Chap wrote: ↑Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:51 pm
subgenius wrote: ↑Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:29 pm
“Right now in the United States people should not be walking around with masks … You should think of healthcare providers who are needing them and the people who are ill.”
Like the man said, that was right THEN, when:
(a) There was a major shortage of masks to protect health workers. On the whole that is no longer the case.
(b) It was not yet clear how major a role masks could play as a means of preventing members of the general population from transmitting the virus to other people.
And your problem is what, exactly?
Any functional adult should understand by now that guidance from the WHO, CDC, and state and local health departments is based on the knowledge available at the time the guidance is issued. Such an adult should also understand that, COVID-19 being a NOVEL coronavirus means that the state of knowledge is changing as we study and learn more about the virus.
Any adult interested in understanding guidance from these organizations should understand the differences among cloth face coverings, medical or surgical masks, and respirators. They should also understand that people sometimes use the term "masks" as a general term that includes the subcategories.
The specific guidance from all of these organizations can be found easily on their respective web sites. I tend to pay the most attention to my local health district, as the advice reflects the current state of the pandemic in my county. I always take a cloth face covering with me when I leave the house, as I can't always anticipate when I might not be able to avoid close contact with another person. If I'm walking, I put it on when I leave the house. If I'm driving, I put it on when I first get out of my car. When I put it on, I make sure it's properly adjusted. Then I never touch it again until I return home. Then, I remove it by touching only the elastic that holds it in place and deposit it in our dirty mask box. It's an easy routine that I no longer have to think about. It reduces the risk of me transmitting the virus, which helps slow the rate of new cases. It might lower my chance of becoming infected, although I don't think that's clear. It doesn't harm me. And it doesn't increase my chance of be coming infected.
If Sub actually posted information in context, we'd hear from him only a couple times a year.