Remember when the CDC said wearing a mask would not protect you from the Coronavirus

[npk]

Then after several months, after thousands of people a day were dying, they then tell everyone to wear a mask when in public. I can't help but wonder how many thousands of people died needlessly because of this terrible advice. We now know that one of the big reasons many countries have limited the amount of cases and deaths, in Taiwan for the example, is because people began wearing masks very earlier in the outbreak. But the CDC and the tRump brain brigade led by Fauci and Brix repeatedly told Americans to stop buying masks, because (a) you didn't need them, (b) it wouldn't stop you from catching the Coronavirus, and (c) you were depleting the supply chain that medical professionals needed. Well perhaps if we would have gotten out in front of this pandemic back in January and started mass producing masks and told Americans to wear them when they were out in public, our doctors and nurses would not have been so inundated with so many sick people as they are now.

Such a tragedy of misinformation from people we trusted in this country.

SMH

[Budi]

1. Oh, and bleach too!. This tragedy of chaos, confusion is totally by design.

As I see it.

It's astonishing how Trump admin will lie with such ease as American citizens die by the thousands.
They have done absolutely nothing to prevent this spread. In fact they seem to be encouraging it.

[Phoenix61]

2. How do you know masks had anything to do

with it? Those are the same countries that had massive testing, contact tracing, quarantine for those infected etc. I’m sure the masks help but they are just a small piece of the whole approach.

[npk]

6. I don't know

I am not a medical professional. That's why I and others trusted those in this country that are medical professionals to not give contradictory statements on so many important safety precautions. It's not just the masks, you are right, it's everything else we were late on. Social distancing, sheltering in place, closing non-essential businesses. But why tell Americans that there is no need to wear a mask back in March and then almost a month and a half later reverse course and tell people, all people, that have to go out in public to wear a mask. Do you not see how this causes people to stop listening to the people that are supposed to be in charge and in the know. How many people walked into their local grocery back in early March for example without a mask, because they were told that you only needed to wear one if you were showing symptoms? How many of those people, on that poor advice, might have gotten sick? If they had been wearing a mask it might have protected them.

Not saying it is 100% guarantee that the mask stops the illness, doctors state it can obviously enter through the eyes as well, but still it is more common for the virus to enter through the mouth and nose. And it is always better to take as many precautions as possible. Again like a lot of other countries have done.

As for the testing failure in our country, that was a total shit show.

[CrispyQ]

3. In my area, it seems like fewer people are wearing masks now than just a few weeks ago.

I wonder if all the talk in the media about relaxing shelter-in-place in some states has made a difference? Or maybe it's just the nicer weather?

[LAS14]

4. Something's broken at the CDC, for sure. But it was a while before they discovered...

... how good it was at airborne transmission. Even after they discovered it, I'm glad they didn't urge all 330 million Americans to grab up the PPE that health care workers were in desperate need of.

[Igel]

9. Most things that truly suck in hindsight

seemed perfectly reasonable at the time.

Set up an experiment to ask one group of people to predict the best course of action given various scenarios and they pick what they think is best. Often not different from just random guesses.

Ask others to evaluate their decisions based on knowledge of what happened, and everybody says the only reasonable course of action was obvious and only idiots miss it. Give that group a set of circumstances and ask them what should be done (from a set of options) and they make predictions. Often not different from just random guesses.

Give a third group the same situations and outcomes, and they don't understand how the dumbasses in the second group could fail to see the best way out.

It's hard to suspend judgment and sort out what was and wasn't known at a given time in the past, along with all the competing concerns. The more emotional investment now, the harder that task, and the harder it is to not project into the past knowledge and understanding that came later.

I still like how polls conducted about how people voted in elections for Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Johnson, JFK. These weren't exit polls, these were done years later, after the politicians' popularity waned or increased. After JFK had been dead for a decade, more people were alive that voted for him than there were votes cast. Nixon apparently stole the election, because fewer voted for him than there were votes, and the same for Reagan--except that earlier more had voted for each than there were votes.

