Maskers: why didn't you wear a mask before COVID? Did infectious disease not exist prior to 2020?

As an anesthesiologist, I wore a mask every day to work in the operating rooms and I would always wear N95 masks and PAPRs around patients with any patients with airborne transmissible diseases like Covid-19 or TB. Having had to intubate Covid-19 patients in the 30-50’s and T huh en seeing some of these younger patients die. I think that this is much more serious than the regular influenza or other infectious diseases we have. To me, wearing a mask is no big deal and it seems to help prevent spread of Covid-19 as evidenced by countries in Asia. Even though I know I am relatively healthy and fit (20 BMI and Sub-3 marathoner at age 45) i personally do not want to catch this disease and have the chance for long term complications nor do I want to spread this disease to vulnerable patients.

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

veero wrote:

A lot of people were wearing masks prior to covid19 in Japan and China, especially during flu season. This was without any government orders or mandates.

Great for them. They can feel free to continue wearing masks when they chose after this and I will not because I'd rather protect myself with healthy lifestyle than by wearing something incredibly uncomfortable.

The real reason is because Trump is president. Less than 25% pushing for constraints on the virus at this point in the US are really that afraid of the health impacts. See Pelosi at the Salon when she thinks no one is watching. People are for whatever reason so pissed about Trump that they are willing to do whatever is necessary to destroy him including crashing our country.

+1

Also, people in Wuhan & Beijing wear masks regularly because of the horrible air pollution they have from toxic chemical plants that are allowed to operate. ~1.2 million die annually in China from toxic air-related lung diseases.

And not only did Pelosi pull a fast one but back last spring Mayor Lightfoot didn't think anyone was watching when she violated her own quarantine orders and got her hair done. ?

what has changed? wrote:

Help me understand this. If I am putting lives at risk by not wearing a mask in 2020, weren't you putting lives at risk by not wearing a mask in 2019 or 2018? Don't you think that you have probably transmitted an illness at some point that was eventually passed along to someone who died of the disease, and that a mask could have prevented this from happening? Why haven't you done everything in your power to prevent this?

Cuz I didn't need a mask to get into Lowe's back in the old days.

They weren't even wearing masks DURING covid, for the most part. It peaked before anyone started telling them to.

Of course, the reason they weren't being told to was so there wouldn't be a shortage of bandannas and scraps of cloth.

Or wait, maybe it was because science didn't know yet about blocking spit because a virus can be in a drop of spit. That's a new discovery. That's the ticket.

Wearing a mask = telling O'Brien you see 5 fingers.

CDC: 14 randomly controlled trials show no protective benefit from masks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPnohEZqS2Y

It says right on the mask packaging that the masks do not protect against covid-19 or flu.

[quote]Yeah, about that... wrote:

I guess what has changed is that in 2020 we've been presented with an easily-spread disease that's much more deadly than anything we've previously seen in our lives.

It is?

Killing off unhealthy old folks with several life threatening conditions.

Yawn....

truth be told. wrote:

Because science didn’t support wearing masks for prior diseases, but for Covid-19 the science does support wearing a mask. Not all diseases are the same, and Covid-19 is clearly unlike anything else.

It is more complicated than that. I bet if you talked to anyone who studied the issue back in 2018 and asked if everyone wearing masks in public would reduce flu deaths, they all would have said yes. And they all would have also said that it wasn't feasible to do in the US (see how hard it is to get people to wear masks with a disease that is 4x+ more deadly and about 3x more infectious) because of social issues.

It will be interesting to see if going forward if people worry a lot more about infectious diseases. Will during a normal flu season will we see a ton of masks?

what has changed? wrote:

Help me understand this. If I am putting lives at risk by not wearing a mask in 2020, weren't you putting lives at risk by not wearing a mask in 2019 or 2018? Don't you think that you have probably transmitted an illness at some point that was eventually passed along to someone who died of the disease, and that a mask could have prevented this from happening? Why haven't you done everything in your power to prevent this?

I’m confused... fo you not want to wear a mask while in public?

Think the virus is a hoax?

It’s no big deal?

Like getting sick?

Miss drinking inside at a bar alone?

Can you break down exactly what the issue you’re having?

Anesthesiologist wrote:

As an anesthesiologist, I wore a mask every day to work in the operating rooms and I would always wear N95 masks and PAPRs around patients with any patients with airborne transmissible diseases like Covid-19 or TB. Having had to intubate Covid-19 patients in the 30-50’s and T huh en seeing some of these younger patients die. I think that this is much more serious than the regular influenza or other infectious diseases we have. To me, wearing a mask is no big deal and it seems to help prevent spread of Covid-19 as evidenced by countries in Asia. Even though I know I am relatively healthy and fit (20 BMI and Sub-3 marathoner at age 45) i personally do not want to catch this disease and have the chance for long term complications nor do I want to spread this disease to vulnerable patients.

That's part of your job requirement. Pre-COVID did you wear a mask after work to go shop, dinner, movies, etc? How about your running or training at the gym - did you wear a mask for those activities? And if you didn't wear a mask off work pre-COVID...why not? As an M.D., you should know how many viral & bacterial pathogens are out there in the real world at any given time. Coronaviruses aren't the only game in town.

Lack of herd inmunity

your easily controlled wrote:

*SO* deadly

Two hundred thousand American souls agree.

The question is not why masks were not mandated back then but why mask advocates like yourself did not choose to wear one if you could lower your risk of contracting many infectious diseases.

you forgot to switch back to your other forum name

btw- Novel= New

I mean why wasn't everyone wearing cabon plate shoes before the the Next 4%??

The reason we are wearing masks and what makes Covid different is that there is a long lead time where you can be INFECTIOUS and SYMPTOM FREE. With other illnesses, like the flu, the time between start of infectious period and onset of symptoms is short. When people get sick, they typically stay home from work, school, etc. But if you don't feel sick, then you are out spreading germs at at work, stores, bars, school, concerts, etc.

The mask is to help combat the situation where infectious and symptom free people are out & about. Masks mitigate the symptom-free spreader from spreading and mitigate people from getting infected my non-masked people.

So why were you not wearing a mask?

Let me make a statement that will get censored or ignored. Here we go

I always covered my cough, washed my hands (you should probably do this) and was generally considerate of people when I was sick with well-known viruses and illnesses.

I used to not wear my selt belt

I used to not wear a bike helmet

I used to not do long tempo runs

I used eat whatever I wanted

I used to not get flu shots

As information becomes available to me I adapt. I don't stamp my feet in the ground like a 3 year old and refuse to change.

(at the very least please start washing your hands..it's gross dude.)