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The rationale that they gave at the time was that they feared people would buy up all the masks leaving hospitals undersupplied, and that people would think tha
by jryb 6y ago
The rationale that they gave at the time was that they feared people would buy up all the masks leaving hospitals undersupplied, and that people would think that wearing a mask meant that you wouldn't also need to distance yourself from others.
- yostrovs 6y agoAt the time, the rationale given was that masks don't work. The idea that people would go to Home Depot to buy up all the existing masks was a nonsense excuse later provided, since hospitals have their own supply mechanisms. Hoarding of toilet paper by the public did not cause a toilet paper shortage within hospitals.
- reducesuffering 6y agoI'll let the US Surgeon General's words speak for themselves. Note that he has since deleted his tweet; I wonder why? "Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk! https://t.co/UxZRwxxKL9 https://t.co/UxZRwxxKL9" — U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) February 29, 2020[0] Deleted tweet[1] [0]https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/health/face-masks-coronavirus-surgeon-general-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/health/face-masks-coronavirus... [1]https://twitter.com/surgeon_general/status/1233725785283932160 https://twitter.com/surgeon_general/status/12337257852839321...