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Harper - Reinstate Monica
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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A few are mandatory with zero penalty. Still do those. That's a bit of legal chicanery to create civil liability for the scofflaw.

The reasons are: first, you need to comply with the law. The effect on the employer is that they will see that you are reasonably informed about the crisis, and are not a scofflaw or a sociopath, and do not recklessly put others into harm's way. We'll loop back on that.

Most people make two lay assumptions thatEditing for brevity: 2 common assumptions are totally wrongwrong.

"I'm only contagious after I feel sick" - wouldn't that be nice and tidy? No. COVIDCOVID-19 is so insidious because you have a long "Typhoid Mary" period whilebecome contagious for q long period before you are a carrier, spreading it but don't feel sickfeel sick. All viruses do, but mostSome are much shorter. And some people catch it, spread it and recover without ever feeling symptomscontagious but never feel sick (beyond their normal for stress/allergies).

"My mask protects me, your mask protects you" - wouldn't that be nice and tidy? No. Sure, you'd think... but evidence is strong *the science shows that informal, homemade or non-medical-gradeany masks do a much better job stopping exhaled virus than inhaled virus. So in fact they work the reverse: ‘my facemask protects you, your facemask protects me’.

To stop inhaledare highly effective at keeping a sick wearer from exhaling virus particles, and not very effective at protecting a healthy wearer. Even medical staff use an elaborate, multi-layered suite of PPE -- but here's the thing -- the #1 thing hospitals do is make sure the patient has an ordinary face mask. That's because ordinarygrade masks are so powerful at catching exhaled virus particlesrequire a full suite of PPE to reliably protect the wearer.

The mask message has been further confused by several thingsTogether these add up to:

  • The authorities lying - not least, early in the crisis, they said masks weren't useful, solely to prevent a run on the mask supply desperately needed by hospitals. This didn't even work (who is surprised?) but more importantly, it broke trust.
  • Social distancing (without masks) only works outside. But of course, that is not intuitive.
  • The "nice and tidy" sense of accountability and self-sufficency: that everyone should be responsible for their own safety and suffer the consequences of their own actions, not others'.

* This study (first one I googled masks work if everyone does them, I hardly cherry-picked it) says

Our analysis indicates that a high proportion of the population would need to wear facemasks to achieve reasonable impact of the intervention. In Hong Kong, 99% of survey respondents reported wearing facemasks when outside of their home [67]. Another human factor that may reduce facemask adoption in Western countries is cultural, because the use of facemasks is not common in public, or there is an implication that the facemask wearer considers others as a threat. In the current emergency, however, it is necessary to change this view, which could be achieved if the message conveyed by a facemask was ‘my facemask protects you, your facemask protects me’.

Also from WHO documents:since we can't know if they're contagious or not.

General population in public settings, such as grocery stores, at work, social gatherings, mass gatherings, closed settings, including schools, churches, mosques, etc...... Potential benefit for source control [preventing a carrier from infecting others] ........ Non-medical mask.

The reasons are: first, you need to comply with the law. The effect on the employer is that they will see that you are reasonably informed about the crisis, and are not a scofflaw or a sociopath, and do not recklessly put others into harm's way. We'll loop back on that.

Most people make two lay assumptions that are totally wrong.

"I'm only contagious after I feel sick" - wouldn't that be nice and tidy? No. COVID-19 is so insidious because you have a long "Typhoid Mary" period while you are a carrier, spreading it but don't feel sick. All viruses do, but most are much shorter. And some people catch it, spread it and recover without ever feeling symptoms.

"My mask protects me, your mask protects you" - wouldn't that be nice and tidy? No. Sure, you'd think... but evidence is strong * that informal, homemade or non-medical-grade masks do a much better job stopping exhaled virus than inhaled virus. So in fact they work the reverse: ‘my facemask protects you, your facemask protects me’.

To stop inhaled virus, medical staff use an elaborate, multi-layered suite of PPE -- but here's the thing -- the #1 thing hospitals do is make sure the patient has an ordinary face mask. That's because ordinary masks are so powerful at catching exhaled virus particles.

The mask message has been further confused by several things:

  • The authorities lying - not least, early in the crisis, they said masks weren't useful, solely to prevent a run on the mask supply desperately needed by hospitals. This didn't even work (who is surprised?) but more importantly, it broke trust.
  • Social distancing (without masks) only works outside. But of course, that is not intuitive.
  • The "nice and tidy" sense of accountability and self-sufficency: that everyone should be responsible for their own safety and suffer the consequences of their own actions, not others'.

* This study (first one I googled, I hardly cherry-picked it) says

Our analysis indicates that a high proportion of the population would need to wear facemasks to achieve reasonable impact of the intervention. In Hong Kong, 99% of survey respondents reported wearing facemasks when outside of their home [67]. Another human factor that may reduce facemask adoption in Western countries is cultural, because the use of facemasks is not common in public, or there is an implication that the facemask wearer considers others as a threat. In the current emergency, however, it is necessary to change this view, which could be achieved if the message conveyed by a facemask was ‘my facemask protects you, your facemask protects me’.

