Oh, and they can make things worse
Those Anti-Covid Plastic Barriers Probably Don’t Help and May Make Things Worse
Covid precautions have turned many parts of our world into a giant salad bar, with plastic barriers separating sales clerks from shoppers, dividing customers at nail salons and shielding students from their classmates.
Intuition tells us a plastic shield would be protective against germs. But scientists who study aerosols, air flow and ventilation say that much of the time, the barriers don’t help and probably give people a false sense of security. And sometimes the barriers can make things worse.
Research suggests that in some instances, a barrier protecting a clerk behind a checkout counter may redirect the germs to another worker or customer. Rows of clear plastic shields, like those you might find in a nail salon or classroom, can also impede normal air flow and ventilation.
Under normal conditions in stores, classrooms and offices, exhaled breath particles disperse, carried by air currents and, depending on the ventilation system, are replaced by fresh air roughly every 15 to 30 minutes. But erecting plastic barriers can change air flow in a room, disrupt normal ventilation and create “dead zones,†where viral aerosol particles can build up and become highly concentrated. (snip)
But Covid-19 spreads largely through unseen aerosol particles. While there isn’t much real-world research on the impact of transparent barriers and the risk of disease, scientists in the United States and Britain have begun to study the issue, and the findings are not reassuring.
Well, let’s consider that when COVID hit there were lots of concerns, and we didn’t have answers, so people just tried anything. All the cleaning that occurred. Remember that? Some still do it. Yet, most studies show that you will not catch COVID from surfaces. Locking people down didn’t really kill it, yet, governments still try this. Slapping up all these barrier seemed like a good idea at the time. Now we’re finding out different.
A study published in June and led by researchers from Johns Hopkins, for example, showed that desk screens in classrooms were associated with an increased risk of coronavirus infection. In a Massachusetts school district, researchers found that plexiglass dividers with side walls in the main office were impeding air flow. A study looking at schools in Georgia found that desk barriers had little effect on the spread of the coronavirus compared with ventilation improvements and masking.
It’s one of the main reasons why they say airplanes are safe despite zero distancing: air flow.
The article delves into many studies, including one from 2013, which, you would have thought the People In Charge would have known about. But, we should give them a bit of a break, since we should remember all the panic that was occurring in the early part of 2020. Of course, why aren’t they saying anything now? Heck, they barely mention the smart stuff: wash your hands, don’t touch your face, social distance, don’t touch people. They want masks, which also don’t work, just like barriers.
Quite balanced for a Teach piece. N.B. – masks do work.
And here and this
NOW if they would just give us quality masks, not made in China filled with fibers and carcinogens that we are inhaling. But hell the left doesn’t care. They want to get rid of people.
I go to a government building. I am wearing a homemade mask with carbon filtration installed inside of it….Much more effective than the cheap assed mask they make me wear that says made in china on the box they are handing to me.
the FUKING USA cannot even make masks after 19 months of covid-19.
What is happening? Ill tell you what is happening all this big business is telling the USA and the world to go FUK THEMSELVES…we are not leaving our gravy train in china where we can make a mask for 3 cents instead of 15 cents in the USA.
When the USA starts providing quality MASKs they will start making a real difference. Until then if Covid doesnt kill you wearing a china made mask probably will.
Jeff,
Do you read the articles that you recommend? I think not, or else you don’t understand them. Do you ever read an article in a critical manner, doubt it. Your references assured me that mask do very little to nothing.
Doogie never critiques, but only complains.
Competent doctors and scientists disagree with his knee-jerk reactions.
Doogie claims he and his family had Covid-19 years ago, so take anything he claims with a pound of salt.
Competent doctors and scientists disagree with your political explanations for medical problems. You aren’t agreeing medically only politically.
Why do you hate other opinions so much?
Kye,
This new belief that all opinions are equally valid is dangerous.
EVIDENCE clearly supports that masking reduces spread of Covid-19.
Apparently the vaccines aren’t working like they said either.
https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/2021/08/briefly-noted-considerations-going.html#more
#TrustUs
#TheScienceIsSettled
Bwaha! Lolgf
LET me continue to remind our leftist friends. (Can you smell the sarcasm in that statement?)
Brazil has the Lambda variant which is proving IMMUNE to the vaccine.
The left led by K. Harris and JOE BIDEN has our southern borders wide open to Brazilians infected with the Lambda variant. They even Bus and FLY these people all over the country, drop them off, particularly in Purple states and Red states and tell them to go fuk up some conservatives.
THIS ONE THING ALONE tells me the left does not consider COVID-19 a problem and believes the lies they are being told that just throw on a mask and get vaccinated and all will be well.
Sad for them. I am reminded of the scream ins when the left found out Trump was elected. One day in the near future the left is suddenly going to realize that there is no running from or fixing Covid-19. They will be stunned and begin to scream when they no longer have anything to eat and the people they try to steal it from are more heavily armed then they are.
AT A Texas Air Force base the government is flying illegals out of the state in Airplanes and the military there is told to STFU and do what they are told.
Excellent comment est1950! Kudos.
As was predicted, allowing Covid-19 to circulate freely in the “courageous” anti-vaxxers it could permit vaccine resistant mutants to evolve. Lambda MAY be more resistant to the vaccines. Fortunately, the mRNA technology vaccines can be changed to match the variants, but it is a slow process to test.
Mr est, wrong on most things, may be correct that Covid-19 will be endemic globally.
His conspiracy paranoia that Covid-19 bearing illegal immigrants are being shipped to red states is not supported by evidence.