Why New Covid “Super Strain” is a Game-Changer

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Yves Smith

 

...well-fitted N95 and KN95 masks will filter 95% of the virus particles from coming into your lungs, but there are also terrible masks that don’t protect people much at all. If you average mask-wearing over the population, it seems that the mask mandates reduce the infectiousness of the virus by about 40 to 50%.

To put the U.K. variant in perspective, with its faster spread, we are effectively put back to where we once were without masks — even when we’re now wearing masks!

... in those regions where the new variant is prevalent, the hospitalization and case data now show that more than ever before, young people are having almost as many cases and hospitalizations as the older people....

PA: We’ve already seen tremendous challenges in the schools with older variants. We have the data now and we have learned that there were many states where the moment the schools opened for in-person instruction (as opposed to remote learning), that was the beginning of the exponential growth of the virus. The virus typically reasserted itself in late August and early September, congruent with the public school openings in these states.

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it’s not completely clear that it’s just the transmission inside the classroom itself that’s the problem. When you say, let’s open the schools, there’s a whole bunch of social activity, transportation and organization, parent events, and sports that kick in at the same time that collectively led to higher transmission.

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Turns out one of the harder things to deal with is the restrooms. If you’re infectious and you use the toilet and flush it, that aerosolizes the virus and it makes the whole bathroom infectious for about 30 to 45 minutes.