You seem a bit intelligent but hampered with strong confirmation biases.
Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
The feeling is mutual. I'd even strike the word "bit." I'll go through your papers one by one. Still, no one here, or anywhere else, has come up with a truly good explanation as to why the Asians and Central Europeans who wear masks have had so much more success in controlling this than Western Europe and the United States.
Easy read, chock full of good info and not too techy-speaky:
The Risks vs. Benefits of Face Masks- Is There an Agenda?
[I]
Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
Not convincing. They repeat propaganda the medical establishment was using early on when it thought surgical and N95 masks would be sucked up by the public so there wouldn't be enough for health care workers. It does however have a good point about N95 face masks causing an elevation in CO2 levels if worn for several hours. People mostly aren't wearing N95 masks, and when they do it's for shorter periods. I wear a KN95 mask to the grocery store once every 2-1/2 weeks, otherwise cloth masks. You would not by the way want to wear an N95 mask on a pressurized airplane. As to masks causing brain infections, I don't buy that it's happening on a large scale. You'd have a lot of surgeons and the like walking around with brain infections if true.
Very short and easy read.
<litlle Bob Marley interlude?> We Jamma, we jamma, jamma in the name of...
Medical Masks
[I]...When Should a Mask Be Used?
Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
I have "0" argument with cloth masks being a lot more effective at preventing people from giving Covid 19 to others than at preventing them from getting it. Many people who carry Covid 19 are asymptomatic. If you believe Ioannidis, the Stanford epidemiologist and public health expert favored by Oeb and Fox News, most people who have it are asymptomatic. This argues for wearing the mask to prevent transmitting to others regardless of whether you have symptoms. Note this was written in March when the propaganda machine of the establishment was out in full force to discourage people from wearing masks, so they wouldn't buy up all the N95's. There's lot's of good info here, sincerely, about hygiene.
This below is a bit hardcore. Tons of clinical speak. It's a study about studies about masks. A super-study. Basically it seems to conclude that most studies about masks are flawed in one or more ways. So scroll past the gobble-de-goop to the Discussion section for the conclusions, an interesting snippet of which I include below
The use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: a systematic review of the scientific evidence
...However, the difficulties in interpreting the observational studies of SARS suggest that they are of limited use for guiding policy on influenza. Firstly, SARS is an unusual acute viral respiratory infection with a very different epidemiology to almost all other respiratory viral infections. It is fundamentally different from human influenza: it rarely infects children, has a long incubation period, transmits little early on, mostly transmits in healthcare settings, is not prone to extensive global spread and has only appeared once. Secondly, the studies were poorly designed, had many weaknesses and so were very difficult to interpret. Issues of concern include the use of a non‐specific definition for exposure to a SARS patient (e.g. coming within one metre of a patient), inconsistency in providing information about the comparability of cases and controls and collection of data after a lengthy period following the outbreak. Several lacked microbiological confirmation of cases or controls and it would seem likely that a number of the SARS cases were not cases at all....
Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
From the start of the paper that you linked to,
Eight of nine retrospective observational studies found that mask and/or respirator use was independently associated with a reduced risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
Please note that Covid 19, also called SARS-CoV-2, is SARS, not influenza. I just scanned the paper, but have no doubt that it does support, probably correctly, your view that if you're worried about influenza, in most cases it only makes sense to wear a mask if you have symptoms.
There is one paper that's frequently pointed to by the mask skeptics that dealt specifically with Covid 19. I'll link to it, since you linked to one above that didn't support your case,
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342
The researchers got four Covid 19 patients to cough through masks onto Petri dishes, seven inches away from their mouths. And lo and behold, in several instances the virus ended up on on the Petri dishes!!! What's interesting, two of the four patients were female and older. They perhaps didn't cough as strongly as the other two patients, who were male and younger.
Anyway, when the two women coughed through cotton masks, which are what almost everyone walking around on the streets of America is using, there was no detectable virus on the Petri dishes.
So what does this mean? If you wear a cloth mask and also control your coughing, by not expelling air at high velocity and trying to cough into your elbow, you probably won't give this disease to someone standing 7 inches away? Hell if I know. But I figure it's safe to start seeing my favorite provider again, if she'll wear a mask and promise not to cough.