Pirate's Cove

Remember follow the science. Even if they don’t know what it is

The U.S. Is Getting a Crash Course in Scientific Uncertainty

When the coronavirus surfaced last year, no one was prepared for it to invade every aspect of daily life for so long, so insidiously. The pandemic has forced Americans to wrestle with life-or-death choices every day of the past 18 months — and there’s no end in sight.

Scientific understanding of the virus changes by the hour, it seems. The virus spreads only by close contact or on contaminated surfaces, then turns out to be airborne. The virus mutates slowly, but then emerges in a series of dangerous new forms. Americans don’t need to wear masks. Wait, they do.

At no point in this ordeal has the ground beneath our feet seemed so uncertain. In just the past week, federal health officials said they would begin offering booster shots to all Americans in the coming months. Days earlier, those officials had assured the public that the vaccines were holding strong against the Delta variant of the virus, and that boosters would not be necessary. (snip)

Americans are living with science as it unfolds in real time. The process has always been fluid, unpredictable. But rarely has it moved at this speed, leaving citizens to confront research findings as soon as they land at the front door, a stream of deliveries that no one ordered and no one wants. (snip)

But to frustrated Americans unfamiliar with the circuitous and often contentious path to scientific discovery, public health officials have seemed at times to be moving the goal posts and flip-flopping, or misleading, even lying to, the country.

We’re told to follow the science, but, they don’t actually know what it is. They don’t know where it is going. How many still clean their hands after touching stuff? Like, say, you go to the grocery store then slather on hand sanitizer when you get in your car? How many grabbed some sort of wet wipe when they got in their car and wiped your hands than your steering wheel, shifter, and door handle? We don’t do that now, do we? How about wiping down door handles at work? Desks? Phones? You should wipe them down at all times for other things. Do we still avoid touching our face? Sure, this is all in real time, but, how do we trust it? They tell us to wear masks, but, masks mostly do nothing. Fauci said this in February of 2020.

Researchers first frame the hypothesis, then design experiments to test it. Data from hundreds of studies, often by competing teams, are analyzed before the community of experts comes to a conclusion.

Yet, we are being told to do certain things, mandated even, to act in certain ways, based on the hypothesis, not on the results. What are the results on masking? Here’s yet another study

Most face masks won’t stop COVID-19 indoors, study warns

N95 or KN95 face masks may be the best way to avoid COVID-19 during crowded indoor events. That’s the recommendation from a new study reporting most cloth masks just don’t do the job when it comes to stopping the spread of coronavirus within enclosed spaces.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo simulated a person breathing in a large room with a cloth face mask on. Despite wearing a mask, the study finds a large buildup of aerosol droplets suspended in the air. Besides raising awareness on the vulnerability of certain face masks, these findings also emphasize the need for proper ventilation indoors. More ventilation means less of a chance for potentially viral aerosols to linger around.

“There is no question it is beneficial to wear any face covering, both for protection in close proximity and at a distance in a room,” says study leader Serhiy Yarusevych, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, in a university release. “However, there is a very serious difference in the effectiveness of different masks when it comes to controlling aerosols.”

Studies continue to show that aerosols exhaled by infected individuals can indeed infect others with COVID-19, even if someone is standing more than six feet away.

And the majority of people are wearing masks that mostly won’t stop the Chinese flu. And all the government says is “wear a mask! They stop it!”

Researchers theorize many people wear masks that don’t fit their face properly. As a result, many cloth and surgical masks only filter about 10 percent of exhaled aerosols. The rest make their way past the mask, most through the top, and spread into the surrounding environment. Conversely, higher-quality, more expensive N95 and KN95 masks filter over 50 percent of all aerosol droplets.

So, even the N95s and KN95s only stop around 50 percent. Sure, that’s better than nothing, right? And then they end up in the roads and landfills. The rest? 10%. Even those “surgical masks”. I’ll take my chance with not wearing one when it’s 10%, avoiding the annoyance. And, yes, again, I’m vaccinated. I’ll take the booster if able. They may not stop me from getting it, but, since the science is showing that most will barely feel it, I prefer not feeling sick.

Read: Who’s Up For A Crash Course In Scientific Uncertainty? »