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Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
The problem with all these people saying "The chances of catching the virus with/without mask < or > 2m apart is X%" is it's all based on one point of contact - one person coming into contact with one other person. I posted a video showing the queues inside the Metrocentre to get into one shop. Hundreds of people, possibly thousands. How's that 1% infection risk looking when you come into contact with 1000 people?
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
I agree that being in crowds of people is a Bad Idea.
I'm sceptical that wearing a mask of the sort generally used makes a significant difference to that risk, particularly outdoors. Actual scientific evaluation of mask efficacy appears equivocal. Leaving when seeing there's a farking mahoosive queue would seem to be a far more impactful intervention - and would be my reaction regardless of COVID.
That would be too simple. Most the public health message has been too unclear , too open to well if you can, do you think you could
and too mixed. Face covering is the latest one and they can't get that right. It started well enough but just is not cutting though it's not that complicated but boy is it starting to be.
Even on a local level it's been all over the place. As things open up my council still has lost the plot. We now have sign's all over the place with slogans and helpful tips for safe shopping. Which clearly have come for the Janet and John book of Covid.
The sats are still over the place , the R rate is still mostly at the wrong end of being open to a few wrong runs. The testing is still not up to being spot on. But the balance between following the money and keeping everyone safe is quickly moving the wrong way.
matticus
Guru
Speaking just IMO, the demos did not show this - both the London demos, and the Bristol statue incident featured about as many people with their mouths uncovered (often with masks below their chin!) as people with masks in place.
I don't know why; my gut feeling based on my own behaviour around colleagues, and around shoppers, is that masks still look so odd, they remind me of the invisible danger around us.
Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
I would say that - a reminder that things aren't normal.
The replies are treating it as simple particle dispersal without considering at least two other factors:
1. The droplets are so small that they rapidly evaporate, becoming lighter as they travel away from the source
2. As the droplets dry out, they may travel further but become less infective as the virus they contain inactivates. I can't quote any papers - just earlier reports that while it was possible to recover viral rna right across test areas, it appeared to be non-viable.
Anyway, it makes the maths of dispersal distance versus infectivity rather complicated and that's before you start taking into account random air currents in real-world situations. I'm surprised that there are any distancing claims to be made to fractions of a metre differences beyond 'don't stand close to each other' but perhaps they have to be seen to quantify it in some way to show what 'close' is.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
It doesn't make it more infectious. It just increases the chance that there are carrier(s) in the air with you. You still inhale the same volume of air. It's a mixed change.
I prefer to avoid indoor shopping malls at the moment and minimise the time spent in a shop on any one day, ideally to not much more than 15 minutes.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Pics or I don't believe this is on their wall!
(From https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22/The_Ladybird_Book_of_COVID-19.pdf )
midlife
Guru
Julia9054
Guru
- Location
- Knaresborough
Blimey! I don't mind admitting that I like the occasional mooch round the shops but those crowds would have me wanting to punch people even in normal times
Mr Whyte
Well-Known Member
- Location
- East Sussex
Slick
Guru
Saw it on the news, unbelievable.
midlife
Guru
Yup, I work for two NHS trusts who are probably spending millions turning lecture theatres into waiting rooms, walling off hundreds of rooms, turning offices into changing areas, and 4-6 masks a day for staff.... The list is endless. And the public are doing what they like!
Words fail me.
Slick
Guru
I'm doing similar in a college environment and wondered why bother. Your much more likely to contract that virus with how you spend your leisure time than in a well controlled work environment.
