The covid-19 coronavirus has been spreading for a while now and we’ve learned a few things about how it works. And what we’ve learned is helpful and gives us soem reason to be optimistic.
We have exciting new positive results coming in. The best news is that masks can help prevent serious covid infection.
– Studies using hamsters showed that masks reduced the transmission rate and severity of the cases when the hamsters did get sick.
– Epidemiological observations have shown that when groups of people wear masks, this can greatly reduce the severity of the infections.
Widespread wearing of surgical and cloth masks is therefore like to be a very effective way to fight the covid pandemic.
The video also gives a link to the best blog on the internet, In the Pipeline, in terms of reading about vaccine trials.
If you’re looking for good news about the pandemic, this video can give you reason to hope.
Link to companion video about which masks work best:
========academic citations========
Hamsters given high and low doses:
Hamsters in cages with masks:
Paper with data that 20% of cases are asymptomatic:
Paper with data that 40-45% of cases are asymptomatic:
Articles by medical doctors making pro-mask arguments:
In the Journal of General Internal Medicine:
In the New England Journal of Medicine:
Immunity after infection lasts:
========mass media stories========
Pacific seafood article:
Tyson foods article:
The “In the Pipline” blog on the SCIENCE website:
========image, music, and video credits========
All images, music, and video used is believed to be in the public domain, available under a CC-0 or CC-by license, falls under “fair use”, or obtained under paid license from YouTube.com, audioblocks.com, or videoblocks.com.
Sources/credits for music:
Midnight City by Mikael Manvelyan from audioblocks.com.
Sources/credits for video:
Woman putting mask on from VideoBlocks.com.
Sources/credits for images:
Syrian hamster (fair use), hamster infection data ( hamster experimental setup ( crouching man (StoryBlocks), cruise ship (fair use), Tyson foods logo (fair use), fishing vessel (fair use), screenshot banners from perspective articles (fair use), woman wearing mask (StoryBlocks), screenshot of In the Pipeline banner (fair use).
