Atomic wrote: ↑Fri May 29, 2020 10:44 am
WHO - “Masks should only be used by health care workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms of fever and cough.”
Link
It's a bit misleading to headline that as "WHO says". "WHO
said" is more accurate.
Although that video is still up on the WHO web site, it's actually almost 3 months old (on the YouTube site it says March 6). The downloadable advice-and-practices document which seems to back it, hasn't been updated since early April... and the document clearly says "interim" advice on the subject, and defers to local practices on mask-wearing where such have been declared by local governments. Neither of these has been updated to reflect newer studies on the virus, or the current state of its spread. The NY Post article neglects to mention that this advice is months old.
In the early days of the epidemic, a lot of organizations (including WHO) didn't encourage the wide-spread wearing of masks, for a number of good reasons. Among them:
- The supply of good medical masks was very limited. It was seen as important to reserve medical masks for those "on the front lines" - health care workers and first responders.
- Masks have to be used (and removed and disposed of) very carefully in order to provide the wearer a real protection against becoming infected.
- Wearing a mask can give a person a false sense of protection, causing the wearer to neglect more-effective protections (social distancing, frequent hand-washing).
We know a good deal more about COVID-19 today, than we did in early March. In particular, we have more accurate information about the rate of "infected, infectious, but asymptomatic" individuals... CDC is saying it looks as if about a third of those infected are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. We also know more about the way it spreads (largely from droplets emitted when sneezing, coughing, talking, or even breathing).
So, these days, there's a renewed focus on wearing masks... not primarily to protect the wearer from becoming infected, but to keep the infected (and often asymptomatic) from spreading the disease to others. Countries where mask-wearing is common, also seem to have a lower rate of community spread of the virus. There's good reason to believe that wide-spread mask wearing (in combination with social distancing and good hygiene) does limit the spread of the virus. Home-made cloth masks are adequate for this - N95 masks aren't necessary.
I don't, personally, wear a mask when I'm out and about in order to protect myself. I depend on social distancing and hand-cleansing to do that. Maybe having a mask on gives me a bit of an edge, but I don't count on it.
I wear a mask when I'm out and about to keep other people safe, in case I have become infected (despite my precautions) and don't know it yet. I'm doing it to protect my neighbors, my friends, and the dozen or hundred strangers I pass when I make one of my infrequent trips to a store.
Yes, it's clumsy, hot, uncomfortable, and my glasses fog up more often than not. That's life.
I don't want to get COVID-19 - I'm old enough to be at elevated risk. I don't want Gwen to get COVID-19 - she's older than I, and has preexisting health conditions which put her at high risk.
But, I especially don't want either of us to go to our grave knowing that our negligence led to somebody else dying, unnecessarily.
That's why I wear a mask.
Yay... 
