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How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
11–20 of 309 posts
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#12The mask guidance is confusing as well. I get they are trying to preserve masks for medical staff. But, they also say it's mainly spread by coughing, sneezing, and resulting spray of bodily fluids. Surely even a scarf around your face would have some benefit? Yes, I get that the virus is small enough to pass through, but some deflection is better than none.
Agreed. The US surgeon general lied to the population about the efficacy of masks to try to preserve them for healthcare workers. It would have been better to ask people to preserve N95 for healthcare workers and instead improvise their own. Any reduction in droplet transmission is going to drop the R0 of this and help flatten the curve.
As an alternative see Hong Kong, where they are encouraging the population to improvise masks: https://www.consumer.org.hk/ws_en/news/specials/2020/mask-di...
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#13The mask guidance is confusing as well. I get they are trying to preserve masks for medical staff. But, they also say it's mainly spread by coughing, sneezing, and resulting spray of bodily fluids. Surely even a scarf around your face would have some benefit? Yes, I get that the virus is small enough to pass through, but some deflection is better than none.
"Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired: To help manage the shortage, the authorities sent a message that made them untrustworthy."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-...
And some data back from SARS: "Always wearing a mask when going out was associated with a 70% reduction in risk compared with never wearing a mask. Wearing a mask intermittently was associated with a smaller yet significant reduction in risk."
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/2/03-0730_article
I saw a lot of people sanctimoniously talking about fit tests in normal healthcare settings as if an imperfect fit dropped effectiveness immediately down to 0% from 100%.
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#14[deleted]
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#15The mask guidance is confusing as well. I get they are trying to preserve masks for medical staff. But, they also say it's mainly spread by coughing, sneezing, and resulting spray of bodily fluids. Surely even a scarf around your face would have some benefit? Yes, I get that the virus is small enough to pass through, but some deflection is better than none.
Agreed; I believe a scarf around your face will have some benefit. The CDC’s current guidance is about “respirators”, and maybe they’re not saying anything at all about plain masks or scarves, but studies posted here on HN in the last 2 days have shown some positive effectiveness for any kind of mask at all. I’ve heard first hand from a friend in Shenzhen China - where they are now back at work - that they are certain masks are effective, and the main vector is coughing and sneezing. If nothing else at all, wearing a mask can be a very helpful reminder to not touch your face.
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#16The mask guidance is confusing as well. I get they are trying to preserve masks for medical staff. But, they also say it's mainly spread by coughing, sneezing, and resulting spray of bodily fluids. Surely even a scarf around your face would have some benefit? Yes, I get that the virus is small enough to pass through, but some deflection is better than none.
The whole blaming people for hoarding masks and then the "masks don't work" things have been incredibly frustrating. It is almost like authorities didn't want anyone to start asking why the public couldn't get masks, as they can in say Taiwan.
Most (if not all) distributors and manufacturers of masks has been prioritizing health care systems and governments over retailers since January. Just as they should do. Were there any that weren't? I didn't see any reports of that, but if so of course the proper thing is to report them and talk to them. Not to blame random joe for having a mask.
The fact was since January retail supplies were only existing stock, which as we know was quickly sold out with a lot being sent back to family overseas (no judgement there). And I haven't seen any masks being restocked at any hardware stores or pharmacies since. At no time did I hear about authorities going around every pharmacy or home depot to try to collect any masks. Why? Because they knew there were no supplies and what was there was so small it'd make no dent in the problem. So blaming the public is grossly irresponsible and even put people in danger. I have an immune compromised friend that was responsibly using masks but got harassed for wearing masks "that don't work". And there were plenty of similar reports of such behavior from others.
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#17The mask guidance is confusing as well. I get they are trying to preserve masks for medical staff. But, they also say it's mainly spread by coughing, sneezing, and resulting spray of bodily fluids. Surely even a scarf around your face would have some benefit? Yes, I get that the virus is small enough to pass through, but some deflection is better than none.
The CDC is letting perfect get in the way of good.
If you look at almost all of their actions, they continually clamp down on things that might work because they have not been proven.
It seems to me that they are led by academics and theoreticians with very little operational capability at the top decision making channels.
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#18I think a lot of people in medicine, science, economics, policy and the media think what's happening right now is their shining moment, but if you talk to people on the ground -- this is a catastrophe and no one has any clue what's happening and people see that and they are internalizing it.
The experts are f* this up and it is going to have long term implications for already eroded public trust in institutions.
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#19The mask guidance is confusing as well. I get they are trying to preserve masks for medical staff. But, they also say it's mainly spread by coughing, sneezing, and resulting spray of bodily fluids. Surely even a scarf around your face would have some benefit? Yes, I get that the virus is small enough to pass through, but some deflection is better than none.
The whole blaming people for hoarding masks and then the "masks don't work" things have been incredibly frustrating. It is almost like authorities didn't want anyone to start asking why the public couldn't get masks, as they can in say Taiwan. Most (if not all) distributors and manufacturers of masks has been prioritizing health care systems and governments over retailers since January. Just as they should do. Were t…
Washington state just seized a restock from a Target in Seattle.
Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic
#20My concern here is that bad decisions were made early on in the US, and there will be no accountability.
What do mechanisms for accountability here look like? Will they be used?
Edit: And more importantly how will we prevent theses same mistakes from happening again?