Disease Expert: Most masks don't really work against Wuhan coronavirus

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new Wuhan coronavirus guidance urging Americans to wear masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status.

The guidance was a reversal from May when the CDC said vaccinated individuals no longer needed to wear a mask.

During a segment on CNN Monday afternoon, University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Director Michael Osterholm said cloth or paper masks don't work to stop the spread of the disease.

I never believed the "cotton" or "t-shirt" masks worked at all except in limited circumstances where it might reduce viral load for short close contact. But even then, most were not getting it with close but short contact (checkout line, for example).

MIT did some studies indoors and proved what I thought originally back in April of last year, that in a closed building or system, eventually there would be enough viral load to get people sick regardless of how far they are apart. This was evident when during the first cases someone infected went to a conference up in the NE. In a conference of about 100 people, about 1/3 of them got Covid. They were in a room for a long period of time with a closed ventilation system. All the other people the guy was around never got infected. The MIT study said that after about 15 minutes, in a closed ventilated system, the masks are useless.

This is how TG got Covid. They were wearing masks but in an enclosed office space with the heater running. No real new air coming in or out, and about 1/3 of the floor got Covid. I got it a few days later.

I do believe N95 masks work because they can filter down to the particle size. We spent all this money, why not just drop ship N95 masks to everyone instead?

I think the low flu season says alot about the behavior of people and the fundamental difference between the flu and this virus. The CDC waited almost 8 months before pretty much saying that this thing was airborn, unlike the flu which is spread through droplets and water vapor. People were still getting Covid but not the flu. How?

Djarum300 said:

I never believed the "cotton" or "t-shirt" masks worked at all except in limited circumstances where it might reduce viral load for short close contact. But even then, most were not getting it with close but short contact (checkout line, for example).

MIT did some studies indoors and proved what I thought originally back in April of last year, that in a closed building or system, eventually there would be enough viral load to get people sick regardless of how far they are apart. This was evident when during the first cases someone infected went to a conference up in the NE. In a conference of about 100 people, about 1/3 of them got Covid. They were in a room for a long period of time with a closed ventilation system. All the other people the guy was around never got infected. The MIT study said that after about 15 minutes, in a closed ventilated system, the masks are useless.

This is how TG got Covid. They were wearing masks but in an enclosed office space with the heater running. No real new air coming in or out, and about 1/3 of the floor got Covid. I got it a few days later.

I do believe N95 masks work because they can filter down to the particle size. We spent all this money, why not just drop ship N95 masks to everyone instead?

I think the low flu season says alot about the behavior of people and the fundamental difference between the flu and this virus. The CDC waited almost 8 months before pretty much saying that this thing was airborn, unlike the flu which is spread through droplets and water vapor. People were still getting Covid but not the flu. How?

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This is not correct. The N95 filters 95% of particles down to .3 microns. The covid virus varies between .08 and .14 microns. The N95 is as effective against covid as a fucking chain link fence is against mosquitoes. I know this because I used the N95 mask for 30 years when sanding and painting.

Greg T. said:

This is not correct. The N95 filters 95% of particles down to .3 microns. The covid virus varies between .08 and .14 microns. The N95 is as effective against covid as a fucking chain link fence is against mosquitoes. I know this because I used the N95 mask for 30 years when sanding and painting.

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That isn't exactly true. That is a minimum at best. N95 masks actually do a better job at filtering .1 microns than it does at ~.3 microns. Many hepa type filters are the same way. It's not just the mesh size that matters, but also if the media itself is negatively charged enough to attract small particles, which N95 masks are. .3~.5 micron particles are too heavy to be attracted to the media but small enough to pass through the mesh. Too many people got hung up on the "At least" and not the actual design of the mask. The virus also is never just free floating. It's attached to water vapor, which is much larger than the virus itself. Now, I firmly believe cotton or surgical masks are still too porous to trap most water vapor or the Covid virus itself.


Even if you don't believe the design or papers on it, all one has to do is look at the emperical data. Many nursing homes who had wings of covid patients had nurses only wearing N95 masks and they never got infected from those patients. The hospitals were the same way.

ADHP back in January said that across all the hospitals here in Alabama, very few nurses and doctors got Covid who worked on the floor, and the ones that did got it from outside the hospital. Most were all wearing just N95 masks.

Like anything else though, proper fitment is also important. The point I'm making here is that we could have spent money and training on N95 masks for the vulnerable instead of shutting everything down and causing massive inflation.

Wait, wait, wait just one minute! Are you trying to tell me the cheap cloth mask I bought to wear for the sole reason of keeping shitheads from freaking out, the mask I sat down on restaurant tables, on my work desk, leisurely tossed into the console of my vehicle, and washed maybe every other week WASN'T completely sanitary and did little to save me or others around me from disease?

Well to that all I have to say is... No Shit Sherlock!?