skywatch

Your Welcome! I like how you and Hoda Kotbe both agree that there is value in an observational study like this - the fact is, there is nothing "in depth" about an observational study (that is, by the way, published in a magazine, not a scientific journal) that has yet to be peer reviewed. In fact, most of the observational studies cited are invalidated at this point by the activity over the fall, where the states that did not lock down did not have any significant impact beyond than the states that did - which is yet another reason real scientists find observational studies to be of the least value.

By the way, the big letters at the top of any document, including a magazine article? Those are called a headline, regardless of the source.

Also, FWIW - I don't get anything from FOX and never watch it. Don't watch CNN either. I don't want "news" spun either way.

Furloughedboi

The glaring mistake in posting a study thinking it proves the effectiveness of mask mandates;

How many people are wearing PROPERLY FITTED surgical or n95 masks? I don’t think anyone would deny that medical staff who properly wear their stuff will reduce transmission.
Joe at Walmart with his gaiter that he hasn’t washed in a few weeks? Joe who puts on an N95 mask and then takes it off with his contaminated hands and hangs it off his rear view mirror? Me with my black cloth mask that I wash like once a month?
For the average person, masks do nothing.

I really don’t understand how more people don’t know A) how covid spreads, and B) that most people aren’t walking around like doctors.
You can’t say “masks work!” and then post a study that models perfect conditions

Mesabah

Mask science is based completely off the debunked theory that Covid only transmits via large respiratory droplets.

fcoolaiddrinker

What it did do was get people back on airplanes and thousands to continue working in essential industries. How effective they are is a bit irrelevant imo. It’s almost over.

Red Forman

It has kept me and thousands off of airplanes.

fcoolaiddrinker

Understood. I’m just comparing before and after the mandate.

MainlineFlyer

Yes well, "Science" is a well known liberal rag.

You know what I'm still waiting for? Any scientific evidence that masks don't work. Not that mandates don't work, when half the population ignores them of course they don't. I have been waiting a year for any decent science showing that high quality masks do nothing.

The only articles I am ever provided seem to have "patriot" in the title. With a very short search I can find paper after paper and expert after expert saying they do, all from non partisan sources.

Grumpyaviator

It’ll be interesting to see when masks become optional if more people will fly because of the greater freedom, or fewer because of the perceived lack of health and safety. Either way there are those that either will or won’t based on their POV.

I believe this is what will drive airline policy as we come out of this, not because of health concerns, but which decision will result in the best revenue gain, or least loss.

Flyfalcons

Uh they've been required on airlines for the last year. No appreciable increase in ridership until people started getting vaccines and places started opening up.

Grumpyaviator

For one, data that show stricter nations, states and communities had no better infection, hospitalization and death rates than those that stayed open or relaxed mask and distance mandates. My friends in Canada and the UK say that compliance is very high and yet their numbers are very bad.

The other, Bill Nye the Science Fraud Guy pretending he couldn’t blow through an N95 mask.

In my search for evidence supporting or rejecting mask effectiveness I was not able to find true experiments physically demonstrating the effectiveness of masks. All studies are either empirical or anecdotal and rely on data comparisons of mask use by individuals in areas of high or low compliance.

Both the pro- and anti- mask crowd use similar empirical data data to attempt to prove their POV. However, the fact remains that the numbers aren’t appreciably different in either case.