If Facemasks work why is the infection rate rising so rapidly?

[Bbq1]

Just that really. Facemasks have been mandatory for a couple of months now and the majority of us are wearing them. However, if they are so effective why haven't they cut the infection rate massively? Instead, we're now expericing a second wave. Even if the amount of people currently wearing Facemasks was halved, you would still expect some reduction in infection, not an increase. Surely then, this all points to the fact that Facemasks just don't work?

I am beginning to see from all the evidence around me that there is an increasing dumbing down of society and intelligence levels are not what they were previously.

I'm not sure intelligence levels were ever that great. It just becomes more obvious with rise of social media. Social media is both a blessing and a curse.

@annabel85

Mask, or no mask... I get it. Chin masks? I don't understand this option! Not for a second!

It's just paying lip service in case they get challenged.

Surely it's easier to just shrug and pretend to be exempt?

If you're wearing a mask on your chin, you clearly can wear a mask on your face, so aren't you more likely to be challenged than someone with no mask at all?

I'd suggest because it's spreading in settings where people don't wear masks - school, university, in their own homes.

It's not perfect but it helps in conjunction with other measures:

click to see this picture

schools social mixing in houses unis all not sd and not wearing masks

so no not everyone is wearing them

What about on the continent where mask wearing indoors and outdoors is more enforced?

I don't think they were every intended to work...they were supposed to make the scared less scared. Encourage them to shop again. They were never about infection control.

@loulouljh

I don't think they were every intended to work...they were supposed to make the scared less scared. Encourage them to shop again. They were never about infection control.

This too.

They're not anywhere near as effective as people actually think they are.

I'm perplexed at the suggestion they should be worn outdoors. Seems completely pointless.

I'm in London and take public transport a lot. There's always a significant minority not wearing masks or wearing them under their noses. When I was on public transport today, I had was in a minority wearing a mask. Ventilation is also important to reduce risks, and I'm astounded how many times I get on a bus with all the windows closed. I open them when I get on the bus.

I don't think it's anything to do with settings where they aren't worn. They just don't filter tiny virus particles. I know quite a few people who caught covid in the workplace whilst wearing masks, they just don't work. Schools in Scotland went back early August, cases only started rising recently and coincided with increased testing.

[quote Oaktree55]www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2.pdf[/quote]
@Oaktree55 - that article provides little evidence, it’s an opinion piece. It also refers to survival of the virus for several hours on surfaces, it only refutes survival for days. In what way is that reassuring to someone who puts on, takes off and touches a filthy, damp mask with unwashed hands several times a day, transferring whatever is caught on the outside layers to the inside layers in the process? Also, one is considerably less safe from something dirty and damp that is pressed against their nose and mouth than from a surface that they only touch with their hands. The reality is, there is precious little research into real life wearing of masks, just as there is precious little research into real life transmission of covid 19 via hard surfaces.

The two people at work who have it didn’t wear masks when out (together) as they told the bar owner they were exempt - which makes no sense as they wear masks for their job role pre covid. None of the rest of us caught it from them.

Because people aren't wearing them inside when socialising with other households. Which is why lockdowns ban that mixing of households.

And I've yet to see ANYONE on a London bus actually wearing them over their nose and mouth. Chin nappies all the way, or none at all.

Schools.

That's why.........it's been like the hokey cokey here with constant school outbreaks

^ Well if the local beach was anything to go by thousands of people on it not wearing any kind of face covering and local pub, loads of people in there not wearing face coverings as they were eating, drinking and wandering about.
It's a people fail - I very much doubt anyone went to a nightclub with a facemask on.
Anti face mask rallies everywhere - no face masks worn, there was one near me led by the previous prime ministers brother, Summer Solstice on Glastonbury Tor - no face masks and faeces and urine all over the hill as no toilets and so on and so forth.
No doubt the same people will be out clapping like penguins on Thursday nights during the subsequent lock downs.
This is an extremely goady thread given peoples behaviour this summer and autumn. ^

@madcatladyforever what on Earth are you on
about?
Beaches are outside? Of course no one was wearing a mask! The risk of transmission is tiny outside on a windy beach.
What nightclubs have been open over the summer??
Why does urine and feces have to do with Covid19 spreading?
What an utterly bizarre comment!

Eight of us were in a work meeting this week, no masks, less than 1m apart for 2 hours. I asked for windows open but everyone complained it was too cold.

In shops yesterday and today, lots of people not wearing masks or wearing them under noses.

We are a high risk area with local restrictions.

@loulouljh

I don't think they were every intended to work...they were supposed to make the scared less scared. Encourage them to shop again. They were never about infection control.

This. Not sure how the people of this country are so blind and non thinking. It was only a few months ago that masks were considered completely useless. Maybe they will bring in plastic glove wearing next and everyone will just happily comply.

Schools and universities. School kids then take it home.

@AntennaReborn

Schools. That's why 🤷🏽‍♀️

Can you show me the proof for this?

@diplodocusinermine

Schools and universities. School kids then take it home.

Please show me the proof for this

@middleager

Eight of us were in a work meeting this week, no masks, less than 1m apart for 2 hours. I asked for windows open but everyone complained it was too cold.

In shops yesterday and today, lots of people not wearing masks or wearing them under noses.

We are a high risk area with local restrictions.

Why didn’t you wear a mask??

In my opinion
Because people think masks are a security blanket that because they wear a mask they can sit next to people. No it reduces the risk that's all it doesn't illuminate it .
The rules regarding contact tracing don't make sense too .
The best thing anyone can do is social distancing.

"If seatbelts work then why do people still die in car crashes?"

Glad you brought this up. Seatbelts are mandatory and come with the car. Car manufacturers arent refusing to provide them and telling the public they need to buy them seperately and fit them themselves.

But the Government has made face masks mandatory and refused to provide them even after Hancock acquired a load that arent suitable for the NHS instead the public have to buy them themselves. If like me you cant wear a reusable one this costs. Im not going keep paying out I cant afford it. I have quite a few left in the box but as they dwindle down i will have to start putting them through the washing machine in a pillow case.

I suspect your right in that other European countries including France where they are expected in both schools and offices are still experiencing serious second waves I think the impact they can have is over stated myself. It probably is reducing the infection rate re what it would be without and I am not suggesting abandoning them but I am increasingly thinking they are not the “solution” that so many (including me!) hoped they would be.

And I think the seat belt thing is a nonsense analogy we are dealing with a Novak virus and trying to work out how to stop it spreading when we are still learning how it spreads. We can think something is an effective strategy when we have only known about a virus for six months that we later say actually that isn’t as important as we thought it was and actually we should do this. The evidence in seatbelts is much more established since cars didn’t come suddenly appear in January 2020 so we have had a bit longer to work out what works and what doesn’t in relation to keeping them safe!