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Medicine Science

Two Hairstylists Who Had Coronavirus Saw 140 Clients. No New Infections Have Been Linked To the Salon, Officials Say (cnn.com) 180

No cases of coronavirus have been linked to two Missouri hairstylists who saw 140 clients last month while symptomatic, county health officials said. Both stylists worked at the same Great Clips location in Springfield. The clients and the stylists all wore face coverings, and the salon had set up other measures such as social distancing of chairs and staggered appointments, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department said last week. From a report: Of the 140 clients and seven co-workers potentially exposed, 46 took tests that came back negative. All the others were quarantined for the duration of the coronavirus incubation period. The 14-day incubation period has now passed with no coronavirus cases linked to the salon beyond the two stylists, county health officials said. During the quarantine, those who did not get tested got a call twice a day from health officials asking whether they had symptoms related to Covid-19, said Kathryn Wall, a spokeswoman for the Springfield-Green County Health Department. "This is exciting news about the value of masking to prevent Covid-19," said Clay Goddard, the county's director of health. "We are studying more closely the details of these exposures, including what types of face coverings were worn and what other precautions were taken to lead to this encouraging result."
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Two Hairstylists Who Had Coronavirus Saw 140 Clients. No New Infections Have Been Linked To the Salon, Officials Say

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  • But once word spreads, every other hairstylist and small business owner is going to conclude opening is perfectly safe.

    • Re:Bullet dodged. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by memory_register ( 6248354 ) on Monday June 15, 2020 @02:42PM (#60186214)
      "Bullet dodged" is not an objective perspective on this data.

      Reopening is uncharted territory, so it is best to look at the data objectively not let our expectations cloud our judgement. This demonstrates that work and commerce related infections are much less likely than previous thought. It is also in line with changes to WHO guidelines stating that surface based transmission is basically zero. Covid-19 is dangerous, but not in every possible way or to every possible person.

      Moreover, a lower infection rate during economic activity is a win for humanity. It means we don't have to trade covid-19 deaths for suicides/drug ODs related to poverty and hopelessness. Let's take the win.
      • It means we don't have to trade covid-19 deaths for suicides/drug ODs related to poverty and hopelessness.

        But we didn't have to do that in the first place! Functional governments take care of their people. That's their job.

        "Lets not address the underlying problems with wealth inequity, this virus won't kill as many people as we thought it would! Back to work all of you! Sucks if you die."

        That is a win only if you define winning very narrowly.

        • The biggest danger of voting for the folks saying, "Government is inefficient, corrupt, and incompetent," is that once elected, they tend to do everything in their power to prove themselves right.

  • OBVISOLY it is SOOO infective that if you are in the same room with someone who has a positive test we should use phone tracing to force you to self quarantine for 2 weeks. Too much fear, not enough science.

    • Yes thankfully this finally proves that human to human transmission doesn't exist.

      We already know R0 is probably somewhere between 2 to 5 under normal circumstances. So considering an average person comes into reasonably close contact with hunderds if not thousands of people throughout the duration of the illness (assuming they take no measures), the probability of infecting any particular person is very small. Yet they only need to infect 2 people to keep it spreading out of control.

      • by MikeKD ( 549924 )

        Yes thankfully this finally proves that human to human transmission doesn't exist.

        We already know R0 is probably somewhere between 2 to 5 under normal circumstances. So considering an average person comes into reasonably close contact with hunderds if not thousands of people throughout the duration of the illness (assuming they take no measures), the probability of infecting any particular person is very small. Yet they only need to infect 2 people to keep it spreading out of control.

        Are you an idiot or just being sarcastic? If human to human transmission doesn't exist, then how the fuck does the virus spread? Fleas? Dogs? Does it infecet airplanes and they their contrails infect humans?

        • Are you an idiot or just being sarcastic? If human to human transmission doesn't exist, then how the fuck does the virus spread? Fleas? Dogs? Does it infecet airplanes and they their contrails infect humans?

          I am an idiot generally but in this case that was just sarcasm. It can be difficult to tell online, but doesn't the second paragraph that directly contradicts the first make it clear enough?

