Extremely unlikely that any variant is going to be so different that it’s not even in competition with the primary strain. That goes against a lot of Darwinism.
Grunching a good bit; thanks to all the professionals and deep thinkers that have contributed to this thread.
Anyone care to comment on mask wearing for a Thanksgiving gathering of 5 - 10 people? All vaxxed; 2 of us boosted. There’s a 2 year old in the mix. I will be the only one masked up if I choose to do so.
Highly doubt anyone is going to be wearing a mask indoors at Thanksgiving gatherings, vaccinated or not.
How are you going to get the stuffing in your mouth? Obviously nobody can wear them to eat, and uh I doubt COVID just takes dinner time off so…
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Church-appreciate the early warning. The data will say whether or not something gains an actual foothold.
It’s gotta evade, it’s gotta spread fast, it’s gotta have a broader host range, it’s gotta keep its morbidity…. At least some combination that allows it to compete with delta. Odds are long but certainly we can’t fall asleep and early monitoring is very important.
(I think we wouldn’t mind a variant that has much low morbidity that displaces delta).
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So far, we have seen that infection with any variant confers protection against any variant, and that is also true with the vaccine. If there were a new variant that was escaping immune protection from vaccination or past infections, we’d expect to see a rise in abundance relative to delta, as it sees dry kindling in territory delta has already burned. So there might be multiple reasons for a rise in a variant relative to delta, but any rise would be alarming.
With everyone eligible vaxxed, this is a pretty low risk situation. Wearing a mask for part of the time but taking it off to eat with everyone seems pretty unlikely to be the difference between getting it and not getting it, so I would not bother at all if I were going.
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Perfect? No. Not helping much is incorrect.
The event is fine by my risk tolerance without masks.
But wait, there are more words
You selectively quoting Johnny’s posts like this is not helpful to the thread.
What he said is wrong. Caveats or no. There’s nothing more to it.
We’re getting down to immeasurable specifics here due to the vagueness of statements. Feel free to disagree by stating research but just telling JT he is wrong is not helpful.
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What is specifically wrong about it? How much protection does one receive when dicknosing or flat out not wearing a mask?
I quoted the part that was wrong. The assertion that a mask can’t protect you against a case for 10-15 minutes is wrong. I get that for… reasons, you guys are on this thread tightly, but that statement is 100% flat out wrong. There’s nothing else to discuss about it.
If y’all disagree, that’s fine. I’m not harping on this. Still, it’s important that we don’t wrongly talk down mitigation measures.
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Wow, what an incredibly irresponsible thing to post. See how cherrypicking is bad?
Again, adding on the qualifiers is still 100% wrong. The addition of ‘standard civilian masks’ and etc still makes it wrong. It’s not selectively edited in any meaningful way.
One of the qualifiers is not wearing masks at all and you’re tripling down that it’s 100% wrong. Okie dokie.
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No, it’s not. And it’s especially annoying to complain about ‘selective editing’ and then start making up quotes wholesale.
How do you wear a mask when it’s off?
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Yeah rapid tests, opening windows, and HEPA filters seem more likely to reduce transmission risk than masks in this setting.
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FWIW he didn’t say that, he said masks aren’t going to do a lot if you are in that environment for more than 10-15 minutes, not in that environment for 10-15 minutes. I think that’s probably fair if you are in a house for an extended period of time, eating dinner together and using cloth/surgical masks. Good ventilation more likely to help at that point
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It’s an academic argument. If you care about COVID and have a mask, you are vaxxed up and won’t wear one. If you don’t, you don’t and you won’t either.