Read on Twitter
1/ As the virus spreads, more people will "have no idea" where they got infected from. As this happens, we need to gain a better understanding of how & why it continues to spread. For me, one big ? is- what types of masks are needed in diff situations https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/24/nation/what-does-it-mean-when-youve-got-covid-19-you-dont-know-where-or-how/
2/ @RanuDhillon & I wrote about the "when, where, why and how" problem of #covid19 spread in @washingtonpost ; this gets worse as case spread outpaces our tracing & outbreak investigation capacity https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/09/15/covid-transmission-local-strategy/
3/ @sri_srikrishna @RanuDhillon and I wrote about masks early on in this context- what is the bare minimum mask you need in different settings in the community? In the hospital, we use N95s w/ #covid19 positive & #covid19 potential rule out cases https://hbr.org/2020/06/we-need-better-masks
4/ But hospitals have better ventilation systems than many workplaces; many of the workplaces where essential workers are crowded together wearing only cloth masks is something we were concerned about- we argue here for the potential of elastomeric masks https://hbr.org/2020/10/essential-workers-need-better-masks
5/ In the community setting, as more people become infected, the % probability that more than one of those people are contagious at any given time (whether in an elevator, a grocery store, a bus etc) increases as well. If every person produces both droplets & aerosols...
6/ Then I am increasingly worried about the sufficiency of cloth masks in certain settings that previously were less concerning bc there was less viral spread/ less chance of multiple infected people in the same place/same time cc @jljcolorado @j_g_allen #covid19
7/ @CDCgov talks about this-- they note cloth masks w/ multiple layers + higher thread counts can provide both source control + personal protection w/ effects on both droplets & aerosols to some degree, although masks w/ triboelectric charges are better. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html
8/ The fact that right now- we still don't have a "national mask"; one that has high filtration efficacy, comfortable, reusable etc is really concerning; this should be a task of the fed government to produce this for every American.
We are 10 months into the pandemic!
We are 10 months into the pandemic!
cc thread- are current folded t-shirt cloth masks still enough in all community situations? @vivek_murthy @RickABright @celinegounder @Atul_Gawande @linseymarr @mtosterholm @zeynep @thehowie @kj_seung @T_Inglesby @MonicaGandhi9 @edyong209 @venkmurthy @ashishkjha @nataliexdean
