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Now that we are a year into Covid...


ChrisL

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In your opinion, what mitigation techniques worked & what didn’t?

For example, washing hands is always a good idea but did washing your hands 6 times a day help prevent the spread? How about hand sanitizers?  Did they help prevent the spread?  Wearing gloves or not touching common items like doorknobs? I’m not so sure these early recommendations really helped.

Can we discuss masks without getting political?  I think wearing non N95 masks probably helped, how much I’m not sure. 

I think we all can agree social distancing, staying home, avoiding gatherings and vaccinations helped.   But now that we are over a year into Covid & understand more about the virus & it’s spread, how much of the stuff we worried about early on, like doorknobs, do we not worry about now?

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I think the masks were the biggest thing. Yes. I did beget Covid despite wearing them religiously. However, I believe my case was not that severe because I wore them. There is a growing argument towards this position. I use more sanitizer, but I had started doing that anyway during a flu epidemic the winter before. 
There is also more and more evidence that mask wearing diminished flu exposure. 

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I wore masks everywhere outside the house other than during bike rides and hikes.  Then I had the mask available if other people got near me.  I did not go shopping in a store other than senior hours in the grocery store early in the morning when there was almost no one else there.  I purchased everything online other than groceries.  I ducked all but two race sessions last year and even at those I stayed 6 or more feet away from everybody.

IMO social distancing and mask wearing were king.

Or perhaps it was just luck.

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10 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

1) Masks

2) Social Distancing

3) Hand Hygiene (washing/purell)

I never wore gloves, I never “worried” about touching door knobs or grocery shopping. I just washed or purell’d whenever I left a common/public area. 

I'd go with social distancing / social AVOIDANCE as #1, masking (#2) comes into play as #1 becomes less likely/possible, and then washing hands (#3) works all the time as a general good idea if only to not be disgusting :)

But really, it seems the folks who ignored #1 (on purpose or by accident) are clearly a preponderance of cases outside a medical facility.  In a medical facility, true masks and other barriers would be the only option to protect them when folks were sick all around.

So, far and away, staying away from strangers and at risk friends/family was the top take-away, and why in person gatherings will remain the top risk for normal folks.

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18 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I'd go with social distancing / social AVOIDANCE as #1, masking (#2) comes into play as #1 becomes less likely/possible, and then washing hands (#3) works all the time as a general good idea if only to not be disgusting :)

But really, it seems the folks who ignored #1 (on purpose or by accident) are clearly a preponderance of cases outside a medical facility.  In a medical facility, true masks and other barriers would be the only option to protect them when folks were sick all around.

So, far and away, staying away from strangers and at risk friends/family was the top take-away, and why in person gatherings will remain the top risk for normal folks.

If I had to prioritize, I’d agree with Tom. 

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4 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

If I had to prioritize, I’d agree with Tom. 

Yay!

All things considered, I have heard of no case out of the millions of cases of COVID that has NOT been tied to lack of social distancing - mostly indoors, but sometimes outdoors.  Keep density LOW and you've got the odds heavily in your favor.

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8 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Yay!

All things considered, I have heard of no case out of the millions of cases of COVID that has NOT been tied to lack of social distancing - mostly indoors, but sometimes outdoors.  Keep density LOW and you've got the odds heavily in your favor.

And I have yet to hear one of touching a door knob & then picking your nose!

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10 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

And I’d check your temperature, out of principal.

Another good point.  With the incubation period and people not showing symptoms but still a carrier  I think temperature taking has taken a back seat to contact tracing.  

At least in my workplace, contact tracing has sent more essential workers home than high temps but we still check temps.

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18 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Another good point.  With the incubation period and people not showing symptoms but still a carrier  I think temperature taking has taken a back seat to contact tracing.  

At least in my workplace, contact tracing has sent more essential workers home than high temps but we still check temps.

I don't think temperature reading was ever more than a BS step to seem like folks were doing something.  Ie - we can keep letting people come to work, be in close contact, and not change much as long as we "check their temperatures".

