@commandlinekid sorry to ask, a group of doctors have landed here from twitter. A couple of us code python but can't get the bots to mirror our medica journal's/societies twitter feeds properly which is what we need access to. How did you make yours?
@Jopo89 @commandlinekid so you're saying you are a real doctor?
@Tj @commandlinekid yes. twitter was getting very inflammatory and politicised (I like it for sharing the latest science etc). But it is difficult to use this space over twitter without the sort of latest breaking journal things.
@Jopo89 @commandlinekid So reading through some of your posts it looks like you're digging into COVID and the way human bodies respond. Not to go back to the surface level on this issue, but are masks really working?
@Tj @commandlinekid so my official response is I actually don’t know enough about it and that’s the only fair response to give. We don’t have a lot of actual strong evidence they do or don’t (no randomised control trials for world pandemics of the past!). They don’t harm us anyway, and probably would reduce the amount of virus exhaled from a person. We know that wearing them not protective for the user from airborne virus! Hence need for vacuum seal masks.
@Tj @commandlinekid I think what corona has shone a light on is how a lot of the medical science works normally under the radar. We have only known about corona for a few months and so that means a study in China might not match a study done in New York or England because of variability in methods, testing, population. So although not making it up as we go along, we do have a new study every day atm that changes what we think. Normally that process invisible to the public because not trendy
@Tj @commandlinekid we have some info such as fact countries who do wear more masks, have less cases, and we use them during surgeries all the time anyway to reduce transmission of any virus or bacteria into a surgical wound whilst operating. So overall they do not protect the user from
Airborne stuff but they do help stop us exhaling it - so if everyone did wear them there would be less in the air if that makes sense?
@Tj @commandlinekid we wear them all the time at the moment (proper sealed ones even) when with patients and there’s no issue with CO2 building up etc or becoming ill, have been doing it years of my life! So most advice is kind of no risk but potential benefit so why not? Was such a shortage at the start, was more important for high risk individuals to have masks but better availability now.
@Tj it's not a cure-all solution but it protects others if you are infected
@Tj @Jopo89 @commandlinekid The masks you require for respiratory viral protection are particulate filters, not gas filters so you wouldn’t expect it to remove smells! Even the P3 rated devices we use on ICU don’t protect us from the bad odours you might expect in a hospital...
@Jopo89 @commandlinekid While grocery shopping I passed by lovely a lady and smelled her perfume seconds later while I was wearing a mask. I thought if that can get through than anything can... It's hard to grab a consistent truth when those who are supposed to know to keep changing their stance.