mask (super spreader)

 
The wisdom of plagues : lessons from 25 years of covering pandemics
written by Donald G. McNeil Jr., [2024] 

p.213
   There is also a flip side to rejecting science.  Some people fetishize it [science], mastering arcane details and becoming zealots.  

p.214
outdoor venues for weeks
Early data from China suggested that outdoor transmission hardly existed.  IN a study of 7,324 early cases, contact-tracers found only a single instance of transmission outdoors, during a long conversation between two neighbors. 

p.214
   Masks, to my mind, were completely misunderstood ── and still are.
   Most Americans still assume the primary reason to wear one is to protect oneself.  That's incorrect.  Masks are much better at keeping aerosolized particles  in  than at keeping them  out.  The best reason to wear one is to make sure the one or two potential superspreaders in the room are wearing one.  Since you can't detect the superspreader (it might even be you), everyone must wear one so that superspreader inevitably has one on.  Of course, they must be worn so all wearers actually inhale and exhale through the fabric; masks that are too thin or too loose or worn under the chin do nothing.    

p.215
Idaho or Montana

p.219
Black hand ── forerunner of the Italian mafia  

p.188
   Technically, that makes  some  sense.  To substantially lower the risk within any crowd, any restaurant, or any subway car, the best use of a single mask is to put it on the infected person.  Because masks absorb droplets, a well-fitted one is much better at keeping arosolized particles in than it is at keeping them out.  But there is no way to know which person in a crowd is infected.  And even if someone knows he is sick and is blatantly coughing, he will never put on a mask unless everyone else is wearing one, too.  When only the sick person must wear one, the mask becomes a leper's bell announcing that the wearer is contangious.  Who would tolerate that?  In Taipei, no one. 
   The epidemic, however, was spreading rapidly.  Taipei's mayor saw the dilemma and ended it with one stroke.  Understanding his constituents better than the head of Taiwan's CDC did, he declared that no one could enter the subways without a mask.  Police officers were posted at turnstiles to enforce the new rule.  Within days, virtually everyone was wearing one.  Infections slowed down.  The mayor, Ma Ying-jeou, later went on to be elected president of Taiwan. 

   ( McNeil, Donald G., Jr., author.
The wisdom of plagues : lessons from 25 years of covering pandemics / Donald G. McNeil JR. 
hardcover edition
Simon & chuster, 2024. 
includes bibliographical references and index.
(print)
(ebook)
(hardcover)
subject:  epidemiology. | pandemic. | public health surveillance. | public health──united states. | cyac : covid-19 (disease)
614.4──dc23
            )