health

What’s the latest advice on the type of mask I should wear?

34 Comments
By EMMA H TOBIN

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34 Comments
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But you fail to, or more likely refuse to, acknowledge the psychological angle of this farce: the masks are a tool of instilling fear.

That is just grasping at straws, do rich people smoke? over eat? drink excessively? so according to you all those things are actually good for your health because they do it without paying attention to what science and doctors say.

Sorry but that is not an argument, things are proved effective by science, not because one person is smart enough to follow the science or not. Masks are effective, COVID kills, vaccines are terribly effective at preventing death and serious complications. You don't believing these facts do not make them less true, and trying to use "VIPs" actions as if they could be stronger proof than scientific data only makes it more clear you don't have an actual argument to defend that mistaken belief.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Makes a mockery of mask mandates, doesn't it?

I don't get it, are you saying that because some politicians ignore the science and are irresponsible, the rest of us should also ignore the science and be irresponsible?

And in what reality does that make sense?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

virusrexToday  10:43 pm JST

The point is that there are two sets of rules when it comes to masks. One for we the plebs, where masks must be worn lest we be publicly shamed or, in police states like Australia and Canada, fined. Where cops check your takeaway coffee cup to make sure there's drink in there if your mask isn't fully covering every frontal orifice.

Did you even read the whole answer? doing the opposite of the scientific recommendation is what is wrong, independently of who does it. So if anybody else also acts wrongly that does not mean you are less wrong for doing the same. 

Are you surprised that people on position of political power act wrongly? that would make you a first, that changes absolutely nothing about the actual valid basis for mask use recommendations. The people that act differently from what they say only make a mockery of themselves, not of the measures that still are completely valid, even when people try to make absurd arguments about things being useless just because they are not absolutely effective.

Of course I read the whole answer, and it carried all the weight of what you always post: zilch. Masks have a little effect with this virus indoors, but basically zero outdoors.

But you fail to, or more likely refuse to, acknowledge the psychological angle of this farce: the masks are a tool of instilling fear. If these so-called VIPs were really afraid of this virus and masks were as effective as your science claims, they'd have them on regardless of whether the camera were on or off. Especially since your precious vaccines are only moderately effective and vaccinated people can be heavy virus shedders as well.

No, the masks are unnecessary for most the general public on a day to day basis. Wear one if it you makes you feel better, but theres's no need to mandate them.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The point is that there are two sets of rules when it comes to masks. One for we the plebs, where masks must be worn lest we be publicly shamed or, in police states like Australia and Canada, fined. Where cops check your takeaway coffee cup to make sure there's drink in there if your mask isn't fully covering every frontal orifice.

Did you even read the whole answer? doing the opposite of the scientific recommendation is what is wrong, independently of who does it. So if anybody else also acts wrongly that does not mean you are less wrong for doing the same.

Are you surprised that people on position of political power act wrongly? that would make you a first, that changes absolutely nothing about the actual valid basis for mask use recommendations. The people that act differently from what they say only make a mockery of themselves, not of the measures that still are completely valid, even when people try to make absurd arguments about things being useless just because they are not absolutely effective.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

virusrexToday  09:50 pm JST

I think we should be wearing those masks VIPs get.

Where exactly did you see this as a recommendation from the experts? because if not, you are just trying to modify the actual professional advice to make it actually possible to refute, which has no value. Other people acting wrong do not make your own wrongs less mistaken.

Well that sailed right over someone's head.

The point is that there are two sets of rules when it comes to masks. One for we the plebs, where masks must be worn lest we be publicly shamed or, in police states like Australia and Canada, fined. Where cops check your takeaway coffee cup to make sure there's drink in there if your mask isn't fully covering every frontal orifice.

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/coffee-cup-cops-slammed-on-twitter/news-story/1ccd09d4a1f6158264ba3076b4792c41

Yet ostensible VIPs put them on for show and then remove them when they think the cameras are off. Or in the case of celebrity events, they don't wear them at all but the hired help is forced to mask up to serve them. If you don't recognise this as theatre of the absurd, I'm not sure what can help you.

https://twitter.com/VallachianR/status/1437835477000749056?refsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1437835477000749056%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waynedupree.com%2F2021%2F09%2Fpoliticians-mask-cameras%2F

Makes a mockery of mask mandates, doesn't it?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Where is my understanding wrong?

Read the part that is in bold, that completely changes what you half-quoted and that is precisely what can be easily proved as a lie thanks to scientific information.

Once you need to cut a full sentence to manipulate the answer to appear as if it is replying to something different you are already trying to deceive people, that is not valid, nor honest.

Just to be more clear, what is easy to prove wrong is not that "masks make breathing difficult" but that "masks make little difference other than being a nuisance and making breathing more difficult" which is the actual quote.

I think we should be wearing those masks VIPs get.

Where exactly did you see this as a recommendation from the experts? because if not, you are just trying to modify the actual professional advice to make it actually possible to refute, which has no value. Other people acting wrong do not make your own wrongs less mistaken.

