N95 masks do something but it's less than 50% effective for COVID. They're meant for larger particles. And if you don't wear it properly, or have facial hair, it doesn't work.
Protecting your eyes is much more effective to prevent contracting COVID, IIRC >90% of COVID infections come through the mucus membranes of the eye.
Staying further away from people is better. Americans already have bigger personal bubbles than most other places in the world.
COVID does stay on surfaces for longer than a week. Actually contracting COVID from surfaces is really difficult. It doesn't transfer well. You basically need direct contact with a mucus membrane to pass it.
"Omnicron" (that's what Joe Biden calls it, and who are we to contradict Joe Biden?) has very different spike proteins from other varieties. This means the vaccine, which was already insufficiently effective, is now almost entirely ineffective. It also means monoclonal antibody treatments are also almost entirely ineffective. Good thing it's also pretty mild. It further means if you have immunity from one of the older strains you're still likely to catch it.
All in all, we need to put down the damn masks and stop the damn shutdowns.
o0shad0o -8 points 2.3 years ago
N95 masks do something but it's less than 50% effective for COVID. They're meant for larger particles. And if you don't wear it properly, or have facial hair, it doesn't work.
Protecting your eyes is much more effective to prevent contracting COVID, IIRC >90% of COVID infections come through the mucus membranes of the eye.
Staying further away from people is better. Americans already have bigger personal bubbles than most other places in the world.
COVID does stay on surfaces for longer than a week. Actually contracting COVID from surfaces is really difficult. It doesn't transfer well. You basically need direct contact with a mucus membrane to pass it.
"Omnicron" (that's what Joe Biden calls it, and who are we to contradict Joe Biden?) has very different spike proteins from other varieties. This means the vaccine, which was already insufficiently effective, is now almost entirely ineffective. It also means monoclonal antibody treatments are also almost entirely ineffective. Good thing it's also pretty mild. It further means if you have immunity from one of the older strains you're still likely to catch it.
All in all, we need to put down the damn masks and stop the damn shutdowns.