By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times : latimes – excerpt
As health experts urge the public to wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus, they continue to get pushback. Among the arguments of skeptics: If masks can’t fully protect me against COVID-19, what is the point of wearing them?
Scientists’ counterargument is that masks can help reduce the severity of the disease caused by coronavirus even if you get infected.
There’s now mounting evidence that silent spreaders are responsible for the majority of transmission of the coronavirus — making universal masking essential to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus, experts say.
This makes the coronavirus different from the seasonal flu. With seasonal flu, peak infectiousness occurs about one day after the onset of symptoms. But with the coronavirus, even among people who do end up becoming visibly sick, peak infectiousness can occur before they show symptoms.
In fact, experts say, significant amounts of virus can start coming out of people’s noses and mouths even when they feel well…
“There is this theory that facial masking reduces the (amount of virus you get exposed to) and disease severity,” said Gandhi, who is also director for the Center for AIDS Research at UC San Francisco….(more)