...seems to indicate they're a really good idea....

quote:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said policymakers should consider requiring face coverings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus after studying two Missouri hair stylists who had Covid-19 but didn’t pass it on to their clients, the agency said in a new study published Tuesday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/1...ouri-hair-salon.html

The study:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volum...htm?s_cid=mm6928e2_w

quote:

In an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dr. Howard Bauchner later Tuesday, Redfield stressed the importance of masks. He said the U.S. could get the coronavirus pandemic under control in one to two months if every American wore a mask.

“I think we’re being very clear now,” Redfield said. “Now’s the time to wear a mask.”

Nah, Fauci raised some uncertainties about masks five months ago, so we shouldn't listen to stuff like this. The scientists don't really know anything. We should listen to Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro about this stuff. They know ...

Ignoring P*D, who's not fooling anyone...

One thing about the hair salon I wonder about is how much talking was there.

Remember the three teachers in Arizona who did their online teaching in the same room, wearing masks etc. All got sick, one has died.

I really want this to be compared with the hair salon case.

If I'm teaching in the classroom, everyone will be talking. So is my classroom more like the Arizona teachers' room, or more like the hair salon?

Are masks going to be enough for us? This is a matter of extreme urgency

I don't know about your salon, but the one I go to is a constant stream of chatter between stylist and client.

Is it possible the Arizona teachers got the virus from somewhere else, rather than transmitting it to each other? I mean, at least one of them had to bring it in.....maybe all three of them were infected elsewhere...

I think in Arizona, the 3 shared the room for a longer time than the clients at the salon... Time of exposure is also important!

Not great news for classrooms opening.

quote:

I don't know about your salon, but the one I go to is a constant stream of chatter between stylist and client.

I don't go to a salon anymore... but with my previous hairstylist, I don't think we had nearly as much chatter as I have in a classroom.

quote:

Is it possible the Arizona teachers got the virus from somewhere else, rather than transmitting it to each other? I mean, at least one of them had to bring it in.....

The articles I've read seem to conclude that whoever first got it, it was then spread among them... I will check again, but every article I've read about them glosses over important details. But I hope their case will get as much scrutiny as the hair salon example.

One thing to note is that the hair salon example includes a lot more people, and apparently they contact traced them and none seem to have gotten sick.

I wouldn't put all my eggs in either basket; the truth is probably somewhere in between.

quote:

Other family members, including Lopez Byrd's husband, Jesse; Luke, 23; and Lopez Byrd's two other adult children also tested positive for COVID-19.

Byrd said he doesn't know if his mother got coronavirus in the classroom or brought it to the classroom. "That’s really hard for us to talk about just cause like I know personally, me and my brother and my sister, we try not to think about that because what if one of us gave it to her? That’s too hard to think about," he said

The focus is on the teacher who died, and not the two who were with her, so there seems to be no information on how they got it. The assumption is it was passed in the classroom; I just don't have a lot of confidence in that conclusion. Too much missing data.

WTG, do you have a link for that quote?

What's missing is information about each family and the degree to which they were (or were not) otherwise socially distancing. Because the question is whether there was transmission among them (despite mask utilization) or whether all three of them independently picked it up from other sources.

Anyway...

Here's one article from CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12...ronavirus/index.html

quote:

Three teachers who shared a summer classroom at a school in Arizona all contracted coronavirus last month, leaving one of them dead.
...
All three teachers wore masks and gloves, used hand sanitizer and socially distanced, but still got sick...

So, they "socially distanced" -- what does that mean? And does that apply to their behavior in the classroom, or to their behavior 24 hours a day?

Too many missing details. Even NPR's article on this case doesn't ask the right questions.

https://www.npr.org/sections/c...ng-is-tough-decision

Here's the link for the story:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...ssroom-also-n1233672

Yes, I agree. Way too much information missing. Especially about the two survivors.

Again, I think people have come to the conclusion that teachers being together is the problem. I don't have much confidence in that conclusion based on the information I've seen.

As much talk as there is about mask wearing, etc....I was in the store this morning and probably a third of the employees had masks that didn't cover their noses, or were pulled down to their chins. I mentioned it at the service desk and the person there said I was like the fifth person in a half hour to complain.

On a percentage basis, customers were much better about wearing masks correctly but there were still a number of people who weren't doing it right.

edit: Local reporting from Arizona.

https://www.azcentral.com/stor...eopening/5405651002/

Indeed, "mask compliance" needs to include proper placement, not just having one somewhere on your face...

Re this:

quote:

I think people have come to the conclusion that teachers being together is the problem.

I think one very likely issue is that the two teachers are probably biased or have an agenda: namely, to convince people that going back to in-person schooling isn't safe. That is also my opinion at this point, so my saying this isn't meant to be necessarily a criticism of them, more just an observation. All the more reason for an outside review of *all* the pertinent details so that we can try to understand how likely it was that any of them were infected by one another despite mask usage.

quote:

I don't have much confidence in that conclusion based on the information I've seen.

Yes. I don't think we know enough to say either way what their case means for how we understand the utility of masks.

New cases in the US, at this time, are increasing, both on linear, and, on logarithmic scales.

So, I think it is no time for teachers or students to go back into classrooms.

JMHO.

SK, What about a union? Do you have one? Does it have a position?

I know this has stressed you a lot and I'm sorry.

And last night, the (R) Governor of Georgia nullified local mask-wearing laws, including Atlanta.

Really? sigh...

quote:

What about a union?

No union here. And I live in a right-to-work state. Yay.