And what a shame people and governments have taken months to come to that obvious conclusion. I may be wrong but I think in an earlier post you said they are of use only for those who have symptoms of the disease when in fact they could have saved thousands of cases and lives if worn by everyone months ago.
You could't buy a mask for love nor money two months ago. Everywhere sold out for weeks as soon as the advice to wear them came out. Agree with the comments though, the mask considerably reduces moisture travel distance, even when just talking.
Several months ago, we found some simple surgical masks at the dental supply shop in the corridor that runs by Bureau of Immigration, on the right side just beyond BofI, don't know if they've been resupplied....
I think my interpretation of the main emphasis of your comment was correct: You wrote "It [a mask] provides no protection for the individual wearing the mask (unless it is an N95 or better)" I strongly disagreed with your "no protection" in that even stopping a person touching the mouth, nose and eyes is a protection. I also believe that even amateur masks may have some effect. You also wrote "...but is slows down and interferes with your own breath to protect everyone else from you if you happen to be an asymptomatic person infected" You disagreed with my comment that "I may be wrong but I think in an earlier post you said they are of use only for those who have symptoms of the disease". But you said that "the mask protects everyone else from you (the infected)" In a later post you referred to drivers coming on trucks from Cebu and wrote "If one arrives and is asymptomic positive, he could theoretically infect several other people quickly. The masks are the tiniest inconvenience to lessen that threat". This clearly implies the threat is ONLY from the infected person and not TO the uninfected person. Contradicting this was my point. So I feel that when I wrote in this thread "I may be wrong but I think in an earlier post you said they are of use only for those who have symptoms of the disease when in fact they could have saved thousands of cases and lives if worn by everyone months ago" I was not being unkind in how I interpreted your comments. You may wonder why I remember this: It is because I wrote much to encourage people to wear masks - as a virologist I felt it my duty to give some guidance. Other virologists could have also joined in but I don't think there are any on the Forum - if there were then I hope they would have added their advice as a small minority on the Forum actually seem to resent knowledgeable people giving advice, preferring instead to stare at the sky. I noted when people seemed to counter this advice or made recommendations that underlined safety of fellow Forum members (as in cases where people highlighted the danger of handling specific objects, when the handling of ALL objects is a danger) and contradicted what I saw as 'less useful' guidance. It was not only you. I make no apologies for using my training and experience to give guidance on a subject I know more about than the average person - in the same way I listen to advice from many members of the Forum who have similar levels of knowledge and experience in other fields. And if you think I misquoted you, then here is a snip of your posting (the poster you were replying to followed by your reply):
I stand by what I said. As a virologist, you should know what "asymptomatic" means. That is the word I used. From your comment: "I may be wrong but I think in an earlier post you said they are of use only for those who have symptoms of the disease ". You twisted my comment into "symptomatic". I didn't say "symptomatic". Every one should wear a mask on the assumption that the he/she might be ASYMPTOMATIC but infectious, spreading virus and needing to slow down the projection of that virus which will indeed penetrate an ordinary cloth or paper mask. That is the gist of what I said. That is correct according to CDC and other credible health authorities. What is also correct is that masks other than N95 (or better) will not stop a virus from penetrating. That is also what I said. That is also what COMPETENT authorities tell us.
Having a virologist on our forum is huge benefit I didn’t realize we had. Your advice and opinions are welcome and appreciated. We now have more educated foreigners than we had 10 years ago creating an interesting mix.
All interesting, for sure, although a bit forensic for me. Someone makes a comment in good faith and it's picked across word for word, which is odd. The fact is that masks are most effective worn by a virus carrier, but do also offer some protection to the wearer. Not much though, as my understanding is that the virus is mainly contracted by touching violated objects. Needless to say, I'm not a virologist, but if anyone would like a lesson in the construction of bus timetables........
Just FYI: if you want to quote text from another thread, break down a user's post into many different quotes or easily quote multiple users you just have to highlight the text you want to quote with your mouse (open a new browser tab if the text is in a different thread), hit the "+ Quote" option that would pop-up under the highlighted text, come back to the thread you are posting to if it is in a different thread and then hit the "Insert Quotes" button under the text entry box. A pop-up should appear with all the quotes you have done this with. If someone clicks on the up arrow next to the "User said:" text at the top of the quote box it will take them to the post being quoted.
