Why does the CDC recommend Covid-vaccinated people wear masks in public?

[bmw]

Here's the official guidance:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... dance.html

For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:

-Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing

-Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease

-Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households

-Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings

Now some basic math:

-The vaccine claims to be 95% effective. That means a vaccinated person is 95% less likely to get Covid, and hence 95% less likely to die from it.

-In 2018-2019, 34,000 Americans died from the flu https://www.statista.com/statistics/112 ... age-group/

-In the first year of the Coronavirus pandemic, roughly 590,000 Americans died.

-590,000 divided by 34,000 equals Covid being 17.3x deadlier than the flu

-95% effectiveness equals being 20x safer than not being vaccinated (against Covid).

My conclusion? A Covid-vaccinated person is a little LESS likely to die from Covid (comparing the 17.3x to 20x numbers) than is a random person to die from the flu. The CDC doesn't recommend wearing masks to prevent the flu. So why the recommendation for Covid-vaccinated people to protect against Covid? And don't tell me that it is to protect unvaccinated people because a random unvaccinated person is equally 20x less likely to get Covid FROM YOU than from an unvaccinated person.

[zzand]

The explanation I have heard, I neither believe or disbelieve it, is that the vaccine is not a cure and simply designed to lessen how bad you will react if you get Covid after completing the shots. The handout I got when I got my first shot, second is a week from Saturday, is that there is no cure for Covid-19 and the vaccine lessen how sick one gets and lessens the chance of being admitted to a hospital or dying from it but you can still contract it.

[bmw]

Your handout, while perhaps all technically true, sounds a bit misleading to me. There is a claimed 95% efficacy from Pfizer's clinical trials. That 95% efficacy claim clinically means the following:

What the 95% actually means is that vaccinated people had a 95% lower risk of getting COVID-19 compared with the control group participants, who weren't vaccinated. In other words, vaccinated people in the Pfizer clinical trial were 20 times less likely than the control group to get COVID-19.

https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-va ... ained.html

So I believe I am correct in asserting that a random person vaccinated with a 95% effective vaccine is less likely to die from Covid than a random person pulled from the US population is to die from the flu. And consequently, a vaccinated person is also less likely to cause an unvaccinated person to die from Covid than is a random person to cause another person to die from the flu.

Put another way - once you've been vaccinated against Covid, you're now more likely to die from the flu (assuming you haven't had a flu shot) than you are from Covid. And the CDC doesn't recommend that people who haven't had their flu shot wear masks in public to avoid spreading the flu.

[TC Shuts Up]

Science, they say. But when it conflicts with the narrative, they attack the source of course.

https://www.clairewolfe.com/blog/2020/0 ... facemasks/

Recent Press conference. Biden is wearing a mask, but appears to be having trouble breathing with it before the handler dismisses the reporters. Hypoxia? Science!

https://populist.press/biden-suffers-hu ... ushed-out/

[km1125]

RE:"The vaccine claims to be 95% effective. That means a vaccinated person is 95% less likely to get Covid, and hence 95% less likely to die from it."

The math is a bit off there. You are actually even less likely to get severe symptoms and death is nearly nonexistent for folks who get vaccinated, at least according to the J&J data. Your point is actually more valid with that perspective though.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

Several reasons to still wear the mask.....the first and main reason is that you can still pass the virus along after getting the vaccine even if you yourself have no noticeable symptoms. The second reason is that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 90-95% effective, not 100%.

As far as breathing with a mask on, it is proven science that there is no difference in oxygen rate whether you wear a mask or don't. That myth was dispelled a year ago. Otherwise, we would have surgeons passing out left and right. Some people like Petoskey above are dumber than a box of rocks.

Biden has a known issue with anxiety, that's where he developed his stutter. Anxiety in itself can cause breathing issues.

[Bryce]

It is my understanding that the wearing of a mask isn't so much for your protection as it is to lessen the spread to others should you be infected and not know.

If that's the case, continuing to wear a mask after vaccination makes sense.

