OF MASKS AND PANDEMIC: SHOOTERS

Nose and mouth and biohazard in time of pandemics

[The biohazard symbol by OpenClipart is a Public Domain pic (source: freesvg); adapted by @sciencemug]

 

 

Imagine this.
 
There are people with a loaded machine gun.
 
These people know that, in most cases, their machine gun is loaded with blanks, but they're also fully aware that, sometimes, their weapon is loaded with actual bullets.
 
The only thing these people don't know for sure is whether their machine gun will shoot blanks or actual rounds.

Now imagine that these people, by choice, go around, among other folks, constantly pulling the trigger of such machine gun of theirs (*).

Well, to me, these people are exactly like the ones who, in these days, having the possibility of doing it, by choice don't wear a mask.

(*) Moreover, these people also refuses to wear bulletproof vests even though many projectiles are flying around – some possibly even shot by people quite like ‘em - and they risk from suffering a flesh-wound, to ending up hospitalized (occuping a bed that, because of this, by the way, is no more available for a poor unlucky vest-wearing lad who’s been hit anyway) to being killed.

Related Papers (Updated on 01-Sept-2020)

- Esposito, S., Principi, N., Leung, C.C., and Migliori, G.B. (2020). Universal use of face masks for success against COVID-19: evidence and implications for prevention policies. European Respiratory Journal 55.
- Fears, A.C., Klimstra, W.B., Duprex, P., Hartman, A., Weaver, S.C., Plante, K.S., Mirchandani, D., Plante, J.A., Aguilar, P.V., Fernández, D., et al. Persistence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Aerosol Suspensions - Volume 26, Number 9—September 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC.

- Furukawa, N.W., Brooks, J.T., and Sobel, J. Evidence Supporting Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 While Presymptomatic or Asymptomatic - Volume 26, Number 7—July 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC.

- Gao, Z., Xu, Y., Sun, C., Wang, X., Guo, Y., Qiu, S., and Ma, K. (2020). A systematic review of asymptomatic infections with COVID-19. J Microbiol Immunol Infect.
- Jones, N.R., Qureshi, Z.U., Temple, R.J., Larwood, J.P.J., Greenhalgh, T., and Bourouiba, L. (2020). Two metres or one: what is the evidence for physical distancing in covid-19? BMJ 370.

- Lee, S., Meyler, P., Mozel, M., Tauh, T., and Merchant, R. (2020). Asymptomatic carriage and transmission of SARS-CoV-2: What do we know? Can J Anesth/J Can Anesth.
- Leung, N.H.L., Chu, D.K.W., Shiu, E.Y.C., Chan, K.-H., McDevitt, J.J., Hau, B.J.P., Yen, H.-L., Li, Y., Ip, D.K.M., Peiris, J.S.M., et al. (2020). Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks. Nature Medicine 26, 676–680.

- McFee, R.B. (2020). SARS 2 human coronavirus (COVID -19, SARS CoV2). Disease-a-Month 101063.

- Morawska, L., and Cao, J. (2020). Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: The world should face the reality. Environment International 139, 105730.

- Rothe, C., Schunk, M., Sothmann, P., Bretzel, G., Froeschl, G., Wallrauch, C., Zimmer, T., Thiel, V., Janke, C., Guggemos, W., et al. (2020). Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany. N Engl J Med 382, 970–971.

-Zhang, R., Li, Y., Zhang, A.L., Wang, Y., and Molina, M.J. (2020). Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19. PNAS 117, 14857–14863.