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Comment by Joeri | Hacker News Reader

From what I understand the WHO guidance around masks has to do with the shortages on one hand and human behavior on the other hand. People who wear masks behave in a higher risk way, and because the safety benefit from the mask by itself is quite low (without medical training you are likely to use it wrong), statistically it is better to recommend people to not wear masks so they will behave more safely.

It’s a bit like gun ownership: intuitively it makes you safer, but statistically it makes you less safe because of behavioral and opportunity changes.

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According to the Corona expert in South Korea, masks help a great deal. His assumption on why the WHO only recommends masks in Asia and not anywhere else is due to the limited amount of supply anywhere but in Asia. In Asia people like already own masks. Anywhere else people would first need to stock up. Leading to shortages. As such, it's better not to recommend them so medical professionals are prioritized.

It's also interesting that in in Europe/US they focus on a person not getting a disease. In Asia they often wear a masks if the person isn't feeling well. Meaning, the mask is to prevent the person who is wearing it from infecting others. This bit is often glossed over.

The video is available at https://youtu.be/gAk7aX5hksU. I don't know exactly where they discussed the masks. The entire video is great, so suggest to watch the whole thing.

Note: It also talks about spreading by touching your nose and then someone or some surface.

Part of the supply issue is that China effectively nationalized 3M (etc.) mask production there to prevent export to other countries. Now, they are using the surplus to effectively use mask donation as political donations.

Smart move on their part. Guess this risk was not considered when all the outsourcing was going on.

>In Asia people like already own masks.

A mask is a biohazard and should be one-use or sterilised and removed with gloves. If you do that then yes a mask is a help. If not you are playing Russian roulette with a Corona bomb on your face. It is amazing how much energy users on HN use on talking and discussing mask use and still don't understand why a mask used wrongly is worse than no mask. Walking around town collecting germs and bringing them home with you is the mindset you need to be in if masks should be a good idea and safe.

Who says we don't understand?

I get that not everyone has been through both SARS and the wanton deployment of tear gas, but it's just common sense for us to dump everything in the wash and have a thorough shower as soon as we get home.

We waste energy on you deniers because we don't want you to become a walking biohazard yourself and infect everyone else.

Same with bike helmets, kids drive riskier and the statistics proofs it.

Like motorcycle helmets wrong use is worse than no use.

I think your intuition on safety with gun ownership is culturally specific and maybe not the best example...

I think anything Wuhan Health Organization says should be taken with big grain of salt anymore, they are either extremely incompetent or paid by Chinese gov, none of them serves them well

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/487851-china-and-t...

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