    • Fuck off, troll. The fact that customers were wearing masks here is likely what saved them from getting infected.
  • hairstylists who saw 140 clients last month while symptomatic

    WTF! How did that happen, here people with seasonal allergy and asthma live in constant fear of being attacked?

    • And YET the CDC and multiple other sources estimate that between 15% and 50% of the people who contract the virus WILL NEVER EVEN KNOW IT! ( emphasis mine). Is anyone else starting to think maybe there was an initial overreaction and now those in charge don't want people to feel that way?

      • 116,00 deaths in the United States and 434,000 deaths globally. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/ma... [jhu.edu] Yeah real overreaction there Potsy.
      • Is anyone else starting to think maybe there was an initial overreaction and now those in charge don't want people to feel that way?

        Not really. One can only point to the places where hospital resources were overwhelmed and imagine the horror of having to look on while people are dying without adequate treatment. When it comes to the lock-downs reasonable people knew they were unsustainable.

      • Is anyone else starting to think maybe there was an initial overreaction and now those in charge don't want people to feel that way?

        Nope. Those of us with basic math skills and a lack of brain damage understand that this means we did an OK job in handling the pandemic.

        Unchecked you end up with mass graves in a matter of a month or so. If we didn't end up there for the most part, we get a star. Maybe not a gold star, but at least a silver one.

        But you talk like this is over. It is not. Please go read some news out of the southern US. They are rapidly spiraling towards being fucked in a lot of places because they, like you, either lack bas

  • Cherry-Picked Data (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zaraday ( 6285110 ) on Monday June 15, 2020 @02:28PM (#60186130)

    Americans need to keep in mind that this is just one case with a lack of transmission. That said, it shows that wearing masks does in fact help. I just fear that most people who see this story come away with the wrong lesson.

    • well, a good question is 'how cherry picked'. Obviously if this happened a million times there would be some infections, but nobody knows how many and that is because the science is STILL lacking for people to actually make decision. All of it is 'gut' reactions and much of it is hysteria.

      The 'best' data we have , indicates that you are over 65 AND have other complicating factors you have something like a 25% chance of dying. Which is BTW the same as a 75% chance of living.

      • by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Monday June 15, 2020 @04:34PM (#60186712)

        you have something like a 25% chance of dying. Which is BTW the same as a 75% chance of living.

        Worse odds than Russian Roulette at 83% (using a standard six shot revolver).

      • by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc.famine@NOSPAM.gmail.com> on Monday June 15, 2020 @06:30PM (#60187266) Journal

        You dumb fuck. There are 50 million Americans over 65. "Sucks to be those 12 million that are going to die!"

        Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, because not all 50 million are going to have complicating factors. Oh, except those are the most common ailments in the US, and most prevalent in people over 65. Maybe only half of them will have complicating factors, so we're only looking at 6 million grandparents dying.

        6 million deaths is nothing!

        But fuck it, lets open back up. If we go to the ballgame and get corona and bring it back to the family picnic, only one of the four grandparents is likely to die. No sense in being hysterical. Can't be helped that grandpa is going to die, Jimmy. We might as well be dead ourselves if we can't go to the ballgame this year.

  • Wear masks (Score:5, Informative)

    by MrL0G1C ( 867445 ) on Monday June 15, 2020 @02:32PM (#60186154) Journal

    OK, now can people start wearing masks, even the US is better at this than the UK, the UK is an embarrassment. Lack of leadership and lack of rules about wearing masks has lead to only a minority of people wearing masks. 40+ London bus drivers dead from the coronavirus and still you can get on a bus without a mask, it's disgraceful. Meanwhile the man responsible, London major Sadiq Khan goes on about why are BAME contracting the virus more and suffering worse, maybe if the fucking idiot would enforce masks on buses and tubes then a lot less BAME people would be dead now, FML.

    And those people not wearing masks didn't seem to care much about social distancing either.

    So what's the UK gov't hinting it's going to do? Reduce social distancing. Fucking genius. The R0 has reached 1 in spite of the pathetic gov't we have.

