Jon Levy on Twitter
twitter.com
1. With the BA.2 wave here in MA, it is worth asking what the @CDCgov "community levels" tells us to do, when it will tell us to do something different, and what this means. I'll look at Suffolk County, which includes Boston. 🧵— Jon Levy (@jonlevyBU) April 15, 2022

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1515074816801398791.html

Hospitalizations doubled in MA and current CDC risk level is “medium” with proposed measures being talk to your doctor about wearing a mask if you’re immunocompromised

Nobody could have foreseen this

    • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      So, the reason that masks don't really have a negative effect on respiration is because the diffusion is primarily driven by the propensity of gases to mix and fill the container or room they are in, and the existing movement of air in the room you're in. You breathing doesn't really contribute very much to that.

      There is no appreciable difference in CO2 concentration you're breathing with a mask, especially since what masks do is block small particles of water, snot, and spittle from getting blasted at people, rather than blocking the air.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That's not to do with masks, but lack of ventilation. Indoor air quality in general is pretty bad due to poor ventilation. It's why you should always open a window when you can. Many buildings take shortcuts with ventilation.

      The tweet you've linked says nothing about masks affecting air quality, it's saying that a triple effect of no maks, lack of ventilation and lack of air filtration causing a spike in COVID 19 cases.

      SF schools no longer require masks, but surprisingly also no longer require #Ventilation or #useHEPA filters. Triple whammy as it were. (CO2 in one classroom over 3000ppi and a positive Covid test in same room)

    • CheGueBeara [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      For masks to impair respiration they'd need to either slow it down to the point where you simply can't catch your breath or they'd need to have a volume comparable to that of your lungs.

      Imagine you exhale completely through an N95. That air has to go somewhere, and that somewhere isn't in your lungs or the space between your mask and your face (it's way too small). The air just goes between the fibers. The same logic applies to inhalation: the air has to come from outside the mask.

      There are people who already had poor respiratory function and are impacted by masks because they can't breathe as quickly as they normally would need to, particularly during exercise. That part isn't a matter of a higher CO2 concentration, it's more like needing to breathe through a straw: possible when you're at rest, impossible when running.

        • CheGueBeara [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I don't understand what you think is magic about air going through a mask.

            • CheGueBeara [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              the magic is you people treating it like it is literally an immaterial, intangible thing, and not an actual physical barrier that actual physical molecules still have to pass through

              I didn't say anything like that and actually implied the opposite... the need for air molecules to transit between the fibers is what creates pressure in the mask that limits how fast you can breathe in one. There's stuff in the way. It doesn't do it a ton, though, which is why this primarily impacts people who already have trouble getting enough oxygen - and particularly when they exercise.

              all I’m getting is the same shitlib handwaving “it’s not a problem” citing 0 studies showing actual CO2 concentrations with/without masks (without focusing on hypercapnia, which is, again, an acute condition that is not what I’m fucking talking about)

              Please be less belligerent and insulting. Again, I didn't do any of that and started out explaining why low CO2 in masks makes zero sense. You don't need a citation, you just need to walk through the fact that the air going in and out of your lungs has to go somewhere when you breathe and it ain't sticking around in the mask. I'm happy to talk about why that is if this doesn't make sense to you, but please be comradely.

              meanwhile looking this up in the past I found literally just sitting in a fucking chair in a normally ventilated office can result in a bubble of CO2 in your personal space >1200ppm (enough to see noticeable decline on cognitive examinations)

              Which has nothing to do with masking, that's about ventilation in the rest of the space.

              fuck me for thinking people shouldn’t have to live with even 100-200ppm increases in their personal space just to keep the blood god of the economy grinding them up

              Can you tell me where I told people to go pound sand over elevated CO2 levels?

            • L183R4L [any]
              ·
              3 years ago

              I don't think anyone is arguing that we should have to continue dealing with Covid outbreaks for the economy, but Western society for the most part has accepted it to be endemic (which I think everyone on this site would agree is awful). Masks are a way to try and impede the transmission, and one of the only things individuals can do to try and help protect themselves and others. The impact on CO2 concentration can be very real, but unless you're just wanting it acknowledged then it seems like an argument for going maskless