Trying to read between the lines on Covid.

I'm encouraged by the story of the hair salon where the two employees were infected, yet none of the clients got sick. (Short-term exposure with everyone masked)

Now making the rounds are people trying to make sense of that cruise ship infection.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/n...se-ship-study-finds/

The response to the first fever was to pass out surgical masks to everyone right away. Lots of people got infected, but most were asymptomatic. (Long-term exposure with masks)

So the takeaway that is being suggested is that the viral dose was lowered by the masks and that somehow this leads to a less severe infection, or an asymptomatic infection...

Another reason to be diligent with mask-wearing? There is so much guesswork involved...

Hmm... The cruise ship passengers were sent to their rooms after the infected passenger was discovered, so how much exposure did they really have?

I wish we had more details about those three teachers in Arizona who all got covid (and one of them died) after being in the same room for several weeks, teaching online, so presumably talking a lot in that room, but wearing masks.

I will definitely be diligent about mask-wearing, but I'd like to know what the limitations are, and how protected I will be (or not be) when I'm teaching in the classroom with masks on....

I'm deeply skeptical, until I hear reputable sources saying so, that the amount of viral load you encounter is somehow related to the severity of your illness.

As far as I know, it's binary. You either get infected, or you don't. The amount of viral load you encounter (amount, time exposed, etc.) may affect the probabilities of whether you contract the illness, but, once you contract the illness, it isn't more or less severe if you've only been exposed to a small amount of virus.

As far as I understand it, the severity of the illness for each individual is a random carp shoot.

As one doctor I read said last night, it's a saying among medical professionals, if you've seen one case of an illness, you've seen one case of an illness. Every case is different.

quote:

the amount of viral load you encounter is somehow related to the severity of your illness

Actually, that doesn't make sense though, if it did, live vaccines wouldn't work, right??

In any case, I am almost positive I heard exactly this (that lesser viral load can sometimes result in less severity or even no illness). I may be remember wrong though...

Hay Google...

Quirt, I'm just googling around and it seems like there may not be a hast-fast answer...

quote:

The response to the first fever was to pass out surgical masks to everyone right away. Lots of people got infected, but most were asymptomatic. (Long-term exposure with masks)

The horse was already out of the barn if someone had a fever. Chances are good they were shedding virus for several days before the fever came on.

I guess a lot of this is wishful thinking for me that I may have more control of how/when/if the pandemic gets to me...

This high number of asymptomatic infections just made me wonder if our reaction isn't binary. Not enough reliable data out there!

quote:

I guess a lot of this is wishful thinking for me that I may have more control of how/when/if the pandemic gets to me

Oh me too, definitely!!

Re your other comment, I am sure that reactions to the virus are no binary. But we just don't know enough about all the factors...