    And the Coronavirus could be leading to lung scarring in roughly one third of cases including asymptomatic people: https://www.vox.com/2020/5/8/2... [vox.com]

    And people who contract COVID-19 who are vitamin-d deficient are up to 20x more likely to end up in intensive care. The government and the media are being utterly useless about getting their facts straight and getting the most important facts out to people. It's like how the virus spreads isn't important to them because they're so completely obsessed with the economy they can't see anything at all.

    • The government and the media are being utterly useless about getting their facts straight and getting the most important facts out to people.

      It's actually amazing how bad they are at actually reporting facts.

  • by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Monday June 15, 2020 @02:35PM (#60186172)

    Is the mask the end-all be all of the pandemic? No, but as we've been learning about the virus seems to say it helps. Even just thinking logically, if breath droplets are a primary vector anything in their way will help.

    Just wear the mask if you are indoors.

    Was there some waffling early on from the WHO and CDC about masks? Sure. Does that matter today? Nope, not at all.

    Wearing a mask inside is literally the least we can all do.

    • Does that matter today? Nope, not at all.

      What's interesting is how to some people that's all that matters? When talking with my parents, they can't forget that one anecdotal experience from years ago out weighs everything else. Just this last New Years my dad was railing against a government project that he deemed wasteful from the 1980's. So since there was something wasteful from 40 years ago, all government is wasted spending in his mind.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Was there some waffling early on from the WHO and CDC about masks? Sure. Does that matter today? Nope, not at all.

      The waffling was because of human behavior - it can be reasonably demonstrated that wearing a mask, most (newer) users will tend to poke and prod at their face. This is not a good thing as it can basically lead from transmission to surfaces others may touch.

      Obviously if the current instruction is to not touch your nose/eyes with your fingers, poking and prodding your face with your fingers is no

  • Doesn't mean you should avoid smoking.
  • by Goldenhawk ( 242867 ) on Monday June 15, 2020 @03:16PM (#60186406) Homepage

    In other news, many thousands of nurses didn't get infected by their many thousands of COVID-19-infected patients in the last three months, because they practiced proper infection control measures.

    While I'm happy to hear this news, and it has good PR value, it really only answers the question about masks properly worn by people who also practiced other good infection-control measures, such as not touching their faces, not touching the outside of the mask, wearing the masks properly, keeping their hands properly washed often, and so forth.

    I guarantee you, a lot of the people I see "wearing masks" in Walmart with it hanging off their nose, or sloppy loose, or constantly lifting it up to rub their nose, or touching everything in sight and then rubbing their eyes, wouldn't have the same results as these two people who obviously did things right for 140 clients.

    Masks are highly effective when worn properly, and even more highly effective when both people are wearing them. We know this from decades of experience.

    • Wait what? Many thousands of health care workers did contract COVID-19 at a rate higher than the general population. [cdc.gov] That aside, I do agree with what you're saying about masks, though if we can't even get people to stop going to work (at a job where the touch their clients, no less) when obviously suffering symptoms I have little hope that we are going to get them to wear masks reliably or properly.
      • >"Wait what? Many thousands of health care workers did contract COVID-19 at a rate higher than the general population."

        The healthcare workers were exposed to hundreds or even thousands of times the exposure potential compared to the general population.

    • Here in Montreal, masks or no masks, the estimate is that about 20% of health care workers all got infected.

      In fact, aside from nursing homes and long term care facilities, most of the cases come from hospitals.
      And many of the community spread comes from health care workers.

      Aside from the initial 2-3 weeks of lockdown, most of the spread comes from health care.

  • ...and WHO just said that asymptomatic transmission is rare.

    So why the FUCK did we lock down the entire planet, telling people to hide in their homes, destroy countless businesses, throw our various economies into penury...?

    Was this just a giant experiment to give UBI a test run?

    • No, since no UBI provided just a single payment below poverty level in USA. Instead large business made out like bandits while most their competition from small and medium business which employs 48% the populace was shut down.

  • It's almost like a mask stops the water vapors from getting into the air or something. We need 10000 different peer reviewed studies to confirm that I can hold up a mirror and breathe onto it while wearing a mask and not fog it up, everyone.

Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky

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