Also from WHO documents:

General population in public settings, such as grocery stores, at work, social gatherings, mass gatherings, closed settings, including schools, churches, mosques, etc...... Potential benefit for source control [preventing a carrier from infecting others] ........ Non-medical mask.

A few are mandatory with zero penalty. Still do those. That's a bit of legal chicanery to create civil liability for the scofflaw.

The reasons are: first, you need to comply with the law. The effect on the employer is that they will see that you are reasonably informed about the crisis, and are not a scofflaw or a sociopath, and do not recklessly put others into harm's way. We'll loop back on that.

Editing for brevity: 2 common assumptions are wrong.

"I'm only contagious after I feel sick" -COVID-19 is so insidious because you become contagious for q long period before you feel sick. Some are contagious but never feel sick (beyond their normal for stress/allergies).

"My mask protects me, your mask protects you" - the science shows that any masks are highly effective at keeping a sick wearer from exhaling virus particles, and not very effective at protecting a healthy wearer. Even medical-grade masks require a full suite of PPE to reliably protect the wearer.

Together these add up to: masks work if everyone does them, since we can't know if they're contagious or not.

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Harper - Reinstate Monica
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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Start with your law in that location

Someone will have put out emergency orders or other directives indicating exactly what must be done. For instance in the USA these are issued at the state level, and further instructions are ordered at the county or municipality level. Know them all. Some of them are amended quite frequently.

The reasons are: first, you need to comply with the law. The effect on the employer is that they will see that you are reasonably informed about the crisis, and are not a scofflaw or a sociopath, and do not recklessly put others into harm's way. We'll loop back on that.

This tells you about them, too.

And second, you need to be able to evaluate whether the company is complying with the law, so that you can evaluate them and determine whether this will be a workplace that is safe, comfortable, and conforms to your values and risk-taking levels.

Further, this allows you to evaluate whether the company "walks their talk" regarding social action, safety, whatever the case may be.

So you're looking for signs and reactions. Do you see masks on, do you see nods of approval, do you see people scoff or roll their eyes, do you see masks off until you roll up, then the masks snap on. It's not even really about legal compliance, and it's certainly not about politics... though it is about whether they let politics get in the way of safety.

Every company has a safety culture - we had one on here a few years ago who wanted sysadmins to move 2000-pound computer racks using dollies on a 10% grade... Then you have Kiewit, which overhauled half of one of the biggest dams in the country, 600 workers onsite working off cliffs, canyons and a 25% grade... no reportable injuries for over a year, and finished the project with 2. You're gonna want your mask for that interview.

The science behind the laws.

Most people make two lay assumptions that are totally wrong.

"I'm only contagious after I feel sick" - wouldn't that be nice and tidy? No. COVID-19 is so insidious because you have a long "Typhoid Mary" period while you are a carrier, spreading it but don't feel sick. All viruses do, but most are much shorter. And some people catch it, spread it and recover without ever feeling symptoms.

"My mask protects me, your mask protects you" - wouldn't that be nice and tidy? No. Sure, you'd think... but evidence is strong * that informal, homemade or non-medical-grade masks do a much better job stopping exhaled virus than inhaled virus. So in fact they work the reverse: ‘my facemask protects you, your facemask protects me’.

To stop inhaled virus, medical staff use an elaborate, multi-layered suite of PPE -- but here's the thing -- the #1 thing hospitals do is make sure the patient has an ordinary face mask. That's because ordinary masks are so powerful at catching exhaled virus particles.

The mask message has been further confused by several things:

  • The authorities lying - not least, early in the crisis, they said masks weren't useful, solely to prevent a run on the mask supply desperately needed by hospitals. This didn't even work (who is surprised?) but more importantly, it broke trust.
  • Social distancing (without masks) only works outside. But of course, that is not intuitive.
  • The "nice and tidy" sense of accountability and self-sufficency: that everyone should be responsible for their own safety and suffer the consequences of their own actions, not others'.

* This study (first one I googled, I hardly cherry-picked it) says

Our analysis indicates that a high proportion of the population would need to wear facemasks to achieve reasonable impact of the intervention. In Hong Kong, 99% of survey respondents reported wearing facemasks when outside of their home [67]. Another human factor that may reduce facemask adoption in Western countries is cultural, because the use of facemasks is not common in public, or there is an implication that the facemask wearer considers others as a threat. In the current emergency, however, it is necessary to change this view, which could be achieved if the message conveyed by a facemask was ‘my facemask protects you, your facemask protects me’.

Also from WHO documents:

General population in public settings, such as grocery stores, at work, social gatherings, mass gatherings, closed settings, including schools, churches, mosques, etc...... Potential benefit for source control [preventing a carrier from infecting others] ........ Non-medical mask.