The point here is, that Masks making breathing more difficult! (that is what Raw Bear said)

No, that is your mistaken understanding, the point is that masks do not have this as their only effect and it can be proved so scientifically. Once the actual quote that prove your wrong was given and you still choose to ignore it and keep using a false one you make too obvious you had no argument in the first place.

End of the story!

You understand this is used when you have run out of arguments and accept you can't use anything anymore right? this do not mean other people could still prove you wrong with actual arguments.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

At what point does the mask become saturated? More than a day I would think.

If that's the case, then it's probably not an issue. But I'd still to find some data on this. I imagine that as moisture accumulates on the mask, there is a bigger risk of transmission, and perhaps even a point where a saturated mask is worse than no mask. Which is why I tend to only where a mask when entering shops, etc. and try to avoid wearing one when outdoors. But as I don't generally walk in crowded places, it's not such an issue for me.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Hang on, sport, weren’t you telling maskless foreigners to put masks on in Tokyo or Sydney or wherever?

I hope you were telling them the dangers at the same time.

Even it is in Antarctica.

That is not the point here!

The point here is, that Masks making breathing more difficult! (that is what Raw Bear said)

And that is correct!

And if someone, a person or a scientific report, said the opposite, that means that the scientific report is nonsense or that that person never wear a mask and didn't have personal experience.

End of the story!

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Recently, some people have stopped wearing them on the streets but they are still worn in the stores and other places.

That's generally been the pattern where I live, although it's a fairly quiet place with not so many people on the street. But it raises the question I've been trying to find an answer to. If a person is infected, how does the effectiveness of the mask change in relation to the length of time it is worn. So for example, if an infected person has been wearing a mask for two hours before entering the supermarket and another infected person put on the mask just before entering the supermarket, is there a big difference in the risk they pose? If anyone has a link to such data, I'd be interested to hear.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I think we should be wearing those masks VIPs get.

You know, the ones visible when VIPs out in public trying to make a show of things, then disappear when they think there’s nobody watching? They were being handed out at the G7 and before media appearances all over the world.

Or the super-special invisible ones that celebrities wore at the recent Met Gala so you could see their special celebrity faces while the staff had to wear the regular masks.

They’re the masks I want.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Virusrex

Raw bear said:

Masks making breathing more difficult.

You answered:

This of course can be proved scientifically as a mistaken

Where is my understanding wrong?

Hang on, sport, weren’t you telling maskless foreigners to put masks on in Tokyo or Sydney or wherever?

I hope you were telling them the dangers at the same time.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@Virusrex

Raw bear said:

Masks making breathing more difficult.

You answered:

This of course can be proved scientifically as a mistaken

Where is my understanding wrong?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

@Virusrex

Raw bear said:

Masks making breathing more difficult.

You answered:

This of course can be proved scientifically as a mistaken

Where is my understanding wrong?

0 ( +6 / -6 )

What a nonsense!

Breathing properly is a human being thing, not a scientific thing.

Breathing is human nature.

That has no relevance on my comment, none at all.

If someone says that drinking water cures COVID, drinking would be "a human being thing", or "human nature" but it would still be easy to prove scientifically as a lie.

Read again what is contained in the quote that you choose to repeat incomplete, as if that could change the meaning of the original

*I think masks make little difference other than being a nuisance and making breathing more difficult.*

The scientific reports that clearly demonstrate this is not the only effect of masks are much more than enough to prove they make huge differences in the spreading of the disease, you not being able to accept what science proves is not enough to deny this, it just proves that you do not want to accept things demonstrated with evidence just because they run contrary to your beliefs.

Also, your crystal ball that makes you guess things about others and even say they are "probable" is terribly broken. Lots of people have worn face masks (or even N95 respirators) for hours a day long before the pandemic began. It is very easy to find examples of people (even with respiratory difficulties) that find masks not something difficult to wear.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

MontyToday 01:49 pm JST

Breathing properly is a human being thing, not a scientific thing.

Breathing is human nature.

If you have a mask in front of your mouth, your breathing is much more worse than without a mask. Because you are a human being and to put something in front of your mouth is against human being nature.

And all scientific reports which are telling the opposite are completely nonsense!

Welp...Monty's lost the plot. Hahahaha!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

@Virusrex

making breathing more difficult.

This of course can be proved scientifically as a mistaken

What a nonsense!

Breathing properly is a human being thing, not a scientific thing.

Breathing is human nature.

If you have a mask in front of your mouth, your breathing is much more worse than without a mask. Because you are a human being and to put something in front of your mouth is against human being nature.

And all scientific reports which are telling the opposite are completely nonsense!

Probably you don't wear a mask and therefore you don't have that experience.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

That discussion leads to nothing, because the virus load in sum is about the same.

No it is not, your reasons are not relevant. If a mask makes spreading more difficult that makes a deep effect on how the pandemic spreads.

ut at the same time you keep more of your virus load inside your body so they find good temperature and are multiplying themselves on organic tissue to grow, survive and attack your healthy cells.

This imaginary reason makes absolutely no sense, the amount of virus that is expelled represents only a tiny fraction of what is constantly produced in your own body, so it has no clinical consequences that you expell a slightly higher amount of that already tiny total of viruses without a mask. This is like saying forest fire is going to be much worse because there is a heath reflecting fence separating that forest from a housing complex.