7 minutes ago, donkpow said:

Hording toilet paper worked exceedingly well at easing peoples concerns.

On the plus side, when was the last time you ran out of TP?  That's a WIN!

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1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

I don't think temperature reading was ever more than a BS step to seem like folks were doing something.  Ie - we can keep letting people come to work, be in close contact, and not change much as long as we "check their temperatures".

On the plus side, when was the last time you ran out of TP?  That's a WIN!

My daughters MIL still has TP to spare from her hoarding days a year ago.  The woman was getting up at the crack of dawn & hitting up all the Costco’s, Walmart’s & targets at opening & maxing out the TP allocations.  She had a freaking wall of tp 6’ high 20’ long in her garage...

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4 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I don't think temperature reading was ever more than a BS step to seem like folks were doing something. 

Says the guy who worked from home for the last year. Temperatures weren’t designed to replace the other interventions, but to augment the mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene of a workplace. Especially when rapid test results couldn’t be had, it had a role.

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20 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

Says the guy who worked from home for the last year. Temperatures weren’t designed to replace the other interventions, but to augment the mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene of a workplace. Especially when rapid test results couldn’t be had, it had a role.

A false sense of security - especially in any place without the mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene of a workplace.  I note it didn't make your list.  Also, we could claim "wiping down door knobs" or "washing groceries" was augmenting the mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene of a home or work place.  I don't buy it, and think the false sense of security it might provide (or the "cover" it provides otherwise unsafe workplaces) was generally bad.

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Since January 2020 I have only gone to LGS and LDS and doctor’s offices and hospitals. I think I made two trips to Ace hardware and two this week to Tractor supply. Most of the places I go have automatic doors. The places that don’t have automatic doors creep me out. Thrift drug has two sets of doors that you have to open manually. Their hand sanitizer inside is always empty. I carry my own. Who goes to a drug store? Sick people. All drug stores should have automatic doors. 
Our biggest risk was probably our hospice workers who also cared for Covid patients every day. Our hospice team always wore masks when in our house, My wife and I did not wear masks when they were here. I prayed for the safety of our hospice team, this seemed to work. They took all the precautions they were supposed to, masks, disposable coveralls, face shields. Our aide Jocelyn changes her nitrile gloves at least six times per visit with hand washing and or sanitizer between glove changes. Nobody from our hospice team caught the virus.

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4 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

The places that don’t have automatic doors creep me out. Thrift drug has two sets of doors that you have to open manually. Their hand sanitizer inside is always empty.

On a side note, I feel that way about bathrooms.  I think - preferably - all public bathrooms should be closer to the ones nice airports have - NO DOORS.  If they MUST have doors, then those doors should be automatic or open OUT.  After I wash and dry my hands (with PAPER TOWELS please!), the last thing I want to touch with my clean hands is the nasty door.  If it opens out, I can at least push it with my foot to open it.

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1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

the last thing I want to touch with my clean hands is the nasty door.  If it opens out, I can at least push it with my foot to open it.

I open the door with a paper towel. Hopefully there will be a trash can I can reach while holding the door open with my foot or outside the restroom.

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1 minute ago, Longjohn said:

I open the door with a paper towel.

If the place bothers with them :( Luckily, I usually have a backpocket with a couple doggie poop bags in it for when I take the dog for a walk.  Those come in handy as "gloves" to open doors or do other nasty germy things @Randomguy scoffs at.

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Not sure if we're the ones to answer.  And not just because it's hard to get a straight answer in this place

The CDC, all the doctors and scientists are in pretty clear agreement that masks and distancing work.  That's pretty obvious for an airborne vapor spreading disease.  Many have already discussed the realization that taking it seriously would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and reopened the economy quicker.  And the proof of that is, well, almost everywhere else in the world.

