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It always baffled me that the US government had a program to send everyone free COVID tests, but they didn’t have a program to send everyone free N95 masks, so

It always baffled me that the US government had a program to send everyone free COVID tests, but they didn’t have a program to send everyone free N95 masks, so we ended up wearing random materials that were far less effective. With all of the mandates to wear a mask everywhere I at least would have liked to wear one that worked well. You would have thought if they could produce 6 free tests per household per month, they could produce 6 free N95 masks per household per month.

baryphonic 2y ago
I guess Big Pharma was better at using lobbying dollars than Big Mask.
addicted 2y ago
That’s because the U.S. population was strongly against masks. In the beginning the US public was strongly in favor of the vaccines. In fact the complaints were around the delay in vaccine availability and the way the rich and powerful could access them earlier. It was only in late 2021 where certain people realized vaccine skepticism was lucrative and the Republicans needed something to rile up their base for the upcoming elections did vaccine skepticism become a thing.
- padjo 2y ago
  It’s truly insane that vaccine deniers are now voting for Trump, when he was the one to take credit for them in the first place (and perhaps with some small justification!)
  - HumblyTossed 2y ago
    These people have been exposed to too much PFAS or something. It's messed up their logical thinking capabilities.
- wannacboatmovie 2y ago
  > It was only in late 2021 where certain people realized vaccine skepticism was lucrative and the Republicans needed something to rile up their base for the upcoming elections did vaccine skepticism become a thing. This is revisionist history. I remember many Democrats being staunchly anti-"Trump's rushed vaccine" and it was only when their party came into power did they turn into human pincushions nearly overnight, "believing in science" and not being able to get enough jabs into them. The vaccines, of course, were one and the same.
  - kmlx 2y ago
    yes, i remember this: https://time.com/5887777/rushed-vaccine-democrats-republicans/ https://time.com/5887777/rushed-vaccine-democrats-republican...
    - wannacboatmovie 2y ago
      Thank you for finding this! > Unsurprisingly, the degree to which Americans are concerned about the President’s influence rushing the vaccine process falls along political lines. About 85% of Democrats and 61% of independents said they were concerned, compared to 35% of Republicans, according to the Kaiser poll.
      - viraptor 2y ago
        This doesn't really match up with your original message. The issues raised on dem side were usually about the process/promises of rushing it, not any the vaccine itself. The specific worry is mentioned at the end of the article and it did come true - the myth of untested vaccine is still alive. There's a big difference between anti-"Trump's rushed vaccine" and anti-"Trump rushing vaccine".
      - silverquiet 2y ago
        And yet that seems to have changed since the article referenced above was published. > After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate gap between Republican and Democratic voters widened from -0.9 percentage point (95% PI, -2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis; the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters. The gap in excess death rates between Republican and Democratic voters was larger in counties with lower vaccination rates and was primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37486680/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37486680/
- tomp 2y ago
  You mixed up parties a bit. Democrats were criticising Trump for rushing the vaccine, and flaming vaccine scepticism, helped by mainstream media. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2671R8/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2671R8/ September 17, 20201 Democrat Biden warns against rushing out coronavirus vaccine, says Trump cannot be trusted
  - lamontcg 2y ago
    > and flaming vaccine scepticism Not exactly. > Biden, who leads the president in national opinion polls, has questioned whether Trump is pressuring agencies like the FDA to sign off on a vaccine to boost his re-election prospects. At the same time, Biden has been careful to say he wants to see a safe vaccine as soon as possible. > "There has to be total transparency, so scientists outside the government know what is being approved," Biden said. "I’m saying, trust the scientist." "Trust the scientist" != "flaming vaccine skepticism"
