3 ms·
I firmly believe that the whole "masks aren't necessary for ordinary people" was not based in any science at all, but because they were next to impossible to fi
by briffle 5y ago
I firmly believe that the whole "masks aren't necessary for ordinary people" was not based in any science at all, but because they were next to impossible to find, and they didn't want a panic.
In my midsize town, with a 600 bed hospital, people (staff, patients, etc) were walking through the ER, and stealing whole boxes of N95 masks off of shelves. The hospital had to move them all to locked cabinets along with the addictive painkillers. They were almost completely out, and not able to get any more.
There were literally states/hospitals organizing a purchase (at insane prices) only to have the feds come and seize the masks and end up with nothing.
- anamax 5y agoYes, medical folk wanted to get masks for medical folk (some of whom even know how to wear them) but "they didn't want a panic" is self-deception. They may have wanted that effect but that was not the likely result of such an announcement. That's because the public health community has been incompetent at best and typically self-defeating at messaging for decades. Unfortunately, pretty much everything other than self-evident statements out of the public health community has been good reason to think that the exact opposite is the right response. In this case, "don't panic" was best interpreted as "things are likely to go south, so urgent action is probably a good idea". "hey, don't hoard masks, we don't have enough for medical personnel" would have been more effective. As to the feds seizing masks, that was mostly the public health community doing the seizing.