{"id":1285,"date":"2023-07-26T13:34:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2023-07-26T13:34:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:34:23","slug":"zorro-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1285","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Zorro Returns<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A recent issue of the <em>New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> had an editorial (not a research paper) titled \u201cStrategic Masking to Protect Patients from all Respiratory Viral Infections\u201d.&nbsp;&nbsp; It was written by four Harvard physicians whose specialty is epidemiology and public health.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The authors preamble alludes to the understandable mask wearing pushback\/mask use fatigue in both the general population and in healthcare workers.&nbsp; That\u2019s very understandable.&nbsp; We are all sick of constraints.&nbsp; But the focus of the article is with the first word: \u201cstrategic\u201d.&nbsp; They make a rational argument for what they call strategic masking.&nbsp; Myriads of studies during the Covid 19 pandemic came to diverse findings on mask benefit.&nbsp; From \u201cdoesn\u2019t seem to do much\u201d to \u201chas a major impact on transmission\u201d.&nbsp; The authors point out that the naysay findings are probably due to inappropriate mask type or improper use.&nbsp; How many times have you seen people wearing a mask covering their mouth but not their nose.&nbsp; Duh!&nbsp; Collating all the data it seems that there is up to a 60 to 70% effectiveness of preventing viral transmission with masking.&nbsp; This includes the SARS-COV-2 virus along with other pesky viruses: influenza, RSV, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza and rhinovirus.&nbsp; One fifth of patients hospitalized for pneumonia have a viral pathogen not a bacterial one.&nbsp; Influenza alone accounts for 50 to 60 thousand deaths a year in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The strategies they offer are several.&nbsp; One is to consider mask use in public places and health care facilities during months of the year with high viral illness.&nbsp; Another is to consider universal masking in health care settings when patients being attended to are at a higher risk due to age or underlying premorbid conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My own personal experience does not constitute science.&nbsp; But prior to Covid-19 and mask use this aging physician was catching two to three viral respiratory infections a year.&nbsp; Since my mask use over the past 4 years, I have not been sick.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine had an editorial (not a research paper) titled \u201cStrategic Masking to Protect Patients from all Respiratory Viral Infections\u201d.&nbsp;&nbsp; It was written by four Harvard physicians whose specialty is epidemiology and public health.&nbsp; The authors preamble alludes to the understandable mask wearing pushback\/mask use fatigue in both the general population and in healthcare workers.&nbsp; That\u2019s very understandable.&nbsp; We are all sick of constraints.&nbsp; But the focus of the article is with&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1285\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,628,627],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-covid","tag-mask","tag-zorro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1286,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/1286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}