https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon...
The HN link should probably be changed.
https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_physical-interventions...
Is it ok to close the barn door now?
They should really focus on getting face masks for employees faster by using nonmedical fabric masks, which can help prevent asymptomatic transmission by blocking respiratory droplets from spreading. The article says the surgical masks won't arrive until next week. And they should really be using some alternative fabric mask, rather than surgical masks which should go to healthcare workers.
Each day that interventions are delayed makes a huge difference.
More thoughts at https://shouldiwearafacemask.com
(Edited to remove suggestion to close until they get masks with a compromise to use nonmedical fabric masks.)
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/amazon...
Labor organizing - it works!
The hard part isn't testing the workers. It's giving them sick pay for not coming in to work while sick.
[0]: https://medium.com/@Cancerwarrior/covid-19-why-we-should-all...
The root cause is offshoring safety critical manufacturing:
https://www.wired.com/story/decades-offshoring-led-mask-shor...
"This letter responds to your question concerning the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread by conversation, in addition to sneeze/cough-induced droplets," the letter states. "Currently available research supports the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients' exhalation," it continues.
In the best study [1] I have seen using expensive ($25,000) equipment, the sensitivity vs specificity is too low [2] to suggest that they are useful outside of environments that can tolerate high levels of false positives. To catch 90% of the people with Covid-19 you will inadvertently turn away at least 10% of your workforce as false positives.
I would be interested in seeing studies from actual workplace screenings in terms of how many workers are turned away and how many feverish workers are actually detected.
[1]https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/11/10-0703_article [2]https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/11/10-0703-f1
1) taking temperatures of employees, fever >100.4°F to be sent home for min 3 days
2) giving surgical masks to employees once it receives shipments of orders of “millions”
3) using machine learning-powered video software to monitor social distancing
(Shameless plug for a little site I made to help spread the word that we need #masks4all: https://shouldiwearafacemask.com)
This article offers some links and data on the effectiveness of even homemade masks at filtering particles:
https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/diy-homemade-mask-protec...
You can improvise a mask from paper towel and tissues that is ~90% effective (https://www.bkreader.com/2020/03/07/heres-a-diy-way-to-make-...)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_t...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronaviru...
There is a major shortage of PPE, so non-healthcare workers should be wearing nonmedical fabric masks or homemade masks. https://shouldiwearafacemask.com for a full explanation with the science.
This is the same reason the medical authorities have recommended these types of masks for healthcare professionals in areas where N95's are not available. It's better than nothing.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/f... (see "HCP use of homemade masks")
"even a properly fitted N95 respirator does not completely eliminate the risk of illness or death"
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equi...
[1] https://shouldiwearafacemask.com/static/images/uploads/masks...
Note in particular that cloth masks were tried and failed during the Spanish flu epidemic.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/health/aerosol-coronavirus-sp...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronaviru...
Here is an article pointing out that Trump ignored warnings about the virus from his own intelligence services as far back as January[0].
Here is an article about his efforts to downplay the effects of the virus, and calling it a Democratic hoax[1], also going back to January.
Here is an article about Trump's efforts to quickly scale back social distancing guidelines and ending the quarantine in order to get the economy going, again, for the sake of his reelection campaign.
Here is an article about the lies, minisformation and misdirection Trump has offered about the coronavirus[3].
> Unless you're implying that they waited deliberately for it to get worse so they could "fix" it.
I'm not implying that. I will imply that Trump assumed the problem would just go away, and when it didn't, his primary concern became political damage control. FFS he's said he only willing to help blue states with funding if they stop criticizing him[4] and during a press briefing on the coronavirus he boasted about being "number one on facebook."[5] Clearly he cares more about his image and his ego than he does the health of the country.
Notwithstanding whatever other failures have occurred, when the Executive branch is being run like this during a crisis, the result affects the entire system. It affects funding. It affects procurement and distribution of goods. It affects the way people behave, whether they even believe a crisis exists, and what actions should be taken. There's an entire "coronavirus truther" thing happening now resulting in people ignoring quarantine orders and that's directly a result of Trump convincing people the scale and danger of the problem has been overblown by the "liberal media" in order to attack him. That's directly his fault.
[0]https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intellig...
[1]https://www.vox.com/2020/3/18/21184945/trump-coronavirus-com...
[2]https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-trump-wants-to-r...
[3]https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/trumps-...
[4]https://www.vox.com/2020/3/25/21193803/trump-to-governors-co...
Paywalled articles are only allowed if there is a known, easily-accessible workaround, and someone usually posts this in the comments.