The temperature and disinfecting parts - they were the low hanging fruit.  Easy to do, and mostly done by businesses, etc., not left up to individuals.  When the virus hit, all we knew is that spewing COVID clouds out all over the door handles meant there was COVID on the door handle.  We didn't have a handle on how that might transmit disease.  Turns out, COVID doesn't live on inanimate stuff for more than a few seconds.  So the constant disinfecting probably saved a few lives, but not many.

Temperature taking?  What else we gonna do to find out quick if you might have it?  And really easy to implement.  Testing still isn't instant.  If you have COVID, you'll most likely have an elevated temperature.  And by then, you feel like crap and stay home anyway.  Unless of course you're asymptomatic, in which case, come on in and share it with your friends!

So when you go into a business, and they take your temperature and wipe down everything you touch, it makes you feel safe.  But does almost nothing to help.

Oddly (stupidly?), a year out, still in a pandemic, people are totally over the things that work, so we don't bother anymore.  But we still are very vigilant about the things that don't help.

Oh, BTW, even with vaccines, numbers are climbing again.  I wonder why?

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The predominate  theory has alway been that you must be clean shaven for a mask to fit well and seal out air leaks. I think the opposite is true. The contour of everyone's face is different, my beard fills the gaps where air leaks could occur. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

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52 minutes ago, 12string said:

Not sure if we're the ones to answer.  And not just because it's hard to get a straight answer in this place

The CDC, all the doctors and scientists are in pretty clear agreement that masks and distancing work.  That's pretty obvious for an airborne vapor spreading disease.  Many have already discussed the realization that taking it seriously would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and reopened the economy quicker.  And the proof of that is, well, almost everywhere else in the world.

The temperature and disinfecting parts - they were the low hanging fruit.  Easy to do, and mostly done by businesses, etc., not left up to individuals.  When the virus hit, all we knew is that spewing COVID clouds out all over the door handles meant there was COVID on the door handle.  We didn't have a handle on how that might transmit disease.  Turns out, COVID doesn't live on inanimate stuff for more than a few seconds.  So the constant disinfecting probably saved a few lives, but not many.

Temperature taking?  What else we gonna do to find out quick if you might have it?  And really easy to implement.  Testing still isn't instant.  If you have COVID, you'll most likely have an elevated temperature.  And by then, you feel like crap and stay home anyway.  Unless of course you're asymptomatic, in which case, come on in and share it with your friends!

So when you go into a business, and they take your temperature and wipe down everything you touch, it makes you feel safe.  But does almost nothing to help.

Oddly (stupidly?), a year out, still in a pandemic, people are totally over the things that work, so we don't bother anymore.  But we still are very vigilant about the things that don't help.

Oh, BTW, even with vaccines, numbers are climbing again.  I wonder why?

Great take 12String!  
 

To your point about opening the economy sooner, FL & CA are interesting contrasts.

FL had very lax regs compared to CA, opened sooner and yet at this point in time appear to be in a better situation than CA?  

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3 hours ago, groupw said:

I think the masks were the biggest thing. Yes. I did beget Covid despite wearing them religiously. However, I believe my case was not that severe because I wore them.

My understanding is that masks don't do much to prevent you from inhaling the virus.  They're too small and easily pass though a non-N95 mask.  Where they help is they dramatically reduce spread of the virus for people who have it.  If you got the virus it was because some prick with the virus decided not to wear a mask properly.  

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52 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Great take 12String!  
 

To your point about opening the economy sooner, FL & CA are interesting contrasts.

FL had very lax regs compared to CA, opened sooner and yet at this point in time appear to be in a better situation than CA?  

Lots of factors at play. population density is by far the biggest  Texas has been a like Florida, they are worse than CA.

 

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/states-ranked-by-confirmed-covid-19-cases-july-1.html 

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2 minutes ago, Zealot said:

Honestly, I doubt anyone here wants to hear points of view beyond the line they’re already towing. 

precisely why I cautioned against listening to our POV and instead asking experts for facts.

Of course, in this era, points of view are often considered the same as facts.

 

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If you dig through old posts, you'll find one where I was skeptical.  I was completely wrong.  

