Comment by piokoch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by piokoch | Hacker News Reader

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It is not that WHO is lying, it can be misinformed or just do not know something. Previous global epidemic happened over 100 years ago, so I don't blame them for lack of knowledge.

We all have to learn and try new things, so if WHO says "mask are not helping" while there are evidences (maybe just correlation, but we just don't know for now!) that in some countries masks seems to help we should ask WHO if they are really sure. BTW: the fact that WHO pretends that Taiwan does not exists does not help investigating masks/no masks question.

"Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing" - sure, the problem is that even if someone breaths normally, talks normally can spread the virus. The problem with the coronavirus is that it has long incubation time. Someone might spread virus without having any symptoms.

My masks protects someone else, not me (unless I am wearing some pro stuff), as I am not spreading virus 2 meters around me, but 50 cm - maybe this is not that much, but in case of something that spreads according to power laws it might be a visible factor.

So the WHO doesn't know but some random techies on a forum do? That's absurd.

Some random techies on a forum, as well as East Asian governments and medical experts. But hey, what do they know.

But it's not an East Asian government or a medical expert who made the website that started this thread, is it? It's fasteddie31003, whose HN profile reads "Software engineer in San Francisco."

Leave the medical advice to medical experts, just as you expect the medical experts to keep their mouths shut about the advantages of Rust over Go or whether Vue is the right choice in 2020.

You mean like [0][1][2]?

[0] http://www.chinacdc.cn/yyrdgz/202001/t20200123_211390.html

[1] https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/health-advice.html

[2] http://www.cdc.go.kr/index.es?sid=a2

Well I can't judge [0] and [2] for rather obvious reasons, but [1] would have been a much better link than what was posted, and it has a much more differentiated views on masks. The website that started this thread is plain bad. The Hong Kong page [1] contradicts OP's site in its recommendation of N95 masks ("N95 respirators are generally not recommended for use by the general public in community settings because special training is required for proper wearing and removal of the mask. Otherwise the infective risk due to inadequate protection and contamination may be ironically increased." [1] vs "N95 masks are better than surgical masks" on the OP's site).

Then there's stuff like "Going in public without a mask in a pandemic is like riding a motorcycle without a helmet." That's bad because it implies that surgical masks protect you, but all the information by actual experts seems to say that they generally don't, and that their primary purpose is to prevent the spread of the infection by people who don't know they have it.

I mean, the page even admits that "We only have anecdotal research at this point" on the efficacy of masks. Yet the headline claim, "Western countries are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 infections compared to Asian countries because of the West's aversion to wearing masks", implies direct causation between mask wearing and infection rates. Why should anyone trust someone who makes such elementary mistakes?

We need the computer people (myself included, obviously) to keep doing the computer things and leave giving medical advice to the medical experts. The OP's website is bad and they should take it down.

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