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[Impacts of] COVID-19 have been blunted in China, Japan, and South Korea. Much is made of the role of draconian quarantines, civil obedience, and world-class testing and tracking leading to this outcome.
Less discussed [are successes] in the Czech Republic. As of ...Tuesday, March 31, there [were] 24 deaths and 3002 cases.
[What The Czech Republic’s measures also share with Southeast Asian countries is] universal, mandated use of face masks, with the added incentive of an $800USD fine for public disobedience…
[Japan has] only relatively light testing and isolating but [with] mask-wearing as a distinguishing intervention. [Citizens of] Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore ... adopted mask-wearing spontaneously.
If we want [those results], why aren't we wearing masks...?
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The problem, of course, is that we’re contagious days before we’re symptomatic. And so is everyone else.
But...
The message was that this virus was spread by respiratory droplet, not aerosol. Distance and handwashing [should] be sufficient.
Some of this was an attempt to reserve N95 respirators for healthcare workers[‘ protection from virus aerosolized by] invasive procedures such as intubation.
[But] when confronted with the scenario of a self-isolating older couple with no access to masks, I published a YouTube video demonstrating mask creation from destruction of a bra. Many other bra cutters and mask makers posted similar instructions.
... JoAnn Fabric started sharing mask instructions and materials for free [despite official dismissal of homemade masks].
[That] could have come from a desire to reduce panic, conserve resources, or [limited grasp of masking efficacy of] various types of fabric.
[OR it represents] prejudice:
Inexpensive double-thickness cloth masks are widely used in Southeast Asia [but m]any US physicians disparaged the practice as useless [this] may be [keeping us] from considering that masks protect not just others but ourselves.
Stay home. Wash your hands. Watch the video from the Minister of Health of the Czech Republic. And from now until the time that we can congregate at weddings, graduations, and parties without fear, when you must leave your house, universally, please wear a mask.
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The above was exerpted from a Medscape Public Health Commentary by Amy L. Baxter, MD, the founder and CEO at Pain Care Labs in Atlanta, Georgia, “Is It Time That We All Start Wearing Masks?” March 30. The LA Times now reports Mayor Garcetti saying late Wednesday that masks are not as good protection as staying home, but it you have to go out and about, you should wear some form of mask and not go without. sfchron:
The California Department of Public Health’s guidance on “face coverings” — any cloth material that covers the nose and mouth — was released after debates on the topic raged among politicians, scientists and doctors while guidelines continued to shift. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has remained steadfast in directing healthy people not to cover their faces during the pandemic, but said it is reviewing its guidelines.
As many experts agree, California’s guidance stipulated that people should not wear N95 respirator masks or surgical masks, which are in short supply and needed for the frontline medical professionals who need them most.
But other face coverings, like scarves, T-shirts or sewn masks, are an option that could help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by blocking potentially infectious particles, especially from asymptomatic people, state health officials said. They could also help reinforce physical distancing.
Medscape is the professional site of WebMD and it’s free, you only have to register. The full article includes comments from readers at that site, a link to COVID-19 resources for professionals, and another to the daily linear logarithmic graphs of spread of COVID-19, by John Burn-Murdoch and colleagues at the Financial Times distilling data from Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 has led Americans to a new grasp of graphs. We now understand how "flattening the curve" saves lives…
The graphs allow us to project what to expect. Today, the United States has reported 3163 deaths. By next Sunday, April 5, simple math shows that the US will have 16,490. With an incubation period of almost a week, we can't do much about this number.
But to have even a chance at keeping the deaths below 100,000 by Easter morning, we can all wear masks in public.
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See also dk group What Are You Working ON?