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วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 16 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2563

COVID-19: Face Mask or Face Shield?


The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 210 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances. The day is reset after midnight GMT+0. The list of countries and territories and their continental regional classification is based on the United Nations Geoscheme. Sources are provided under "Latest Updates". Learn more about Worldometer's COVID-19 data

New deaths:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

Mar 23          9  601       85      435            24               7        1631
        24         7  743     100      489            33               9        1983
        25         4  683     129      454            47               6        1987
        26         6  712       73      498            33               5        1801
        27         5  919     182      569            71               8        2782
        28         3  889     241      674            52               5        2609
        29         5  756     169      624            49               8        2706
        30         4  812     271      537            19               6        2849
        31         5  837     439      553            37               4        3661
Apr    1         7  727     589      463            83               3        3239
          2         6  760     522      709          158               4        4183
          3         4  766     716      587          123               5        3822
          4         4  681     769      546            55               3        4755
          5         3  525     909      471          106               6        3595
          6         2  636     874      528            78               3        4414
          7         ?  604   1371      556            95               6        6291
          8         2  542   1400      628          176               8        5431
          9         2  610   1286      446            82               4        3779
        10         1  570   1739      523          121               4        6506
        11         3  619   1476      399             ?                3        5358
        12         ?  431   1090      366            74               3        4533
        13         2  566   1147      280            21               3        4489
        14         ?  602   1754      300          100               5        5726
        15         1  578   1558      324            97               3        6351
        16         ?  525   1796      318          139               4        6239

Summary:

On this day when new deaths in the USA reached an all-time high, President Donald Trump presented his recovery plan:

WASHINGTON (AP) — New White House guidelines outline a phased approach to restoring normal commerce and services, but only for places with strong testing and seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases.

    What does the above mean?  First, horrible timing.  What's wrong with him, anyway?  Don't answer that.  Second, strong testing today, and for awhile, will not be available:
    • Total COVID-19 tests in the USA:  3,278,488.
    • Wow, most in the world.  Great huh?
    • Wrong, the population of the U.S. is 328,200,000, so we have tested just LESS than one percent of the nation.
    • Comparison of tests/million people:
      • Iceland      104,881
      • UAE            79,901
      • New York    28,302
      • USA              9,988 
    • Since testing began a couple of months ago, only 1% of the U.S. population has been tested.  How long before this can be 100% or 200%, as many will need to be tested before (swab/Abbott 15-minute) and after (blood/antibody), and maybe more than once for the latter.  Plus, a reasonably safe policy is to test anyone who returns to the economy or school.
    • How quick can strong testing arrive?  Abbott is good for 50,000 kits/day.  For the company to reach 327 million would take 6540 days...or 20 years.  The Federal government should immediately apply the Defense Production Act to have other companies produce these kits...if they actually work sufficiently well, and I haven't seen any actual accuracy data.
    • Antibody testing, which safely allows a person to return to work?  There are 70 different options, and none currently is anywhere close to being 100% accurate.  This is, indeed, the wild wild West embarrassingly defining the failed leadership role of the White House.
    • Vaccine to prevent COVID-19?  Scroll down to read my blog yesterday, where I said:
    It's not impossible that a vaccine could be made available in the Spring of 2021, but the reality for mass inoculations surely must be one to two years away, or longer.  Remember, there is yet no vaccine for the HIV virus, and worse, the SARS pandemic was in 2003, another coronavirus, and THERE IS NO VACCINE FOR THIS VIRUS!

    Finally, Donald Trump's penchant for blaming someone else is now the World Health Organization, where he has suspended payment.  Does he realize that WHO is the only real international organization that is trying to keep Africa and India from being the next COVID-19 hotspots.  If anything happens there, there will be a world-wide fallout.

    I guess some good news:  the latest uptick of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo seems to have abated some.  For a complete daily smmary from Japan, click on Kyodo News.

    If you've ever been to Rio Janeiro, the Christ the Redeemer statue towers over Copacabana Beach.  Brazil has a serious lack of face mask problem, but the statue is safe:

    Well let me next touch of the matter of what you should wear on your face when you go away from home for the next several months.  Is this good old-fashioned supply and demand, so important to free enterprise, or illegal price gouging?  Back in February by Wired:

    The top best seller in Amazon’s “Medical Face Masks” category, a package of 100 generic blue disposable masks, is going for $15, almost four times what it cost only a few weeks ago, according to data from Keepa, a company that tracks prices on Amazon. More expensive are so-called N95 respirators, which unlike looser-fitting masks keep out small airborne particles and are most often used to protect against airborne transmission. The price of a box of 20 particulate respirators made by 3M and sold by independent merchants has almost quadrupled from $17 to $70 since the end of January. A package of 20 respirators made by Honeywell, another major supplier, and also sold by third parties has quintupled from $12.40 to $64. Representatives from both 3M and Honeywell said they haven’t raised list prices for their products but can’t control how much third parties charge.