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  On any issue some percent of the population will be contrarian. This is why there's much less resistance if policies are heavily encouraged instead of trying to punish dissenters. At the point where x issue becomes part of the culture war concensus becomes impossible.
- ksherlock 2y ago
  You know what else happened in late 2021? Vaccine mandates in the US (and Canada). In the US, there were two - the first, via OSHA, affected all employers with > 100 employees. Employees would need to be vaccinated or tested weekly and required to wear a mask. This was overturned by the Supreme Court. The second, via CMMS required vaccinations for all health care employees if Medicare or Medicaid money is involved. SCOTUS allowed that one.
- chrismcb 2y ago
  Maybe it has something to do with the the medical factors in government, like Dr Fauci telling us not to wear masks. It maybe it was all if the prior research that shows that masks fit the last person were mostly ineffective.
Someone1234 2y ago
They did have that program: https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1483831305448173578 https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1483831305448173578 I personally received free masks. However, it was too late. It was mostly early COVID when the masks were most needed and not available. Even the strategic stockpile essentially ran out after distributing them to vital areas. By the time they had enough to give them away, everyone had multiple masks of various qualities.
- silisili 2y ago
  I didn't even realize they did that, interesting. Sadly, two years late and not even nearly enough if it was on time. Kinda telling and depressing that everyone was ordering random knockoffs of varying quality from overseas, because we couldn't seem to produce enough domestically.
- beams_of_light 2y ago
  How would one even work toward positive results with leadership doing things like this? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-white-house-made-deliberate-efforts-undermine-covid-response-report-n1286211 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-white-house-...
dwighttk 2y ago
A) they did have that program eventually B) money doesn’t magically turn into materials and finished goods. Someone had to make masks to distribute and they had to get their raw materials from somewhere right when the supply chain was disrupted.
bee_rider 2y ago
N95s were in short supply for quite a while, and a result from this work is that cloth masks outperformed surgical and KN95s. People made pretty good cloth masks, so unless real N95s were distributed, distributing masks could have been a wash I think. I’m not surprised that cloth beat surgical, but beating KN95 is kind of a shock. Of course, I’m sure there was quite a bit of variance in cloth mask quality. I wonder if anyone has done specifically a study on the home made cloth masks.
hnbad 2y ago
Problem is probably that the masks are supposed to be single-use when used as protection and you're meant to replace them even when moving between different places. You're also not meant to wear them for extended periods of time because they supposedly get less effective when they get wet from the moisture of the air you exhale. They also aren't washable so you would need to dispose of them after use.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  The coronavirus particles are so small they go right through the filter so N95 masks have special fibers that use electrostatic charge to bind them. The electrostatic filter doesn't work effectively when damp, eg after prolonged exposure to humid breath. There's an incredible amount of engineering that goes into PPE.
wannacboatmovie 2y ago
Because there was a massive shortage and they were being rationed for healthcare workers? Am I the only one that remembers collection drives for masks for doctors and nurses?
huygens6363 2y ago
There weren’t nearly enough of those to go around. Even medical staff had trouble procuring these.
DiogenesKynikos 2y ago
The other baffling thing was how long it took cheap Covid antigen tests to reach the US market. In Europe, 1 Euro antigen tests were widely available, while in the US, they could easily cost more than $10 and were difficult to find. At 1 Euro a test, you could easily test yourself every morning before heading to work or school.

