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Originally Posted by XutvJet
I'm an environmental consultant and I am OSHA Hazadous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) trained. The reality is masks don't do crap for something like COVID 19. Appropriate and effective PPE is what I'm trained for. Medical masks are designed to keep doctors from spitting on patients while under surgery and to keep blood from shooting up their nose and mouth. They are ineffective for a virus that is transmitted via aerosol. You need an airtight mask to make it work.
The WHO has studied these things to death. They're ineffective for something like COVID 19. I'd trust them way over the CDC who is simply winging it at this point and has no science to back up their face mask recommendation.
Wearing these masks can actually increase your risk of infection because most people don't have a clue on how to handle and remove them.
It is just annoying that I'm forced to feel guilty if I don't wear one knowing they don't do squat and what I've been taught for over 20 years.
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I've read the WHO report on masks. They never say it's ineffective. They do say it's inconclusive due to lack of research data, which is understandable at this point. They also stress the downsides of masks, such as a false sense of security that may lead people to be less careful, which is also understandable. The idea of masks in public is not so much to protect you from the virus if you walk through a cloud of contaminated droplets. If that happens, a home made mask is minimally effective, if at all. The mask is more to reduce the spray of droplets from someone who may be infected and coughs. Any reduction in the release of contaminated droplets offered by the mask is a good thing.
It took many years of data before people finally accepted that seat belts save lives. And yet some people still refuse to wear them. When I read in the paper about someone dying in a rollover accident, I know there's a line in there that will say they weren't wearing a seat belt. Data will eventually come out that widespread use of even rudimentary masks will help reduce (not prevent, but reduce) community spread of COVID-19. As with seat belts, there is simply no good reason to not wear a mask in this environment.