btbg

Masks in the OR are to prevent someone from accidentally dribbling spit into an open wound. Medical gowns are worn because they are sterile so they prevent infection getting into the open wound from the surgery. It has absolutely nothing to do with preventing disease transmission.

btbg

Put your mask on, make sure it fits tightly and then go outside on a cold day and see how much actually gets past the mask. Thinking that a mask will stop anything the size of a virus is a fools errand. It would be like putting up a fence with basketball hoop sized holes to try to stop ping pong balls from getting onto your property. The fence might stop an occasional ping pong ball, but it certainly wouldn't prevent them from getting into your yard. And, that's the point. A mask might stop a few large droplets, but it won't stop the virus from escaping from the infected person. As I understand it most of the spread of covid is from aerosols, not from large droplets. Large droplets quickly fall to the ground where they are not going to infect anyone. aerosols on the other hand hang in the air for a period of time. You are much more likely to breath in someone's aerosols than their spit unless they spit right in your face. It is absolutely nonsensical to think that masks could work, especially in light of the evaluation of all the medical studies on the subject. Many of us have been saying that since day one. Now the studies prove we are right and yet the true believers are still claiming that masks work.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

I have never believed that masks provide absolute protection; but I do believe that they have some positive benefit if used properly. Your analogy of fences, basketballs and ping-pong balls is not valid. Yes, viruses are small (ping-pong balls) but they are not being fired individually. You have acknowledged that they are carried in the “particles” of an aerosol, and those are affected by the direction of the airflow. A mask, when worn properly, will significantly reduce the forward movement of some of your breath, thereby redirecting some of the virus away from the person in front of you. Further to mask pore size and virus size, how can people argue that masks have detrimentally reduced oxygen intake in our children?

Regarding your earlier comments about the OR, the very same concerns exist wrt the virus being spread, and the masks work the same way both inside and outside the OR; not perfect, but helpful.

Finally, there is a psychological and behavioral effect of wearing a mask, kinda like the string tied to a finger as a reminder of something. I have stopped wearing a mask in most places, but not because I don’t believe in them; it is because the threat has been greatly reduced… by effective measures over the past 3 years.

Frank T Loc: New York, NY

How long have you been an expert in surgical procedures?
I thought you were an expert in balloons, but I guess you've moved on.
Congratulations.

Rose42

Not the same yet people believe it without question

Its also come out that the shot didn’t do anything with regards to transmission but people were manipulated into thinking they got it for the good of others and they even then berated those who didn’t get one claiming they didn’t care

Its all very interesting

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

So if you believe that nothing to mitigate COVID actually worked, then you must believe that it just ran it’s natural course. Do you also no longer think Trump’s restrictions on travel from China, for which he was criticized, were of any help? His push of vaccine development was not a needed nor a good thing? Trump sure thought these were necessary and effective measures, and Trumpettes sure railed against criticisms of his efforts.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Ok, here's the dope from my former operating room R.N. wife. Masks in the operating room are to prevent hairs from beards getting in the wound or from sneezes. They also provide protection from splashes or blood spurts from the patient.

My wife doesn't believe masks prevent the spread of disease, except for one mask. That's the true N95 mask that you have to be fitted for. She's been fitted for one. You wear those when around cases of TB, for instances. She said you can hardly breathe. No extraneous air gets in or out. You can't buy these N95 masks on the internet.

btbg

Believe in whatever you want, but the data confirms what I've been saying for the last nearly three years now. Masks do nothing to stop viruses. The mask mandates were wrong, and anyone who believes otherwise is not "following the science." Which is what the control freaks that mandated masks were claiming to do.

btbg

Don't have to be an expert to know that's why they wear masks and surgical gowns. Infection is the great danger in all operations and open wounds in general.

btbg

So, do you wear an N95 masks? Because if you don't, your wife is confirming what I said. Masks are worn to prevent infection in the O.R. and do not stop the spread of infectious disease. Maybe N95s have some benefit, but no one was wearing them were they?

SteveR Loc: Michigan

No, they were all fitted for N95's, but only for specific situations where they might operate on a patient with TB or some other similarly infectious disease such as this. These N95's would have tremendous effect because they were pretty well air sealed except for the filter or whatever that allows air in and out for breathing. They were fitted personally and not mass produced. The mass produced N95's could not be as air-sealed as the fitted ones.

btbg

Perhaps those masks would have worked if people had worn them. But that's not what people wore and the ones they did wear did nothing. It would sure be nice if those who pushed masks on the rest of us would admit that they were wrong and apologize because the damage they did to youth was unmeasurable. We set back the language skills of an entire group of youth, as well as putting kids behind forever in school and it was all predicated on a falsehood that the steps they mandated would help.

Now we know that the data says those measures did not help, but the damage is already done. People like Fauci and Brix and the rest of the CDC should be held accountable for their lies and incompetence.