baryphonic 2y ago

I guess Big Pharma was better at using lobbying dollars than Big Mask.

addicted 2y ago

That’s because the U.S. population was strongly against masks. In the beginning the US public was strongly in favor of the vaccines. In fact the complaints were around the delay in vaccine availability and the way the rich and powerful could access them earlier. It was only in late 2021 where certain people realized vaccine skepticism was lucrative and the Republicans needed something to rile up their base for the upcoming elections did vaccine skepticism become a thing.

padjo 2y ago
It’s truly insane that vaccine deniers are now voting for Trump, when he was the one to take credit for them in the first place (and perhaps with some small justification!)
- HumblyTossed 2y ago
  These people have been exposed to too much PFAS or something. It's messed up their logical thinking capabilities.
wannacboatmovie 2y ago
> It was only in late 2021 where certain people realized vaccine skepticism was lucrative and the Republicans needed something to rile up their base for the upcoming elections did vaccine skepticism become a thing. This is revisionist history. I remember many Democrats being staunchly anti-"Trump's rushed vaccine" and it was only when their party came into power did they turn into human pincushions nearly overnight, "believing in science" and not being able to get enough jabs into them. The vaccines, of course, were one and the same.
- kmlx 2y ago
  yes, i remember this: https://time.com/5887777/rushed-vaccine-democrats-republicans/ https://time.com/5887777/rushed-vaccine-democrats-republican...
  - wannacboatmovie 2y ago
    Thank you for finding this! > Unsurprisingly, the degree to which Americans are concerned about the President’s influence rushing the vaccine process falls along political lines. About 85% of Democrats and 61% of independents said they were concerned, compared to 35% of Republicans, according to the Kaiser poll.
    - viraptor 2y ago
      This doesn't really match up with your original message. The issues raised on dem side were usually about the process/promises of rushing it, not any the vaccine itself. The specific worry is mentioned at the end of the article and it did come true - the myth of untested vaccine is still alive. There's a big difference between anti-"Trump's rushed vaccine" and anti-"Trump rushing vaccine".
    - silverquiet 2y ago
      And yet that seems to have changed since the article referenced above was published. > After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate gap between Republican and Democratic voters widened from -0.9 percentage point (95% PI, -2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis; the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters. The gap in excess death rates between Republican and Democratic voters was larger in counties with lower vaccination rates and was primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37486680/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37486680/
tomp 2y ago
You mixed up parties a bit. Democrats were criticising Trump for rushing the vaccine, and flaming vaccine scepticism, helped by mainstream media. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2671R8/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2671R8/ September 17, 20201 Democrat Biden warns against rushing out coronavirus vaccine, says Trump cannot be trusted
- lamontcg 2y ago
  > and flaming vaccine scepticism Not exactly. > Biden, who leads the president in national opinion polls, has questioned whether Trump is pressuring agencies like the FDA to sign off on a vaccine to boost his re-election prospects. At the same time, Biden has been careful to say he wants to see a safe vaccine as soon as possible. > "There has to be total transparency, so scientists outside the government know what is being approved," Biden said. "I’m saying, trust the scientist." "Trust the scientist" != "flaming vaccine skepticism"
throwaway48476 2y ago
On any issue some percent of the population will be contrarian. This is why there's much less resistance if policies are heavily encouraged instead of trying to punish dissenters. At the point where x issue becomes part of the culture war concensus becomes impossible.
ksherlock 2y ago
You know what else happened in late 2021? Vaccine mandates in the US (and Canada). In the US, there were two - the first, via OSHA, affected all employers with > 100 employees. Employees would need to be vaccinated or tested weekly and required to wear a mask. This was overturned by the Supreme Court. The second, via CMMS required vaccinations for all health care employees if Medicare or Medicaid money is involved. SCOTUS allowed that one.
chrismcb 2y ago
Maybe it has something to do with the the medical factors in government, like Dr Fauci telling us not to wear masks. It maybe it was all if the prior research that shows that masks fit the last person were mostly ineffective.

Someone1234 2y ago

They did have that program: https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1483831305448173578 https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1483831305448173578 I personally received free masks. However, it was too late. It was mostly early COVID when the masks were most needed and not available. Even the strategic stockpile essentially ran out after distributing them to vital areas. By the time they had enough to give them away, everyone had multiple masks of various qualities.

silisili 2y ago
I didn't even realize they did that, interesting. Sadly, two years late and not even nearly enough if it was on time. Kinda telling and depressing that everyone was ordering random knockoffs of varying quality from overseas, because we couldn't seem to produce enough domestically.
beams_of_light 2y ago
How would one even work toward positive results with leadership doing things like this? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-white-house-made-deliberate-efforts-undermine-covid-response-report-n1286211 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-white-house-...

dwighttk 2y ago

A) they did have that program eventually B) money doesn’t magically turn into materials and finished goods. Someone had to make masks to distribute and they had to get their raw materials from somewhere right when the supply chain was disrupted.

bee_rider 2y ago

N95s were in short supply for quite a while, and a result from this work is that cloth masks outperformed surgical and KN95s. People made pretty good cloth masks, so unless real N95s were distributed, distributing masks could have been a wash I think. I’m not surprised that cloth beat surgical, but beating KN95 is kind of a shock. Of course, I’m sure there was quite a bit of variance in cloth mask quality. I wonder if anyone has done specifically a study on the home made cloth masks.

hnbad 2y ago

Problem is probably that the masks are supposed to be single-use when used as protection and you're meant to replace them even when moving between different places. You're also not meant to wear them for extended periods of time because they supposedly get less effective when they get wet from the moisture of the air you exhale. They also aren't washable so you would need to dispose of them after use.

throwaway48476 2y ago
The coronavirus particles are so small they go right through the filter so N95 masks have special fibers that use electrostatic charge to bind them. The electrostatic filter doesn't work effectively when damp, eg after prolonged exposure to humid breath. There's an incredible amount of engineering that goes into PPE.

wannacboatmovie 2y ago

Because there was a massive shortage and they were being rationed for healthcare workers? Am I the only one that remembers collection drives for masks for doctors and nurses?

huygens6363 2y ago

There weren’t nearly enough of those to go around. Even medical staff had trouble procuring these.

DiogenesKynikos 2y ago

The other baffling thing was how long it took cheap Covid antigen tests to reach the US market. In Europe, 1 Euro antigen tests were widely available, while in the US, they could easily cost more than $10 and were difficult to find. At 1 Euro a test, you could easily test yourself every morning before heading to work or school.