The researchers' amusement was evident. People revised history, and remembered voting for a president when the president became popular, whatever their actual vote; people remembered voting for his opponent when the president became unpopular.

[LAS14]

17. Good post. Fascinating about people's memories of their earlier votes!! nt

[Ms. Toad]

5. It's the gift that keeps on giving -

It is one of the two most frequent retorts when I speak to my friends and relatives who are refusing to wear a mask: They are worthless, and perhaps even harmful.

It was a stupid lie to tell - that predictably backfired (and will continue to cause deaths in the future by emboldening those who are already not inclined to wear masks.

The crisis they were tring to avert was monumental - but temporary; by spreading this lie they perpetuated a permanent excuse to avoid wearing masks becuase the science didn't change between their earlier annouuncements (they are worthless) and now (everyone shoudl wear one).

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. IIRC.....the fact it was airborne was not known at first.

I distinctly remember reading the discovery that people were positive who had not been in contact with the meat market area or with anyone who had it, then a bit later the announcement it was airborne, coughing or sneezing was bad but not the only method of distribution.
thus the change of mind about masks for the public.

In my lil rural town, we still have some people roaming around in clusters, no masks, but most are wearing masks, as of a few days ao.
Traffic has increased on the roads, tho. and the dumb gov. is opening up things like hair cut places.
Hard to get a haircut in a mask.

[Ms. Toad]

18. It was known a long time before they changed their advice about masks. n/t

[totodeinhere]

7. This is a new virus and we are learning more about it all the time.

The information that the CDC let out was based on the best knowledge they had at the time. Then as we learn more their advice changed. And even now they are saying that masks are to protect others from us. They are not so much to protect us from others. The virus is small enough to pass through most masks unless they are N95 grade.

[npk]

12. It just feels like we dropped the ball on masks

I also wonder how much pressure from tRump and his goons played into shaping those early guidelines from the CDC and other other Health organizations. We all know tRump downplayed this response when he had lots of credible information from other countries that were battling the pandemic sooner than we were in the US. In my opinion tRump may have influenced, either directly or indirectly, the CDC acting quicker to reshape those guidelines because tRump didn't want to see Americans walking around in masks. Not a good image for tRump I guess.

Also the idea that masks don't provide any benefit and that the CDC had no way of knowing that is just false. While the coronavirus may be new, SARS and other respiratory illnesses that led to pandemics are certainly not new. And countries that dealt with the SARS pandemic learned very much so the effectiveness of having all of their people wearing masks while out in public.

[totodeinhere]

15. The earlier advice from the CDC was no different then what other organizations

in other countries like the U.K. were saying. I just do not see a conspiracy here

[GeorgeGist]

16. More likely the downplay was to protect PPE supplies for healthcare workers.

[kimbutgar]

8. I just saw a large billboard on the freeway yesterday and it said wear masks save lives

The ad said it was paid by for the CDC.

Of course this was near the SFO airport. So maybe It was from out state government.

[KentuckyWoman]

10. Even worse...

boneheads are using old advice to justify not wearing them now. Of course these are the exact same boneheads who cherry pick from the Bible to justify being bigoted assholes too.

[AlexSFCA]

11. initially the main route of transmission was through droplets - any mask would help

Last edited Sun May 3, 2020, 02:13 PM - Edit history (1)

if we had all started wearing masks since February like in Taiwan or Hong Kong, we wouldn’t have to be on lockdown indefinitely. CDC and Fauci failed miserably on this. I now prefer to hear what South Korean CDC says, they are far more successful in combating the pandemic and testing.
Just a few days ago they came out with a statement that the possibility of reinfection is “negligible to none”. We seem to be always a month or two late on everything. Now CDC wants us to wait until there is more evidence of immunity before we test for antibodies. You simply cannot wait in a pandemic, you do things while collect evidence, this is the whole point of FDA’s EUA. Guess what? Abbott’s antibody tests is now approved in EU, not emergency use but l blown approval.

[npk]

13. Exactly +1000

I am sadly having to get a lot of my information from our countries health organizations. The US health organizations can no longer be trusted as far as I am concerned.