Monday, April 20, 2020

Health authorities flip-flop on face masks

Face Masks in a COVID-19 World: To Wear or Not to Wear? By Dr. Michael Szabo - Come Back Alive:
"Should we wear a face mask when out in public right now? It’s a question many people have since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its new recommendation that people wear face masks when leaving their homes. Canada’s chief public health officer has echoed the recommendation.

"There is confusion because the CDC and the Public Health Agency of Canada had initially suggested that face masks not be worn in public. The flip-flop in recommendations has triggered many questions."
Read more: https://www.inglegroups.com/cba/en/resource/view/9693

The CDC's Revised Face Mask Advice Is Based on Information That Was Available Months Ago | Reason - Jacob Sullum:
April 6, 2020 - "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its advice concerning face masks and COVID-19 last week, telling us to 'cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others.' The CDC had previously said that 'if you are NOT sick, you do not need to wear a facemask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a facemask).'

"The official justification for this shift is that the CDC suddenly realized people can transmit the COVID-19 virus even when they do not feel sick. Yet that is something we have known for months.

"'Here's what's changed,' Surgeon General Jerome Adams claimed on Meet the Press yesterday. 'We now know that about 25%, in some studies even more, of COVID-19 is transmitted when you are asymptomatic or presymptomatic.' While that particular estimate, which CDC Director Robert Redfield began floating on March 31, is relatively new, it has been clear at least since February that people can carry the virus for days before they develop symptoms and that some carriers never feel ill.....

"A January 30 letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, based on several cases in Germany, warned that 'asymptomatic persons are potential sources of [COVID-19] infection.' A February 13 letter to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases estimated that 31 percent of people infected by the COVID-19 virus do not have symptoms.... A February 26 Global Biosecurity report noted that 'asymptomatic transmission has been documented' and 'the viral load in symptomatic and asymptomatic people is not significantly different.' A report from the World Health Organization published around the same time nevertheless depicted asymptomatic infection as rare....

"'Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS!' Adams tweeted on February 29. 'They are NOT effective in preventing [the] general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!'

"By that point, it was clear that transmission by asymptomatic or presymptomatic carriers was playing an important role in the pandemic. Now Adams wants us to believe no one knew that until last week. The misguided advice from Adams and the CDC needlessly endangered people who could have benefited from the precautions they are belatedly recommending."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/04/06/the-cdcs-revised-face-mask-advice-is-based-on-information-that-was-available-months-ago/

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