4 ms·

Can you be more specific on what you think was going unacknowledged? The abstract is just "wear masks and test like crazy". Which has been pretty much univers

Can you be more specific on what you think was going unacknowledged? The abstract is just "wear masks and test like crazy". Which has been pretty much universal consensus since March. There's a whole industry of amateur mask makers on Etsy at this point.

coding123 6y ago
Except that everyone stopped wearing masks about two weeks ago.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  For certain narrow classes of everyone.
- garmaine 6y ago
  In the part of America I live, you cannot enter buildings or public spaces without a mask. Not everyone has the same policies.
DSingularity 6y ago
Until recently wearing masks Was not a CDC guideline
- newacct583 6y ago
  No one at the CDC (at least no career bureaucrat) ever denied masks were effective, though. It's true that there was concern early on that a public run on masks would put health care workers in jeopardy, so people were absolutely told not to try to procure them. And it's also true that the WHO's messaging on this subject was terribly confusing. But the idea that "Hah! The elites were WRONG about masks!" is just... weird. And doubly so because it's almost always promulgated by a demographic known for... not wearing masks. I mean, seriously: if ("finally!") we're being told to wear masks, I'd expect a genuine mask evangelist to be happy, and to use this to encourage others to wear their masks. But that's not what I hear. It's like it's all a game of political gotcha. It's not. Masks save lives. Wear your mask when you can't stay home.
  - gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
    The "career bureaucrats" had every opportunity to make sure people didn't die, and they failed. You can really just go through the list of wrong information offered at precisely the worst time: subways, nursing homes, masks, the relative safety of being outdoors, etc.
    - newacct583 6y ago
      > subways, nursing homes, masks, the relative safety of being outdoors, etc. OK... go through that then? All that stuff seems like areas that have been broadly agreed upon for months. You're going all the way back to March for a bunch of recriminations (some of which I don't understand -- nursing homes were early hot spots and have always been seen so). No one doubts that people got stuff wrong. But that's not a reason to argue against the same people now that they've corrected themselves. I mean... you ARE wearing a mask, right? Right?
  - darkteflon 6y ago
    I’m based in Tokyo and one of the most frustrating things for me personally is that ~90% of foreigners (or people who are visibly foreigners) are not wearing masks when out and about. This despite the fact that the Japanese are almost uniformly wearing them. We are, after all, in the middle of a pandemic. Is this down to the WHO’s early messaging fumbles, misplaced machismo, ignorance, or what? When foreigners here don’t wear masks, they should know that the door is then open for Japanese people to lump all of us in together and say: “look, foreigners don’t give a fuck.”
    - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
      All of the people I've discussed it with say that they think masks are dehumanizing. I suspect that there's an association with criminality too.
      - timmytokyo 6y ago
        Ironic, since it's even more dehumanizing to blithely expose another human to a potentially fatal virus.
stubish 6y ago
It depends on the region. This sort of study is still greatly needed in places. Like Australia, where the official statement is: "Surgical masks in the community are only helpful in preventing people who have coronavirus disease from spreading it to others. If you are well, you do not need to wear a surgical mask as there is little evidence supporting the widespread use of surgical masks in healthy people to prevent transmission in public" [ https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-information-on-the-use-of-surgical-masks https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus... ] Check out Australian news sites to see all the maskless people.

coding123 6y ago

Except that everyone stopped wearing masks about two weeks ago.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
For certain narrow classes of everyone.
garmaine 6y ago
In the part of America I live, you cannot enter buildings or public spaces without a mask. Not everyone has the same policies.

DSingularity 6y ago

Until recently wearing masks Was not a CDC guideline

newacct583 6y ago
No one at the CDC (at least no career bureaucrat) ever denied masks were effective, though. It's true that there was concern early on that a public run on masks would put health care workers in jeopardy, so people were absolutely told not to try to procure them. And it's also true that the WHO's messaging on this subject was terribly confusing. But the idea that "Hah! The elites were WRONG about masks!" is just... weird. And doubly so because it's almost always promulgated by a demographic known for... not wearing masks. I mean, seriously: if ("finally!") we're being told to wear masks, I'd expect a genuine mask evangelist to be happy, and to use this to encourage others to wear their masks. But that's not what I hear. It's like it's all a game of political gotcha. It's not. Masks save lives. Wear your mask when you can't stay home.
- gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
  The "career bureaucrats" had every opportunity to make sure people didn't die, and they failed. You can really just go through the list of wrong information offered at precisely the worst time: subways, nursing homes, masks, the relative safety of being outdoors, etc.
  - newacct583 6y ago
    > subways, nursing homes, masks, the relative safety of being outdoors, etc. OK... go through that then? All that stuff seems like areas that have been broadly agreed upon for months. You're going all the way back to March for a bunch of recriminations (some of which I don't understand -- nursing homes were early hot spots and have always been seen so). No one doubts that people got stuff wrong. But that's not a reason to argue against the same people now that they've corrected themselves. I mean... you ARE wearing a mask, right? Right?
- darkteflon 6y ago
  I’m based in Tokyo and one of the most frustrating things for me personally is that ~90% of foreigners (or people who are visibly foreigners) are not wearing masks when out and about. This despite the fact that the Japanese are almost uniformly wearing them. We are, after all, in the middle of a pandemic. Is this down to the WHO’s early messaging fumbles, misplaced machismo, ignorance, or what? When foreigners here don’t wear masks, they should know that the door is then open for Japanese people to lump all of us in together and say: “look, foreigners don’t give a fuck.”
  - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
    All of the people I've discussed it with say that they think masks are dehumanizing. I suspect that there's an association with criminality too.
    - timmytokyo 6y ago
      Ironic, since it's even more dehumanizing to blithely expose another human to a potentially fatal virus.

stubish 6y ago

It depends on the region. This sort of study is still greatly needed in places. Like Australia, where the official statement is: "Surgical masks in the community are only helpful in preventing people who have coronavirus disease from spreading it to others. If you are well, you do not need to wear a surgical mask as there is little evidence supporting the widespread use of surgical masks in healthy people to prevent transmission in public" [ https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-information-on-the-use-of-surgical-masks https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus... ] Check out Australian news sites to see all the maskless people.