wilmwolf80 said:
Again, purely anecdotally, I just don't see people not wearing masks in the places that they are mandated to wear them. Between Teeter, Lowes, and the liquor store, I see maybe one person a week without a mask, maybe. To me, the question isn't whether or not masks are effective at lessening the chance of spreading the virus. The question is, if the great majority of people are wearing their masks, and it is my observation that they are, then why do cases continue to go up? People don't wear masks in the their homes, and they don't wear them when they are eating, and they can surely transmit the virus during those scenarios, but if they are wearing the masks everywhere else, then where are they getting the virus to transmit it in the first place? Unless there are scientific studies that directly link the uptick in cases directly to individuals who acquired the virus while not wearing a mask, any other statistics provided here are merely a correlation, and not a proven causation. Simply showing that a locale doesn't have a mask mandate and their cases went up is not proof that mask wearing or lack thereof was the cause of that increase. There's just a ton more information that you need to make that call. Is the increase due to congregate facilities? Is there contact tracing to show when and where spread occurred? I just think it is too lazy to say, the cases are going up, you unwashed masses must not be wearing your masks, so we're going to make mask restrictions even higher. If you don't have the contact tracing in place to prove that transmission is happening because people aren't wearing their mask, then you are just grabbing at straws. I have and will continue to comply with the mask mandates.
I have had the same thoughts of you on the matter. I work from home, but my wife has been going to her office since the virus arrived. She has her own office and most employees in her company work from home. She is a member of her company's leadership team and they and a few other staff are typically the only ones in the building. When she is interfacing with others, she wears a mask, but when she sits in her office by herself, she does not wear a mask.
When I do leave the house to run errands, I rarely ever see anyone without a mask. When I visit my father in a rural county in the western side of the state, I will see a few, but I can count the total on one hand. Of course, I am just a data point of one and others may have different experiences or live in an area of the state where mask wearing protocols and practices are not being followed. From my experience, I can not figure out where people are becoming infected. I will also add, if someone is wearing a mask that is not covering their nose, they are not wearing a mask.
In the video I posted late last week, Dr. Ohl (infectious disease physician at Wake Forest Baptist Health) discussed transmission from surfaces. In the video, he downplayed this risk and said we really need to stop hoarding sanitation wipes and just practice good hygiene, washing our hands regularly and avoid touching our faces. So, if everyone I see is wearing a mask and surface transmission risks are low, where is everyone getting infected?
I do go to restaurants and if I do not get take-out and eat at the restaurant, I will eat outside in the open air 99% of the time. If it is cooler outside, I wear extra cloths. My view, based on the science is that we should not be eating inside in restaurants, unless the restaurant has extremely limited seating and very good ventilation. Dr. Ohl commented on this last week in his video update as well. As he said, we should not be eating inside in restaurants, no matter how limited the indoor seating might be.
A lot of the reasons we are seeing a rise (I hate the word spike - it has been misused so much) across the country is due to one key thing - it started to get cold outside. As it got cold, people started to do things more inside and less outside. When you are inside and not wearing a mask, even while eating, the chances of getting sick go up.
The one place I know specifically caused Covid outbreaks - parties. Wake Forest University was doing well on campus, with less than 10 cases. A fraternity decided to have a party in late October and guess what? The campus saw the cases grow from less than 10 to over 100 cases. They were able to get it under control in early November and guess what happened? A couple of big, last days of school parties took cases back to over 100. Normal students are now gone and the only ones left are the football team and the basketball teams, plus their staff. With normal students at home now, I expect cases on campus to become nonexistent on campus for the next couple of months.
The good news is that for the majority of the semester they handled the virus well and got through a full semester of in-person and online classes. They test 500-1,000 students randomly every week throughout the semester and the percent positive was incredibly low. Until the large parties I mentioned, their positivity rate was lower than 1% and after the parties, the positivity rate remained below 2%.
In conclusion, try to do as much outdoors as possible, avoid eating indoors in restaurants, wear a mask, wash your hands and social distance from others as much as possible. We are so close to having some extremely powerful vaccines and I believe by next Summer, the worst will be behind us.