Corona-zona

  A new study  is—as far as I know—the first truly controlled field experiment on mask effectiveness. The conclusion is that masks work.  We already knew masks work because you can see it for yourself . But it's one thing to see that masks block droplets and another to know that this translates into meaningful protection at the community level. This latest study involved 600 villages in Bangladesh, which have a combined population of 342,126 adults. Researchers randomly selected some of the villages to be in the treatment group and the rest were in the control group.   For eight weeks, people in the treatment villages received free masks, information on the importance of masking, role modeling by community leaders, and in-person reminders. Villages in the control group received none of that. Researchers visited the villages every week over the study period to observe how many people were properly wearing masks and social distancing at mosques, markets, the ...

  Here are some updates on topics recently covered in this blog. No Vax Could Cost You "Unvaccinated individuals have potential to cost the employer more from a health care spend perspective," Symons told CBS MoneyWatch. "They could get COVID and incur expensive hospital costs up to $50,000 for an individual with a tough COVID case." Back in June I blogged a proposal to make people who refuse vaccinations pay their own way if they get COVID-19. It's only fair: If people exercise their freedom to forego the vaccine, they should also be responsible for the consequences of that decision.  As it is they freeride. They can refuse the vaccine for childish and/or political reasons, then depend on those of us who have made the responsible choice to save their bacon with expensive hospital care that everyone pays for through insurance premiums. Incredibly, nobody has rushed to implement my proposal, but insurance providers may be taking a step in that direction. They...

Over the last year, bad behavior in public has become an epidemic in its own right.  Or so it seems. The more well-known incidents are pandemic-adjacent and focus on masks.  There is the time when an Arizona "karen" wearing a $40,000 Rolex watch trashed a mask display at a Target. These mask-hole events have become so common that retailers are providing training to employees on dealing with them. And it's not just in retail establishments. Last month an unruly passenger punched a flight attendant and knocked out two teeth in a confrontation over a mask. She's getting a $52,000 fine.   But that is not the only such case. This year alone, there have been 2500 unruly passenger incidents , 1900 of which were mask-related. Through May, 394 of these were potential violations of the law.  That's more than twice the number observed in the entire year for both 2020 and 2019. The thing is, it's not just pandemic-adjacent. There is also an rash of bad behavior by fan...