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Comment by electriclove | Hacker News Reader

Don't forget the mask shaming that was perpetuated in the US.

I suspect it will be shown that disposable $0.50 N95 masks are largely effective and that the US population was deliberately misled about their effectiveness because the country has no way to provide such masks not only to the general public but to healthcare workers.

Agree, but it's not so cut and dry. https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/23/face-masks-much-more-t...

edit: speaking of cut and dry..men should be clean-shaven to ensure snug fit.

Interesting preface.

In the UK we were told that masks were simply not effective, there was no need for them, they would not hinder the spread of infection.

Similarly with closing schools: "the gov has this special plan that uses herd immunity, you idiot, so we don't need to close schools" [actually it's always "Boris has a plan", I can't understand why -- if it's the PM's plan then it's probably entirely ignorant of all the facts ...].

Anyway, yeah, the argument wasn't that

>"[we] disagree on whether surgical masks alone help prevent the wearer from becoming infected" [from your link]

it was "masks of any kind are ineffective".

And we bloody well know that just the effectiveness of masks in preventing spread from infected patients makes them worthwhile. It's simply maths that 1 infected who spreads to 1 more is more than 1 infected spreading to zero more.

I wonder if there was a lie of omission by the health professionals: "N95 Masks won't help the spread [because the general public will touch their face without washing their hands after removing the mask, thus masking the mask a moot point]" ~ the brackets representing the "lie of omission" part. I honestly don't know, just wondering out loud...

That, and I think disposable nitrile type gloves are way underplayed as well. They're easy to remove inside-out, limiting exposure when disposing. I remove one to get into the car (clean hand on handle), get inside, hold empty glove in other gloved hand, and pull second glove over first glove to contain it. Probably saw this on ER or some show years ago.

If you're going to be that fatalist, you may as well say "there is no preventing COVID-19" because everyone will touch their face without washing their hands.

No, assume people can follow instructions and disseminate the truth, not a revised version of the truth, or you risk credibility as clearly has been damaged on the CDC's part. There are dire consequences when a public health authority has no authority anymore due to lying.

You’ll still get looks for wearing a mask. It’s ridiculous.

Have you considered that people are looking at you not because they want to shame you, but because they're trying to determine if you're sick and they should be extra careful around you, e.g. don't touch anything you've touched, etc?

If the guidance so far has been to only wear a mask if you're sick, it seems reasonable to assume that someone wearing a mask is more likely to be sick than average.

Most of these people are passersby on the street who would have no opportunity to touch something I've touched.

I heard from someone who wore a mask recently who was flat-out told, "You're overreacting." It's not just caution, there is some kind of social insistence that the masks are not necessary and even to be discouraged, which I even sense in myself when I'm out and about without a mask and see others wearing them. It's natural for whatever reason, but we should be cognizant that it's just better than if people don't have protection enough to fight that tendency.

I think it has to do with their (incorrect) assessment of the situation. Rather than reevaluate their assessment (as that would increase their anxiety), they rationalize your assessment as overreaction.

Yet another example of the bullying culture of the US.

It is not an airborne infection.

Only in the sense that "airborne" is a scientific medical term meaning larger than 0.5 µm. When most people hear "airborne" they think it means "in the air", which the virus certainly is. The use of this terminology in the strict scientific sense when speaking to general audiences is borderline irresponsible.

I think it's because of cognitive dissonance. The combination of "I don't have a mask" and "masks are helpful" is painful.

People have implicit or explicit reactions to things. Not trying to down play your experience here (your experience is still valid), but they probably are not intentionally thinking or making a face. It's probably because this is new to them and not something they usually experience, so they do a double take and end up with a stare. I've done this will people wearing gloves recently, even though after 2 seconds of thinking about it I know there's rationale behind it.

Try not to presume people are so quick to judge, rather that people are just feeling whatever they feel instinctively, and it is what it is. They probably don't even know why they feel what they do, it's just bad intuition not ignorance.

Often I am the only one wearing a mask in the whole grocery store. Munich, 1300 infections. One infected for couple city blocks.

Well, I am in the Midwest and there is hardly anything going on here, so yeah, wearing a mask would be kind of out of place. Anyways, I basically stay away from people anyhow.

Our hospitals here are all losing money waiting for a crowd that may never arrive. Kids are silly miserable. We're losing our way of life and our nation to mass hysteria and we need to be strong instead.

If there really is "hardly anything going on here", that's the perfect time for a lockdown in your locality. The whole cause of this mess was an understated and late reaction to the signs that there was a problem.

There is no clear way to be strong. If we quarantine, which we've started to do, but could continue, people may starve. If we don't, an equal or greater number of people may die from the disease. It's wrong to say that having a lockdown isn't strength, though, since it is something you can't do without strong resources backing your nation.

> Our hospitals here are all losing money waiting for a crowd that may never arrive.

Wow! You are in a better situation than most of the rest of the world. What is there to complain about?

> Kids are silly miserable.

Oh. That's awful. We should definitely let people die to prevent that.

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