Why more importantly? For an airborne pandemic with very a long incubation period (if memory serves me right up to 2-3 weeks), lack of symptoms in many cases, preventing the spread is the number one priority on the level of a city/local/central government.
Quarantines and lockdowns are good old tested ways, but infeasible for prolonged periods of time. Having everyone wear a mask and drastically reduce the spread was such a no brainer I never understood all the panic around it.
Much of the US refuses to wear masks. If masks only prevent the virus escaping but not entering, then it is only the selfish segment of society that is being protected.
Masks aren't worn only by infected people they are worn to protect against the virus. The virus exists whether you choose to wear a mask or not. But masks prevent an infected person from spreading it from coughing or from non-infected people from breathing it in.
I think you missed the comment that GP was responding to. They were responding to a claim that if masks only protect the virus from escaping, then masks only protect the selfish population.
3M also make N95 masks without an exhale valve - you should get those instead, the ones with valves are perfectly fine for situations like a non-infected very vulnerable person, but when trying to limit the spread of coronavirus they're basically selfish and less useful, as they don't protect anyone except you.
(Though I must admit, having accidentally bought a few of the valved ones early on in the pandemic, I found that the exhale valve actually meant my warm breath didn't heat the mask & my face quite as much, which was really nice for me as I suffer from hyperhidrosis - excessive facial sweating - but I stuck with using non-valved masks since I'm much less at risk than various friends and family members are.)
For many ordinary citizens its just panic when asked to perform something not within the usual cultural norms.
In japan this is normal behaviour, whenever you feel under the weather.
Then there were obvious propaganda lies surrounding masks. One was that soldiers wear them- and i was a soldier, with a abc-mask and we "trained" marching with them and unscrewed them to get some air.
Then some other world-unaware office worker suggested using them in freezers and cooled environments- which basically boils down to waterboarding yourself with condensing air-moisture.
Good idea, pushed by panicy people into bad policy, communicated badly, resulting in massive resistance.
It is a fair question for what one should do if healthy. Most people today are not wearing masks when sick. So how much protection does an N95 give us vs not wearing a mask at all? If we are healthy, should we bother with masks?
Sleep is primarily preventative, as it plays a role in the immune system. Personally, I haven't been sick in many years and when other people are getting sick I just get tired and sleep a few more hours than usual.
Not the original poster, but It’s probably more important because you can’t force people to wear masks. As such, the question is “can I protect myself?”
If you can, there’s absolutely no reason to force other people to mask anyway & you get the same benefit. That’s the ideal situation for everyone.
It seems that since it was first reported, there is now an exception (in this instance at least) for those protecting themselves from communicable diseases.
> Not the original poster, but It’s probably more important because you can’t force people to wear masks.
Why can't "you" force people to wear masks? Depending on exactly who you mean by "you" (the particular poster, an abstract actor (individual or organization), etc.), what you say could be true to mostly false.
I can't speak for anyone else, but this can clearly be interpreted on a personal level. Every day I can do my best to influence public policy; but even if I am successful, a policy change takes time. In the meantime, I can decide whether I will wear a mask; but I cannot force any other person to wear a mask.
I think a good chunk of it was the CDC randomly changing its recommendations with no real explanation.
At the beginning of the pandemic in the US, from January to May of 2020, there was a big campaign by the CDC to discourage people from wearing masks. I remember seeing various guest "medical experts" on the news claiming that people who wore masks were actually MORE LIKELY to contract COVID. At the same time, virtually every other country was encouraging or mandating masking.
Then June of 2020 came around, masks quickly became encouraged and then mandated. Fauci only made vague and nonsensical statements like "the science changed!" and "we're moving at the speed of science!" to explain the abrupt change in policy. As if there was ever any scientific data to suggest that COVID-19 was not capable of airborne transmission or that masks wouldn't help limit said transmission.
I get that there was a shortage of masks early on and the CDC was probably just trying to prevent panic buying (which occurred anyway, there were N95s selling on amazon for $40 per mask). The ridiculous claim that "masks make you more likely to get COVID" followed by a sudden requirement to wear said "COVID causing" masks completely destroyed public confidence and fueled all kinds of conspiracy theories.
If you read the scientific literature on masking (focused on a flu pandemic) from before the pandemic, there was actually a lot of uncertainty about whether masks would help the general public.
It's obvious that masks help if they're worn correctly, but the uncertainty was around the question of whether the general public would actually wear them properly. In hindsight, it seems obvious that mask-wearing should have been encouraged from day 1, but it somehow wasn't initially clear.
One problem, I think, might be the emphasis on controlled randomized trials (RCT) in medicine, which are not always appropriate. Think of running an RCT on whether parachutes prevent death when falling from planes. We understand the physical mechanism underlying parachutes, so we know mechanistically why they prevent death from falling. Covid is a respiratory virus. Masks physically filter the virus out of the air you breathe in and out. You don't need a study to know that if worn correctly, they will reduce transmission. The real question is how to teach and encourage the public to wear masks properly, not whether masks work in principle.
I didn’t see those reports (but I don’t really watch TV much).
I can see a logic that goes: we don’t know if masks help yet. Therefore, if you decide to wear a mask, keep that in mind, and continue to follow the distancing guidelines. Also, be careful when donning and doffing your mask, as you are likely to accidentally touch your face at that point.
This is the advice I remember from reading stuff. But, I could definitely imagine people trying to “dumb it down” on TV and coming up with “maybe masks will harm more than hurt.” As a public policy, given the data available at the time that seemed plausible.
Unfortunately everybody’s a pundit on TV, so they might discuss public policy and personal advice (as well as their speculation about how people will feel about public policy, completing the media ouroboros) in one sentence and mix them all up.
Not sure what the fix is, maybe the CDC needs a more active media department to keep on this stuff. In particular, panicking people seem to want to see how these decisions are made. Have every interview be about the error bars, bookended with the current advice, which is just stay far apart.
I saw people reuse the same mask for weeks, cloth or surgical. I think this is what some of the "experts" were referring to, that is even more dangerous than being maskless
In countries where public healthcare is a thing, why wouldn’t trying to limit the spread of something like Covid (that would inundate healthcare facilities) be part of a government’s business?
that’s a big debate beyond the scope of this format but they at least should need to pass a law first before just taking power, otherwise you risk a situation where any time someone wants power they declare an emergency, or worse, cause one… imagine if they released a virus for example, knowing they can then shut down a society for whatever reason? it’s a real threat and shouldn’t be hand waved away in a time when powerful people openly claim the biggest threat to everyone is everyone
Lots of things are bad for the well being of the people but the government allows it, such as smoking and drinking. The government serves the will of the people, not their well being.
Quarantines and lockdowns are good old tested ways, but infeasible for prolonged periods of time. Having everyone wear a mask and drastically reduce the spread was such a no brainer I never understood all the panic around it.