WiseOne wrote: ↑Tue Nov 17, 2020 12:42 pm
jalanlong wrote: ↑Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:59 pm
don't understand how, for example, a place like NY, where I assume people are very compliant with mask wearing, has these big surges? Did everyone just stop wearing masks? Everyone get fatigue at the same time? Do masks not really work? Is it getting confounded with the flu and news outlets/governments are not being open about that? These are the questions in my mind.
That is a question that never seems to be asked of either politicians like Biden or medical authorities like Fauci. If masks are so darn effective and every major city in this country has mask mandates, why are cases spiking? Why is California a hotspot when they were claiming to be the #1 most compliant state with mask wearing. What will a National mask mandate do for increasing cases in those states that already have mask mandates?
I've noticed that mask wearing has gotten much more prevalent than it was over the summer.
They're a lot less uncomfortable in cold weather, but maybe also it's due to the mask indoctrination. So yes, that certainly begs the question of why cases are increasing while mask wearing has also increased, or at least not decreased.
I suspect there is a lot of confounding by normal colds & flu. Last year, if you got sick you either medicated yourself to the hilt and went to work sick if that was the culture in your workplace, or you stayed home with a box of tissues and watched TV. This year, if you get sick you immediately go stand on a long line to get a COVID test. We already know that a percentage of these will come up positive reasons having nothing to do with current, active COVID infection. The positives are then labeled as COVID cases.
I don't think anyone has attempted to account for this scenario. Especially in NYC where about 20% of the population turns up positive on antibody testing. Perhaps a study of the rapid antigen & PCR tests in these antibody positive cases would help give some idea of what proportion of the population would turn up with a positive test based on prior infection (as I recall, that was the case with the famous George Floyd). Let's say that's just 10% of them. If that's so, and if everyone has equal probability of catching a random cold and deciding to get tested, then you would expect 2% of COVID tests to come back positive because of prior infection. Amazingly enough, the % positive test rate in NYC is about 2.5%. Interesting, no????
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A week ago today, when I spent about 8 hours in fairly close proximity with two other people, there was also their dog with them. As soon as they arrived at my house I asked them if they wanted to go to the dog park in the town next to me. They said yes.
We went. I'd only prior been in it for a few minutes before one of my softball games (our two fields are next to it). This time I immersed myself in it, taking pictures of the myriad of the dogs (plus sometimes their owners). Because it looked like every single person in the dog park was wearing a mask, I thought I should have mine on. I put it on when I got inside the dog park.
When I take pictures I do not use the big viewer on the back of the camera but, instead, always use the tiny viewfinder.
I was taking my first pictures and manually focusing. Just before I was going to snap the picture, the view finder would get totally fogged. It initially threw me as I was wondering why of a sudden something that had never happened before was now happening, which I thought was my eye steaming up the viewfinder. Why???
Finally, after a few seconds, I realized it was the mask and the steam coming from my nose.
Solved the problem by bringing the mask below my nose. Problem solved. No one complained about that nose exposure. There were both quite a few people and dogs there (more dogs since it seemed like many people had multiple dogs).
Also, if Pugchief is reading this...
In addition to the two dog parks being next to our field...there is also a child's playground, a covered area with benches for eating, a basketball court, and.....finally, a pickle ball court!
I am almost certain I'd hardly ever seen anyone using it while we were at our softball games. The rare times there had been anyone there I never paid any close attention because I was too wrapped up in my softball games.
When we got there, as usual, there was no one on the that pickle ball court.
However, when we were leaving there were four people playing. I think one of them was older and the other three might have been late 20s, early 30s.
The three of us stood just outside the court fence for a while watching them play. This group did not seem all that athletic as I did not seem to see the ball go back and forth more than twice and did not seem to see that much movement on the part of any of them. It seemed like it was no more exercise than playing softball, which is not much. It felt to me like I could have jumped right in and played at least as well as any of the four of them.
Vinny
