More importantly, how’s it block the inhalation of covid?
Quarantines and lockdowns are good old tested ways, but infeasible for prolonged periods of time. Having everyone wear a mask and drastically reduce the spread was such a no brainer I never understood all the panic around it.
From the 'less selfish' segment, yes, but not from each other.
But wouldn't that also protect the unselfish?
(Though I must admit, having accidentally bought a few of the valved ones early on in the pandemic, I found that the exhale valve actually meant my warm breath didn't heat the mask & my face quite as much, which was really nice for me as I suffer from hyperhidrosis - excessive facial sweating - but I stuck with using non-valved masks since I'm much less at risk than various friends and family members are.)
Then there were obvious propaganda lies surrounding masks. One was that soldiers wear them- and i was a soldier, with a abc-mask and we "trained" marching with them and unscrewed them to get some air. Then some other world-unaware office worker suggested using them in freezers and cooled environments- which basically boils down to waterboarding yourself with condensing air-moisture. Good idea, pushed by panicy people into bad policy, communicated badly, resulting in massive resistance.
If you can, there’s absolutely no reason to force other people to mask anyway & you get the same benefit. That’s the ideal situation for everyone.
Until the reaction is along the lines of "we're so afraid that people shouldn't be allowed to protect themselves": https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections...
Why can't "you" force people to wear masks? Depending on exactly who you mean by "you" (the particular poster, an abstract actor (individual or organization), etc.), what you say could be true to mostly false.
I think a good chunk of it was the CDC randomly changing its recommendations with no real explanation.
At the beginning of the pandemic in the US, from January to May of 2020, there was a big campaign by the CDC to discourage people from wearing masks. I remember seeing various guest "medical experts" on the news claiming that people who wore masks were actually MORE LIKELY to contract COVID. At the same time, virtually every other country was encouraging or mandating masking.
Then June of 2020 came around, masks quickly became encouraged and then mandated. Fauci only made vague and nonsensical statements like "the science changed!" and "we're moving at the speed of science!" to explain the abrupt change in policy. As if there was ever any scientific data to suggest that COVID-19 was not capable of airborne transmission or that masks wouldn't help limit said transmission.
I get that there was a shortage of masks early on and the CDC was probably just trying to prevent panic buying (which occurred anyway, there were N95s selling on amazon for $40 per mask). The ridiculous claim that "masks make you more likely to get COVID" followed by a sudden requirement to wear said "COVID causing" masks completely destroyed public confidence and fueled all kinds of conspiracy theories.
It's obvious that masks help if they're worn correctly, but the uncertainty was around the question of whether the general public would actually wear them properly. In hindsight, it seems obvious that mask-wearing should have been encouraged from day 1, but it somehow wasn't initially clear.
One problem, I think, might be the emphasis on controlled randomized trials (RCT) in medicine, which are not always appropriate. Think of running an RCT on whether parachutes prevent death when falling from planes. We understand the physical mechanism underlying parachutes, so we know mechanistically why they prevent death from falling. Covid is a respiratory virus. Masks physically filter the virus out of the air you breathe in and out. You don't need a study to know that if worn correctly, they will reduce transmission. The real question is how to teach and encourage the public to wear masks properly, not whether masks work in principle.
I can see a logic that goes: we don’t know if masks help yet. Therefore, if you decide to wear a mask, keep that in mind, and continue to follow the distancing guidelines. Also, be careful when donning and doffing your mask, as you are likely to accidentally touch your face at that point.
This is the advice I remember from reading stuff. But, I could definitely imagine people trying to “dumb it down” on TV and coming up with “maybe masks will harm more than hurt.” As a public policy, given the data available at the time that seemed plausible.
Unfortunately everybody’s a pundit on TV, so they might discuss public policy and personal advice (as well as their speculation about how people will feel about public policy, completing the media ouroboros) in one sentence and mix them all up.
Not sure what the fix is, maybe the CDC needs a more active media department to keep on this stuff. In particular, panicking people seem to want to see how these decisions are made. Have every interview be about the error bars, bookended with the current advice, which is just stay far apart.
It also helps that N95 masks tend to have better nosewires for fit, and specify real head straps, which makes them practically more dependable than some masks like most KF94s.
Not trying to be snarky, tbh that is more important to me personally, too... but probably not in the broader sense...