1 yr. ago • 97%

Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds

www.theguardian.com Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds

Royal Society review looks at non-pharmaceutical interventions during pandemic when applied in packages of several measures

TechNews @radiation.party [HN] Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds

57 comments

"When looking at the use of face masks and mask mandates, studies consistently reported the measures were an effective approach to reduce infection. The evidence further indicates higher-quality respirator masks (such as N95 masks) were more effective than surgical-type masks."

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Prof Christopher Dye, professor of epidemiology at the University of Oxford, said: “The next thing is Disease X as WHO (World Health Organization) has called it

Twitter rebranding as the next pandemic, classic Enron

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This is news? I thought we already knew that loke one year or more ago...

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- We've basically known it since germ theory, or maybe before. Still, it doesn't hurt to have the study to point crazy people to. They won't believe it, but it at least ensure anyone else reading might not trust them.
  
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  Remember when early in the pandemic the news and the CDC was saying masks won't help?
  
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No shit Sherlock

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- it's always good to verify your hypothesis even if it's seemingly obvious. Just because something seems like it's logical and how it should be doesn't mean it is.
  
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  This is why I am starting to conduct my study into if fire is hot.
  
  It appears to be, but I feel extensive additional researchers required.
  
  "Ow"
  
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  Except in this case we already knew the hypothesis was correct
  
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So we're bringing them back, right?

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No shit, sherlock! I'll inform pikachu right away. Brb.

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- I still wear mine. I'll probably always wear it when I'm sick in the future. Never realized how easy it was not to be nasty and spread illnesses around
  
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No shit.

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No, really? Wow.

I'm so glad they conducted a study, that was money well spent that was.

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You mean the right wing extremist crazies who exaggerate everything from EV fires to being unable to breathe in masks were wrong?

Huge shocker. They definitely seemed so confident

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- Permanently Deleted
  
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  When the people who claimed "masks don't work" convince the Royal Society to publish an 80 page report similarly supported by academics at Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, St Andrews, UCL, and Edinburgh (among others) then they will definitely deserve to be equally confident.
  
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Probably more lockdowns than facemasks (at least how people were using them)

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- You mean my cloth mask and beard might not have been so effective?
  
  (I like to think at least I was protecting other people a little...)
  
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  It's better than nothing as long as you were wearing it correctly and kept time exposure as low as possible. N95 would've been best of course
  
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  Masks were mostly effective at stopping someone infecting others.
  Only properly sealed N95+ masks would really be effective on the receiving end.
  
  And sadly, that meant that the (non-exempt) selfish bastards who refused to wear them still spread it around.
  
  So you were definitely protecting other people, and did a great job :)
  
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  Cloth masks still work to slow down particles coming out of you so they don't spread as far, so it's still helpful to prevent spread. It just doesn't filter things that well, so anything you're breathing in is still just as likely to infect you. It's a good safety measure, particularly if everyone is wearing one. It doesn't work well if everyone except the infected person is.
  
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- @theletterd @merridew
  There's cutting, and there's deflecting.
  A demographic shift is observed in the USA, related to political stupidity and preference on mask wearing.
  
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- you mean wearing it under your nose and pulling on it when talking makes it less effective?
  
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Interesting, although I'd like to see a comparison with countries like Sweden who made advisories instead of compulsion

I had a very enjoyable lockdown, no planes, no cars, had a dog so could go out, and I enjoy solitude, but those in not so good domestic situations or extroverted types must have found it tough.

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- Sweden was a bit of an outlier though. Most younger Swedes live alone. And they tend to follow government advisories. New Zealand's strategy was stellar, particularly early on in the pandemic. You could do what you want. I remember we were out having concerts as if there was no pandemic, thanks to the zero COVID strategy. But by late-Delta, early-Omicron, zero COVID could not longer be sustained, and it was clear only mitigations would stick. The government hoped to eliminate it like they did the other times, but it was just impossible then, people had become complacent. But yes, on the healthcare-side and economic-side, NZ fared better than Sweden.
  
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  Thanks, I'd forgotten how well NZ had done. I wonder if the SARS epidemic made them better prepared compared to Europe.
  
  The only pandemic threats I recall in the UK was bird and swine flu.
  
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This is the best summary I could come up with:

Measures taken during the Covid pandemic such as social distancing and wearing face masks “unequivocally” reduced the spread of infections, a report has found.

Experts looked at the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) – not drugs or vaccines – when applied in packages that combine a number of measures that complement one another.

Prof Sir Mark Walport, the foreign secretary of the Royal Society and chairman of the report’s expert working group, said: “There is sufficient evidence to conclude that early, stringent implementation of packages of complementary NPIs was unequivocally effective in limiting Sars-CoV-2 infections.

Additionally, the report found that in school settings, closures and other distancing measures were associated with reduced Covid-19 cases, but the effectiveness varied depending on a range of factors, including adherence and pupils’ ages.

For the future, the report recommends establishing international protocols for conducting clinical trials and observational research on NPIs in advance of further pandemics.

The report draws together the findings of six expert-led evidence reviews, published in a special themed issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

The original article contains 695 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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🤯

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Unequivocally - never heard that word. It means clearly or definitely.

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- It's a perfectly cromulent word.
  
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  My knowledge has been enbiggened.
  
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  Cromulent - never heard that word. It means acceptable or adequate.
  
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  Those of you that may be a bit lost on the reference:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4qP42Aqpbg (Simpsons)
  
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- Reminds me of a birthday card with George W. Bush on it. It said "I unequivocally wish you a happy birthday!" on the front and "Uh, unless 'unequivocally' means 'don't.'" on the inside.
  
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Sars-CoV-2 Only exists as a computer model. So Masks/lock downs prevented the spread of what now?

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- Phew - luckily no-one died or got infected, or my wife had to volunteer to turn intubated patients in ITU because the nurses were exhausted.
  
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- I assure you i'm not capable of having been infected by a computer model, and I have absolutely been infected with covid-19 in the past.
  
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  If they'd called it Dogs arse Flu you wouldn't even comment.
  
  P.S. Sar-cov2 is the alleged infection agent and not Covid19, which is a list of basic symptoms.
  
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Permanently Deleted

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- Your brain is good at many things.
  
  Your brain is not as good at some things -- for example, complex statistical analysis -- as the collective brains of lots of other people who specialise in that thing all working together.
  
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- So you believe literally nothing anyone tells you at all?
  
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