My school has been completely face-to-face instruction this year.  We have not have a single case of COVID transmitted at school.  We are able to keep kids six feet apart and they all wear masks. 

I honestly hope the sanitizing everything trend doesn't go away.  

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3 hours ago, Longjohn said:

The predominate  theory has alway been that you must be clean shaven for a mask to fit well and seal out air leaks. I think the opposite is true. The contour of everyone's face is different, my beard fills the gaps where air leaks could occur. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

Depends on the mask. The N95 you want to be clean shaven. Cloth or surgical it doesn’t matter.

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10 hours ago, ChrisL said:

In your opinion, what mitigation techniques worked & what didn’t?

For example, washing hands is always a good idea but did washing your hands 6 times a day help prevent the spread? How about hand sanitizers?  Did they help prevent the spread?  Wearing gloves or not touching common items like doorknobs? I’m not so sure these early recommendations really helped.

Can we discuss masks without getting political?  I think wearing non N95 masks probably helped, how much I’m not sure. 

I think we all can agree social distancing, staying home, avoiding gatherings and vaccinations helped.   But now that we are over a year into Covid & understand more about the virus & it’s spread, how much of the stuff we worried about early on, like doorknobs, do we not worry about now?

States that had a very high compliance rate with masks and where both parties, religious leaders, etc. urged them, tended to have low case rates.  Maryland did NOT have low case rates until our Blue State's popular GOP Governor said, as an aside in a press conference around Thanksgiving, "Just wear the damn masks," and it went viral and became the cool thing to do.  Now the state's case rate is about 1/3 the U.S. per capita average.

My sister's research boss at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Rob Brodsky, published a research paper where he determined that COVID is being spread almost entirely by exhaled aerosol droplets, so masks indoors and social distancing should be the main things that work - I'll keep doing both in public places even after my 2nd vaccination is two weeks old, around Easter, where Dr. Fauci says were pretty immune to a serious case of COVID.

Hopefully, enough people get vaccinated to provide herd protection and knock the COVID rate extremely low - it's come close to leveling-off in the USA for the past month and Europe has seen a major surge in the past month after relaxing a lot of restrictions and a lot of countries are closing schools, bars, restaurants, etc. again.

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Sometimes I wonder if any of it "worked"?  

Don't get me wrong, I agree with wearing masks, washing hands, all of that crap.  Honestly I think it's prob good practice even in flu season without covid.  

But I wonder if it truly did anything?  In the end a virus is gonna virus.  Just has to run it's course.  

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5 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

Sometimes I wonder if any of it "worked"?  

Don't get me wrong, I agree with wearing masks, washing hands, all of that crap.  Honestly I think it's prob good practice even in flu season without covid.  

But I wonder if it truly did anything?  In the end a virus is gonna virus.  Just has to run it's course.  

It worked.  It's science.  There's no question.

A virus can't "virus" if we wear masks and distance.  It's science.  There's no question.

It doesn't just have to run it's course.  We can inhibit transmission, we can create vaccines.  It's science.

People spew COVID out as aerosol with their breath.  It hangs around for a few minutes, blows around maybe, falls to the ground and dies.  But anyone who walks through that aerosol and breathes in the COVID gets infected.  Masks drastically reduce the aerosol spewed.  Distance keeps you out of that cloud  It works.  It's science.

Ya know what didn't work?  People ignoring science and deciding not to wear masks or distance.  Early projections were that 60-100,000 Americans would die if we wore masks and distanced.  

Other than countries like Italy that got hit hard before we knew how to deal with this, look around.  There's a reason why the US has sucha huge proportion of the cases and deaths, and why our economy took a bigger, longer hit than everywhere else.

It Worked.  When we actually did "it"

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17 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

I've held my breath since last March.

So far, so good.  :nodhead:

Holding your breath for an extended length of time (more than two hours) is an absolute, 100% effective method of preventing not only Covid, but every other infectious virus and disease as well.

Excellent work, Thad.  2thumbsup3.gif.78398e63ba1db6a434c15f0f0b809105.gif

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