-line heath care.
A major problem with society functioning has been caused by the political noise and petty jabs launched continually by both “sides,” turning this completely apolitical disease into a political issue. We need to stick to facts.
The problem with “society functioning” these last two years _has been the pandemic itself_. It is not a problem, say, with public health folks asking you to wear a mask that might or might not be too effective pending further data.
Cloth masks were somewhat effective with earlier variants (combined with other measures such as distancing) because while SARS-CoV-2 _is_ indeed airborne (aerosolized, ie, hanging around in the air which can get through a mask), you can _also_ become infected from droplets from other people coughing and sneezing. The masks stop droplets (the bigger things, containing viruses) from getting in or getting out. They decrease the amount of virus in the immediate environment.
If there is still virus in the air at the grocery store—and there is—you are less likely to get sick from it if you’re exposed to fewer particles (for example, by stopping droplets and by keeping your distance from others). That’s just a fact: less virus is always better. If cloth masks take some of the virus out of the immediate environment, with a moderately transmissible virus that is a helpful thing.
Now, with omicron, the evidence seems to be that this variant is so highly transmissible that the cloth mask won’t make enough of a difference to prevent you from getting sick. Indeed that is what we’re seeing. It’s a new piece of information, in response to a new variant.
So the conclusion about masks isn’t “masks never did any good, har-de-har-har; way to own the libs.” No. And frankly I expect better from this substack than to see cheap shots at “hypochondriacs.” The conclusion about masks is: cloth masks helped, some, with less transmissible variants. With this highly transmissible variant (the transmissibility of which has been compared to measles) the cloth masks don’t seem to help.
And the way to address this new information and use it is not to crow, “The anti-maskers were right all along! Masks were for pussies and hypochondriacs! We can now be free of the tyranny of the ‘face diapers’!”
The way to address this new information and use it is to consider a more effective mask, such as a well-fitting N95, when you are in public (grocery stores, airplanes, classrooms) and minimize inessential trips until we have a better handle on the new variant and/or this present wave passes.
Edited to add: no one is more sick of masks, restrictions, new variants, new waves, staying home, socializing mainly outside than I am. But the fact that we all _wish_ this misery were over does not _make_ it over. People who work in or adjacent to health care see this more clearly than others, perhaps, regardless of our politics.