<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>donor20</author><text>And you are the one not listening.&lt;p&gt;In EVERY other country you can buy masks, and they were strongly encouraged, that prevented YOU from getting sick.&lt;p&gt;South Koreas KF94 masks come to mind, very good coverage and fit (3 parts including one under chin). And despite the lies basically posted by you and plenty of others including health authorities (don&amp;#x27;t wear masks if you are &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot;, masks can&amp;#x27;t protect you from covid) masks CAN be used to protect you from infection, and that is a MUCH more powerful motivator for folks to wear them, and can also be targeted to those who are at higher risk.&lt;p&gt;We need to get a grip of basic facts. Masks help reduce transmission and if reasonably designed (look overseas) infection. Why else do doctors in hospitals wear N95 masks? To avoid getting sick.&lt;p&gt;I am somewhat higher risk. I wear and N95 under a surgical mask. This reduces my risk of getting covid.&lt;p&gt;The other issue you miss is that there really has not been good evidence of outdoor transmission, and the claims of covid living on outdoor surfaces for 7 days also are suspect.&lt;p&gt;So when folks say - no one go to the beach, it&amp;#x27;s a bit of an eye roll. If covid were THAT infectious (huge open ocean airflow hitting the beach, blasting sun) then we&amp;#x27;d all have it already just from going to the grocery store.&lt;p&gt;I think health professionals lost a megaton of credibility in claiming masks don&amp;#x27;t help, to not wear masks, or that masks can only help reduce transmission not infection. Other countries went all out on masks - with great results.&lt;p&gt;They are reaping the rewards of these basic lies. Now I&amp;#x27;m told going to beach on a sunny breezy day is high risk. I&amp;#x27;m listening, show me the outbreak, show me the data that says this is high risk.</text><parent_chain><item><author>ceejayoz</author><text>&amp;gt; Maybe because nobody successfully proved to these people (me included) that this sacrifice is useful.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; people who are at risk of dying can protect themselves even around sick people (wearing a mask, staying at home, washing hands, ...)&lt;p&gt;This makes it clear &amp;quot;nobody successfully proved&amp;quot; really means &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#x27;t bother to listen&amp;quot;. The messaging on masks has long been &amp;quot;they reduce transmission by infected people&amp;quot;, not &amp;quot;they prevent you from getting it&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>polote</author><text>&amp;gt; I find it amazing we can not see short term sacrifice for long term gain.&lt;p&gt;Maybe because nobody successfully proved to these people (me included) that this sacrifice is useful.&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t tell to people, you have no risk of dying (0.5% death rate for population, much much lower for healthy and young people), people who are at risk of dying can protect themselves even around sick people (wearing a mask, staying at home, washing hands, ...) so this is not your fault if they catch it but you need to stop living your life. That can&amp;#x27;t work.&lt;p&gt;And above all, what is the long term strategy, we stop everything for the rest of our lives ? (a vaccine doesn&amp;#x27;t always work, example the flu vaccine, which works approximately).&lt;p&gt;It is not that people don&amp;#x27;t want to sacrifice, it is just that scarifying is the worst solution for everyone</text></item><item><author>readingnews</author><text>There is a crossfit gym that I pass by every morning on the way to work. It is full, and never stopped during this pandemic. Even at 7AM, it is full of patrons.&lt;p&gt;I would call the &amp;quot;proper authorities&amp;quot;, but since there is a State Police car parked outside every morning, and he is in there working out, just like before the pandemic, I doubt calling anyone would do anything.&lt;p&gt;Adding to the post, I read it earlier... it is really strange that people feel they have to go work out in groups. Or get together, or go to bars. I find it amazing we can not see short term sacrifice for long term gain.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2020/08/11/900895704/secret-gyms-and-the-economics-of-prohibition?s=09</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>gmanley</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m still surprised there is so much misinformation about this. There are two categories of masks. The first category only prevent you from spreading the disease. These include paper surgical masks, cloth masks and those blue disposable paper masks. These are only made to prevent you from spreading droplets in the air from your moth and nose. If someone with covid isn&amp;#x27;t wearing a mask this category won&amp;#x27;t do anything prevent you from catching it.&lt;p&gt;The second category are masks such as N95, P95, N99, P100, etc. Things like disposable painter masks or reusable masks with replaceable filters. These are meant to filter out particulate in the air and they do reduce the likelihood of you getting the disease. To call your mask P95 it must be certified by NIOSH and tested to meet the given rating, ie P95  must filter out 95 percent of particulate and be resistant to oil.&lt;p&gt;In the beginning the US and CDC were not recommending using masks. I believe the main reason for this was, not that they didn&amp;#x27;t believe it was effective, but that they were worried about a shortage for health care professionals.</text><parent_chain><item><author>ceejayoz</author><text>&amp;gt; Maybe because nobody successfully proved to these people (me included) that this sacrifice is useful.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; people who are at risk of dying can protect themselves even around sick people (wearing a mask, staying at home, washing hands, ...)&lt;p&gt;This makes it clear &amp;quot;nobody successfully proved&amp;quot; really means &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#x27;t bother to listen&amp;quot;. The messaging on masks has long been &amp;quot;they reduce transmission by infected people&amp;quot;, not &amp;quot;they prevent you from getting it&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>polote</author><text>&amp;gt; I find it amazing we can not see short term sacrifice for long term gain.&lt;p&gt;Maybe because nobody successfully proved to these people (me included) that this sacrifice is useful.&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t tell to people, you have no risk of dying (0.5% death rate for population, much much lower for healthy and young people), people who are at risk of dying can protect themselves even around sick people (wearing a mask, staying at home, washing hands, ...) so this is not your fault if they catch it but you need to stop living your life. That can&amp;#x27;t work.&lt;p&gt;And above all, what is the long term strategy, we stop everything for the rest of our lives ? (a vaccine doesn&amp;#x27;t always work, example the flu vaccine, which works approximately).&lt;p&gt;It is not that people don&amp;#x27;t want to sacrifice, it is just that scarifying is the worst solution for everyone</text></item><item><author>readingnews</author><text>There is a crossfit gym that I pass by every morning on the way to work. It is full, and never stopped during this pandemic. Even at 7AM, it is full of patrons.&lt;p&gt;I would call the &amp;quot;proper authorities&amp;quot;, but since there is a State Police car parked outside every morning, and he is in there working out, just like before the pandemic, I doubt calling anyone would do anything.&lt;p&gt;Adding to the post, I read it earlier... it is really strange that people feel they have to go work out in groups. Or get together, or go to bars. I find it amazing we can not see short term sacrifice for long term gain.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2020/08/11/900895704/secret-gyms-and-the-economics-of-prohibition?s=09</url></story>