1. I deeply appreciate your insights into various articles and headlines in COVID Transmissions and elsewhere. If I do hear a troubling headline or story, I wait for your breakdown/opinion I am almost certain to get the following day before worrying too much.
2. I've started to see ads for transparent face masks. What is your take on them? Do they work?
1) Thank you! If you notice anything that you'd like me to specifically cover, please feel welcome to email it to me. I don't always get to things super fast, but It helps to have my attention called to things that people are interested in hearing about.
2) I think this really depends on the mask. I'm sure that as a barrier, they work fine, if designed to cover the face properly. They probably are a little less flexible around the edges, so I'm not sure how well they would seal. Clearly if they seal too well, you can't breathe, which is probably safer for others but not ideal for you. I think the best advantage of such masks is that they help people who rely on lip-reading due to hearing impairment, but they do still need to be effective. I've seen some masks that have a plastic window over the mouth but are otherwise made of cloth around the edges. Those might actually be better. I wonder if there is an N95 mask in that style. That sounds like it would be pretty great.
FWIW, this looks like the one I've seen ads for (apropos to the show a link/don't show a link debate, it's not clear where the link in the ad sends you, so I am not clicking on it. this looks like the mask, though) - https://www.clearshield.health/
1. I deeply appreciate your insights into various articles and headlines in COVID Transmissions and elsewhere. If I do hear a troubling headline or story, I wait for your breakdown/opinion I am almost certain to get the following day before worrying too much.
2. I've started to see ads for transparent face masks. What is your take on them? Do they work?
1) Thank you! If you notice anything that you'd like me to specifically cover, please feel welcome to email it to me. I don't always get to things super fast, but It helps to have my attention called to things that people are interested in hearing about.
2) I think this really depends on the mask. I'm sure that as a barrier, they work fine, if designed to cover the face properly. They probably are a little less flexible around the edges, so I'm not sure how well they would seal. Clearly if they seal too well, you can't breathe, which is probably safer for others but not ideal for you. I think the best advantage of such masks is that they help people who rely on lip-reading due to hearing impairment, but they do still need to be effective. I've seen some masks that have a plastic window over the mouth but are otherwise made of cloth around the edges. Those might actually be better. I wonder if there is an N95 mask in that style. That sounds like it would be pretty great.
FWIW, this looks like the one I've seen ads for (apropos to the show a link/don't show a link debate, it's not clear where the link in the ad sends you, so I am not clicking on it. this looks like the mask, though) - https://www.clearshield.health/
The one that actually seals against the face looks pretty good. The other ones are probably less effective.
Trivial, but: "-vimab" is specifically monoclonal antibodies intended for use against viruses.
https://www.ama-assn.org/about/united-states-adopted-names/monoclonal-antibodies
I wasn't sure exactly how much detail I should go into on the aside about naming :)