I just cannot accept that you are any sort of minority or that the rest of highly educated, well-known/ revered, rational, sane, ethical scientists that CARE about their expertise and the PEOPLE it is supposed to serve...that they are somehow blinded by unforeseen psycho-Hypochondria-inhumane lunacy... they either KNOW EXACTLY what they are doing and it's very very sinister, or....WHAT?
To say we have lost our minds is a kind understatement. I am thankful that you continue to write and speak the truth. Keep it up, escalate if you can.
Has anyone of any age who is advocating for N95s ever actually put one on? I was able to obtain a few from a friend who is a nurse in a local hospital. In my home, with the help of my husband, I was able to finally get the thing on. As has been said, a "real" N95 or the Korean model does not have ear loops. It has two tight straps that are supposed to stay on your head (if you have longer hair forget it). Breathing is possible but not comfortable. Twenty minutes later, I gave up. The deep ridges on my face went away in another 20 minutes.
Today, I read that a local charter school is closing for an unknown period of time. The Chicago teachers union refuse to return to the classroom. Losing are minds.....
I’m bombarding my social media so much these days, so will withhold this juicy post from them till tomorrow morning. Can’t give them too much narrative-busting at once! The turmoil!!!! Can’t! Wait! To Share!! 👏👏👏
Properly fitted n95s are so annoying when worn. You would have to worked up into a frenzy of fear to advocate that for your own kid. It is so sad that this happened- but sadly was kind of predictable
The bureaucrats are scared silly about making any errors, lest we the public shame them. We are directed to wear masks because those same functionaries are told they might be helpful. There is little evidence that mask wearing ever was particularly useful beyond demonstrating awareness of the crisis in a show of solidarity. Then we are told by the same people that the reason the masks aren't doing as intended was because they were not of adequate quality. Expecting the public to wear a properly fitted N95 is a fool's errand. Extending that to children is remarkably cruel and clearly unknowing. Few reputable practitioners would ever advise that but the public officials remain in fear of making a mistake, curse them all.
The Today show did an entire segment on how to put a surgical mask on your child and then double mask them with a cloth over top.
I’m beyond perplexed by the things we are currently fighting for. Frankly I took many things for granted in the past and had no idea that we would have ever gotten to this point.
I'm a pediatrician and I would love to see us de-mask at least for the little ones to start. We do not nearly have great vaccination rates as Bay Area but it may be the best we have. So I think let's start discussing demasking. I sent an email to my local school, no response back. Our local public school system went optional this week and wow! Lots and lots of teachers called out, they are so understaffed they cancelled school! Heading virtual I think so that doesn't help my case. We clearly need to start breaking this down and set ourselves up for normalcy for next Fall and school year. Thank you for all you do. Your content has been so helpful for me to not feel crazy and talk to my patients in a nuanced way which they obviously love!
I agree with the general sentiment but I think "only cluster RCTs of policies can determine if they work" goes a bit too far. RCTs are great but they are not the only way to learn from data. Careful observational studies can help us learn as well. To do it right you can not rely on "classical" statistical methods and instead use more modern techniques like multi-level regression and poststratification. For example, you can take look at "Forecasting elections with non-representative polls" study (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/forecasting-with-nonrepresentative-polls.pdf) that was able to learn a lot from XBox data -- the results were comparable to those obtained from polls. Having said that, I don't think anyone did any careful observational studies of kids masking either, so I think your general point still stands.
I am just so grateful for you! Too much to put into words…
I just cannot accept that you are any sort of minority or that the rest of highly educated, well-known/ revered, rational, sane, ethical scientists that CARE about their expertise and the PEOPLE it is supposed to serve...that they are somehow blinded by unforeseen psycho-Hypochondria-inhumane lunacy... they either KNOW EXACTLY what they are doing and it's very very sinister, or....WHAT?
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/counterfeitResp.html
N95s for children are most likely counterfeit.
To say we have lost our minds is a kind understatement. I am thankful that you continue to write and speak the truth. Keep it up, escalate if you can.
Has anyone of any age who is advocating for N95s ever actually put one on? I was able to obtain a few from a friend who is a nurse in a local hospital. In my home, with the help of my husband, I was able to finally get the thing on. As has been said, a "real" N95 or the Korean model does not have ear loops. It has two tight straps that are supposed to stay on your head (if you have longer hair forget it). Breathing is possible but not comfortable. Twenty minutes later, I gave up. The deep ridges on my face went away in another 20 minutes.
Today, I read that a local charter school is closing for an unknown period of time. The Chicago teachers union refuse to return to the classroom. Losing are minds.....
Absolute truth - thank you for always being so wise and willing to share your expertise! Honored to be able to learn from you, Dr. Prasad!
I’m bombarding my social media so much these days, so will withhold this juicy post from them till tomorrow morning. Can’t give them too much narrative-busting at once! The turmoil!!!! Can’t! Wait! To Share!! 👏👏👏
Thank you again.
Properly fitted n95s are so annoying when worn. You would have to worked up into a frenzy of fear to advocate that for your own kid. It is so sad that this happened- but sadly was kind of predictable
The bureaucrats are scared silly about making any errors, lest we the public shame them. We are directed to wear masks because those same functionaries are told they might be helpful. There is little evidence that mask wearing ever was particularly useful beyond demonstrating awareness of the crisis in a show of solidarity. Then we are told by the same people that the reason the masks aren't doing as intended was because they were not of adequate quality. Expecting the public to wear a properly fitted N95 is a fool's errand. Extending that to children is remarkably cruel and clearly unknowing. Few reputable practitioners would ever advise that but the public officials remain in fear of making a mistake, curse them all.
The Today show did an entire segment on how to put a surgical mask on your child and then double mask them with a cloth over top.
I’m beyond perplexed by the things we are currently fighting for. Frankly I took many things for granted in the past and had no idea that we would have ever gotten to this point.
I'm a pediatrician and I would love to see us de-mask at least for the little ones to start. We do not nearly have great vaccination rates as Bay Area but it may be the best we have. So I think let's start discussing demasking. I sent an email to my local school, no response back. Our local public school system went optional this week and wow! Lots and lots of teachers called out, they are so understaffed they cancelled school! Heading virtual I think so that doesn't help my case. We clearly need to start breaking this down and set ourselves up for normalcy for next Fall and school year. Thank you for all you do. Your content has been so helpful for me to not feel crazy and talk to my patients in a nuanced way which they obviously love!
I totally agree. Keep up the good work.
Vinay, do you know of any journal clubs around SARS-CoV-2? If not, I'm sure there is a huge appetite for one. I wouldn't mind starting one.
I agree with the general sentiment but I think "only cluster RCTs of policies can determine if they work" goes a bit too far. RCTs are great but they are not the only way to learn from data. Careful observational studies can help us learn as well. To do it right you can not rely on "classical" statistical methods and instead use more modern techniques like multi-level regression and poststratification. For example, you can take look at "Forecasting elections with non-representative polls" study (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/forecasting-with-nonrepresentative-polls.pdf) that was able to learn a lot from XBox data -- the results were comparable to those obtained from polls. Having said that, I don't think anyone did any careful observational studies of kids masking either, so I think your general point still stands.