Thinking that wearing a mask has any realistic possibility of making the infection worse because the virus are being re-introduced to the body is compleely mistaken and if true would have been terribly easy to find from the first few weeks of the pandemic, there is zero data that even indicates this.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Johnken6Today  01:09 pm JST

And what does this supposed to mean? 

It means 2 things:

He is a right-winger uninterested in science and 

He leaves strict instructions when having surgery that the surgeon and the nurses are not to wear masks during the operation because everyone knows it is just a gimmick (he saw that on YouTube).

Do grow up.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

That discussion leads to nothing, because the virus load in sum is about the same. If wearing ‘better’ masks, more closing , better filtering or doubling the cheaper ones, then you distribute or spread less viruses and breath in less viruses from others, but at the same time you keep more of your virus load inside your body so they find good temperature and are multiplying themselves on organic tissue to grow, survive and attack your healthy cells. You only more trick and endanger yourself in that case, while in the other case you bring accordingly more dangers to the people around you. Make the right choice situation dependent, or don’t think about it at all. It’s on average quite the same result of course.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

And what does this supposed to mean?

It means 2 things:

He is a right-winger uninterested in science and

He leaves strict instructions when having surgery that the surgeon and the nurses are not to wear masks during the operation because everyone knows it is just a gimmick (he saw that on YouTube).
0 ( +5 / -5 )

You're welcome to parrot the "consensus," as you like to call it. But this virus has spread like wildfire despite mask

Indeed who needs consensus when we have scienticians like Donald Trump followers to tell us science is wrong and we should all not walk far lest we fall off the edge of the world.

Keep getting your, er, information from your Facebook feed.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

You're welcome to parrot the "consensus," as you like to call it. But this virus has spread like wildfire despite mask mandates. 

And what does this supposed to mean? a lot of people die every year from bacterial infections, does this mean antibiotics are useless? how about seat belts, lots of people keep dying in traffic accidents, according to you that "demonstrates" they offer no benefit right?

If professional scientists and doctors can prove something with objective data and you say the opposite it is very clear who is right and how is only trying very hard to justify their preferences.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

virusrexToday  11:08 am JST

The best type of mask is the non-existent one

For the purpose of helping reducing the spread of the infection it is the worst one. But this requires the person to be actually interested on doing it. If not, that is the same situation of the people that say that the best amount of time for washing your hands after going to the toilet is zero seconds.

I think masks make little difference other than being a nuisance and making breathing more difficult.

This of course can be proved scientifically as a mistaken concept, there is a demonstrated advantage when using a mask with very clear evidence, the problem is more about trying to avoid this evidence for personal convenience.

You're welcome to parrot the "consensus," as you like to call it. But this virus has spread like wildfire despite mask mandates. They may have some limited effect indoors at slowing down the spread, but outdoors they're a waste of time.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

The best type of mask is the non-existent one

For the purpose of helping reducing the spread of the infection it is the worst one. But this requires the person to be actually interested on doing it. If not, that is the same situation of the people that say that the best amount of time for washing your hands after going to the toilet is zero seconds.

I think masks make little difference other than being a nuisance and making breathing more difficult.

This of course can be proved scientifically as a mistaken concept, there is a demonstrated advantage when using a mask with very clear evidence, the problem is more about trying to avoid this evidence for personal convenience.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Raw BeerToday  10:07 am JST

I only wear one in shops or public transport, mainly to put others at ease. Except when one is infected or taking care of an infected person, I think masks make little difference other than being a nuisance and making breathing more difficult. So I use whichever light mask is handy.

Same. Gradually seeing more and more Japanese doing this as well.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

I only wear one in shops or public transport, mainly to put others at ease. Except when one is infected or taking care of an infected person, I think masks make little difference other than being a nuisance and making breathing more difficult. So I use whichever light mask is handy.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

The best type of mask is the non-existent one. Comfortable, breathable and let's you show your manly beard in the case if you're a gentleman.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

Well the UK medical chief says to not wear one so I won't

Lamentable dearth of critical thinking in this comment.

The message is wash your hands frequently and your mask daily.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

 Now I never wear a mask.

Which is still something to be avoided until herd immunity is achieved, some people still fail to recognized the double role masks fulfill in preventing infeciton. That or they care exclusively about themselves so they are not bothered by the possibility of spreading the disease to other people that may not have the same chances of avoiding hospitalizations or death. Of cours this do not apply to people that replace masks with isolation, but that has been true since the beginning of the pandemic.

Well the UK medical chief says to not wear one so I won't

People unfamiliar with science tend to think credentials is what makes some people advice sound or not. In reality this comes from scientific evidence.

Janny Harries have been wrong multiple times when going against the best available scientific evidence that contradicts what she personally thinks, but that don't stop people from trying to use her opinion as if it was somehow scientifically based, it is not.

https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/comment/60556/jenny-harries-hindered-our-war-on-covid-why-are-we-promoting-her

-2 ( +8 / -10 )

I am using the basic masks which you can buy in each drug store.

50 pcs, about 500 yen.

And sometimes I wash them, and use it again.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

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