I would bet cruise ships stock lots of Tamiflu and hand it out like breath mints to anyone the crew notices with symptoms.
This clinical trial says that surgical masks are just as good as N95 for health workers for seasonal flu / colds : - about 8% got sick for both groups:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam..._oi_190087.pdf
N95 Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Personnel A Randomized Clinical Trial
Lewis J. Radonovich Jr, MD;
IMPORTANCE Clinical studies have been inconclusive about the effectiveness of N95
respirators and medical masks in preventing health care personnel (HCP) from acquiring
workplace viral respiratory infections.
OBJECTIVE To compare the effect of N95 respirators vs medical masks for prevention of
influenza and other viral respiratory infections among HCP.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A cluster randomized pragmatic effectiveness study
conducted at 137 outpatient study sites at 7 US medical centers between September 2011 and
May 2015, with final follow-up in June 2016. Each year for 4 years, during the 12-week period
of peak viral respiratory illness, pairs of outpatient sites (clusters) within each center were
matched and randomly assigned to the N95 respirator or medical mask groups.
INTERVENTIONS Overall, 1993 participants in 189 clusterswere randomly assigned towear N95
respirators (2512 HCP-seasons of observation) and 2058 in 191 clusterswere randomly assigned
towear medical masks (2668 HCP-seasons) when near patients with respiratory illness.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcomewas the incidence of
laboratory-confirmed influenza. Secondary outcomes included incidence of acute respiratory
illness, laboratory-detected respiratory infections, laboratory-confirmed respiratory illness,
and influenzalike illness. Adherence to interventions was assessed.
RESULTS
Among 2862 randomized participants (mean [SD] age, 43 [11.5] years; 2369
[82.8%]) women), 2371 completed the study and accounted for 5180 HCP-seasons.
There were 207 laboratory-confirmed influenza infection events (8.2%of HCP-seasons) in the N95
respirator group and 193 (7.2%of HCP-seasons) in the medical mask group (difference, 1.0%,
[95%CI, −0.5%to 2.5%]; P = .18) (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.18 [95%CI, 0.95-1.45]).
There were 1556 acute respiratory illness events in the respirator group vs 1711 in the mask group
(difference, −21.9 per 1000 HCP-seasons [95%CI, −48.2 to 4.4]; P = .10); 679
laboratory-detected respiratory infections in the respirator group vs 745 in the mask group
(difference, −8.9 per 1000 HCP-seasons, [95%CI, −33.3 to 15.4]; P = .47); 371
laboratory-confirmed respiratory illness events in the respirator group vs 417 in the mask
group (difference, −8.6 per 1000 HCP-seasons [95%CI, −28.2 to 10.9]; P = .39); and 128
influenzalike illness events in the respirator group vs 166 in the mask group (difference, −11.3
per 1000 HCP-seasons [95%CI, −23.8 to 1.3]; P = .08).
In the respirator group, 89.4%of participants reported “always” or “sometimes” wearing their assigned devices vs 90.2%in the mask group.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among outpatient health care personnel, N95 respirators vs
medical masks as worn by participants in this trial resulted in no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza.
TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01249625
JAMA. 2019;322(9):824-833. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.11645
Linear Mode
