[ExI] mit covid study

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 07:02, spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Henry Rivera <hrivera at alumni.virginia.edu>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] mit covid study
>
>
> > On Apr 26, 2021, at 1:45 PM, spike jones via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> >>... spend as much time outdoors as possible,
>
> >...I do think there is value in this. And I have seen public health
> officials advocate for this lately. For example, it was just announced
> today
> here in MA, one of the states still mandating face coverings outdoors, that
> high school graduations will happen this year in the traditional form but
> all outdoors. The CDC is expected to announce new mask guidance tomorrow
> btw...
>
>
>
> Thanks for that Henry.
>
> That outdoor mask mandate business slays me.  Estimate pls what percentage
> of proles complied with that?  I wasn't aware until a few days ago that
> California had an outdoor mask mandate.  I never wore one, never had anyone
> comment at the time.
>
> Anyone with any common sense realized from the start that outdoor masks are
> pointless.  I saw plenty of people driving alone in a car with a mask.
> That
> is just silly and possibly dangerous, if the mask traps too much exhaled
> CO2.  I saw plenty of people exercising alone outdoors with a mask.  After
> a
> while I began to suspect it was a symbol of alliance rather than an actual
> device for stopping contagion.


There’s probably no point in wearing a mask outdoors if you are on your
own, but there probably is a point if you are within centimetres of other
people and there are thousands of cases a day in your city. It’s harder to
make a rule that people will follow if you make mask wearing contingent on
proximity to others. In fact, it’s hard to make a rule about proximity to
others, since multiple times a day people may pass close to each other
anyway, even if they are trying to avoid doing so. So enforcing mask
wearing indoors if case numbers are low, indoors and outdoors if case
numbers are high, is a practical way to address this, even if the evidence
is not completely convincing, since masks are relatively cheap and benign.

> --
Stathis Papaioannou
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