4 ms·
Our experts said not to use face masks. There's a debate of whether to listen to the experts.
by yostrovs 7y ago
Our experts said not to use face masks. There's a debate of whether to listen to the experts.
- pinkfoot 7y agoNo, the debate is how to recognise the experts.
- downerending 7y agoThis was, and I think still is, CDC advice. (Personally, I disagree, but I'm not an expert.)
- borplk 7y agoI think that's because they are worried about the supply limit. They are pushing that advice as a matter of prioritising the supply.
- drewbug 7y agois that their stated reason?
- gowld 7y agoNo, but that is wartime propagate for you. After a decade of failure to restock emergency supplies after 2005 swine flu, whatever they do now regarding mask distribution is just rearranging Titanic deck chairs.
- perl4ever 7y agoI don't mean to suggest it's wrong to discourage people, that would depend on what the best thing to do with the limited supply is. And I think some quotes I've seen have been fairly transparent about the motivation for telling people not to wear masks.
- borplk 7y agoThey don't want to cause a surge of demand for masks by the general population so they keep downplaying the need for it by the general population so the healthcare workers can get them instead. Masks physically cover your high risk areas such as nose and mouth and if they don't help they don't hurt either. If there was an infinite supply of masks I guess that they would absolutely recommend everyone to wear them. Also because wearing a mask protects both the person wearing it and the people around them.
- perl4ever 7y agoI think at this point it's clear that either China was quite successful in stopping the spread, relative to some other countries, or there is/was a huge coverup. If you assume that the latter is too paranoid, and acknowledge that they have a head start on learning how to handle things, then it seems like you can't expect other "experts" to be on an equal footing. That of course doesn't mean the specific source I read was accurate. But I think people are prejudiced in the US and maybe other western countries in thinking that we're automatically just as competent as people with extra weeks of experience, who apparently did what we are unable to do. It's terrifying to me when people say, oh, the US only has 5 deaths per million, so we're doing pretty well. As if something went "click" in their brains and the exponential increase in cases and deaths just is going to stop tomorrow. It's not the facts that scare me, it's (what appears to me) the matter of fact delusional outlook.
- throwaway3563 7y agoRightfully, to avoid exhausting the limited supply that’s needed for medical workers. You can make/improvise your own and it will help.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- petre 7y agoI've seen quite a lot of Asian tourists wearing masks after the MERS outbreak in 2015 and we weren't even in a middle of a pandemic. So it would be cautious to wear a mask in public during this pandemic if you've got one.