    Mind you that was two months ago.  Even though you shouldn't, have you recently tried to purchase N95 face masks?  Good luck.  Even Amazon.com shows something that looks similar, but is not called N95.

    I've used this before, but, here is a case for face masks.  Note that face masks have mostly been worn in public, the case and death curves have been flattened.


    Also too:

    “The available evidence suggests that near-universal adoption of non-medical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures could successfully reduce effective-R to below 1.0, thereby stopping community spread. Economic analysis suggests that the impact of mask wearing could be thousands of US dollars saved per person per mask.”

    Finally:

    One astonishing study done last year found that in influenza, in a study done last year before Covid-19 was on the scene, researchers concluded that the spread of a virus during a pandemic can be stopped almost immediately once 80% of the population wears a mask. 

    Hospital employees all need to wear the full range of personal protection equipment.  Normal people are now asked to wear face masks when leaving  home.  Easy for the Orient, for this has long been part of their culture.  Unfortunately, the Western world (including Europe) is not comfortable with wearing masks, explained by The Atlantic.  That article, though, leaves out an important reason why much of that region "really" wear masks.  AIR POLLUTION!!! 

    In the Orient, people look down on those who don't wear a mask.  In the USA there is a tendency to stigmatize those who wear masks because others think they might be sick.  Plus, they are uncomfortable.  I was once worse than President Trump.  I returned at the end of February after a two-week trip to Thailand.  There were times (planes, malls, whatever) when I was the only one NOT wearing a face mask.  I was lucky to return healthy, and remain so today.  I am today an embarrassed convert.

    Amazingly enough, months into this pandemic, we are still beseeched to avoid using N95 respirators.  They still need them only for frontline workers. The CDC keeps changing its mind.  Now, you are supposed to wear them, although President Trump, our national leader, says he won't.  All of this confuses the average citizen in this country.

    The evidence is so overwhelming that you absolutely and most definitely should wear a non-N95 face mask when you leave home.  But is that enough to protect you?  Well, no, because COVID-19 can enter your eyes.  Is there any CDC or national recommendation about face shields or goggles together with a face mask?  Nope.  Why?  Am I missing something?  Would this be overkill?  After all, we will not be with COVID-19 patients in a hospital.

    Then I read:

    While face masks are still needed in some situations, implementation of face shields will greatly reduce the need for face masks and extend the limited national supply of masks.

    Further:

    We believe that face shields provide a better solution. There are many types, but all use clear plastic material attached to a headpiece to cover the eyes, nose and mouth, thereby preventing infectious droplets from contacting these areas where the virus can enter the body. They cover more of the face than masks and prevent the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, face shields are durable, can be cleaned after use, reused repeatedly, and for many people are more comfortable than face masks. Because these shields are reusable and are diversified across the supply chains of multiple industries, the current supply is less limited than for face masks. They can even be made at home with items from office supply and craft stores. 

    Three weeks ago I reported on my search for a face shield.  I eventually bought one for around $20.  Ridiculously high, but I was desperate and was wasting a lot of time searching for one.  Now I see that Amazon is selling versions for less than $5.  And they are good essentially forever.  There are cheaper ones:  $3 from UFCaseMart. Plus:  2020 ALL Produce 50% OFF Today ONLY——Hope for world peace.  But I don't know them and trusted Amazon.  Except for one significant flaw.  I ordered my shield three weeks ago, and it has not yet arrived.  But it doesn't matter, for there is fearsome social pressure not to leave the building.

    Do you need to wear a face mask if you wear a face shield?  Those treating COVID-19 patients wear both.  Thus, it's probably safer to do the same.  But, if that article above said what it said, then for normal people like us just walking around, that might not be necessary.

    Here are some quirky face masks and shields



    Perhaps Mike Watts of England showed it best, instructing how he uses a Union Jack thong to reduce the global mask shortage:


    While the above drew a grin or two, here is an upbeat ending of dance mash-ups.  Some you've seen, but the best is of Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk.  Others:

    -
    เขียนโดย ที่

    3 ความคิดเห็น:

    Lucy Carter กล่าวว่า...
    ความคิดเห็นนี้ถูกลบโดยผู้ดูแลระบบของบล็อก
    6 พฤษภาคม 2563 เวลา 00:44
    Unknown Soldier กล่าวว่า...
    ความคิดเห็นนี้ถูกลบโดยผู้ดูแลระบบของบล็อก
    15 มิถุนายน 2563 เวลา 21:55
    Ahmad กล่าวว่า...

    I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I really liked the way you have explained about Face Shield . Once again thanks for sharing this.

    7 กรกฎาคม 2563 เวลา 21:58

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