[km1125]

....
As far as breathing with a mask on, it is proven science that there is no difference in oxygen rate whether you wear a mask or don't. That myth was dispelled a year ago. Otherwise, we would have surgeons passing out left and right. Some people like Petoskey above are dumber than a box of rocks.
...

It is certainly not " proven science"!! It is true in SOME cases, but not in others. Surgeons would be a bad example, as they are INTENTIONALLY calm so they can do their job effectively, and do not need a high volume of O2 to do it, compared with others who have much more physically-intense functions.

[bmw]

So to Bryce and MCRF - do you think the CDC should recommend people wear masks 6 months out of the year, every year, to prevent the spread of the flu? Policy considerations are made based on broad averages, not individual cases. Do either of you dispute my claim that a Covid-vaccinated person is statistically less likely to die form Covid than the flu, as well as statistically less likely to cause an unvaccinated person to die from Covid than from the flu?

[Rate This]

So to Bryce and MCRF - do you think the CDC should recommend people wear masks 6 months out of the year, every year, to prevent the spread of the flu? Policy considerations are made based on broad averages, not individual cases. Do either of you dispute my claim that a Covid-vaccinated person is statistically less likely to die form Covid than the flu, as well as statistically less likely to cause an unvaccinated person to die from Covid than from the flu?

It might actually be effective. As an aside the reason you often see Asian folks wearing masks when they are sick is cultural. They don’t want to pass on their germs to others. We could stand to learn something from that in non-Covid times. If you feel sick wear a mask to reduce transmission of whatever you have. Help your fellow man. That’s not political, it’s simply a decent thing to do.

[TC Shuts Up]

I suggest that you all buy Pulse Oximeters with variable alarm settings.

If your PO2 is normally 100%, dropping to 95%, it is significant but inconsequential. If you are normally at 95%, it may be serious if it drops to 90%.

Get fit. That will help. Go for a walk outside in the woods, away from people. Spring has sprung!

[bmw]

RE:"The vaccine claims to be 95% effective. That means a vaccinated person is 95% less likely to get Covid, and hence 95% less likely to die from it."

The math is a bit off there. You are actually even less likely to get severe symptoms and death is nearly nonexistent for folks who get vaccinated, at least according to the J&J data. Your point is actually more valid with that perspective though.

While a vaccinated person may be even more than 20x less likely to die from Covid, I think the 20x number would accurately apply to any unvaccinated people who are exposed to vaccinated people.

One thing worth pointing out also is that I think the 95% efficacy would actually increase as more people get vaccinated because the study was done at a time when very few people were vaccinated and the number was calculated based on the study group being exposed to real-world conditions. Once you get to even 20 or 30% of the population being vaccinated, a vaccinated person poses a virtually negligible risk to the general public, so the need for that person to continue wearing a mask seems ludicrous and not rooted in science.

[bmw]

It might actually be effective...Help your fellow man. That’s not political, it’s simply a decent thing to do.

The number of people who die from the flu is roughly equal to the number of people who die in car accidents every year. By your logic, banning automobile travel is simply a decent thing to do to help your fellow man.

[Rate This]

It might actually be effective...Help your fellow man. That’s not political, it’s simply a decent thing to do.

The number of people who die from the flu is roughly equal to the number of people who die in car accidents every year. By your logic, banning automobile travel is simply a decent thing to do to help your fellow man.

No. That’s not remotely the same. However you are incredibly self centered. It’s all about you. You could care less if wearing a mask could possibly save somebody or you could simply not put somebody else through the misery of being sick for a few days.

It should be basic politeness to try not to get somebody else sick. Otherwise you should have no problem with someone or multiple people coughing directly in your face.

[bmw]

Look, this is all about risk analysis. Living in a free country comes with risks, and we as human beings living in a free country take risks every day. I'm simply trying to figure out where the threshold is in our society whereby curtailing our freedoms is outweighed by saving lives. Because we're quickly approaching the territory of where to remain logically consistent with our policies, there are a lot of other behaviors that need to be banned or significantly restricted, eventually to the point where we're all just living in a sterile bubble.