nwflyboy
Contributor
One thing the Asian countries didn't ahve to deal with was their authorities telling them the first three months of the pandemic to NOT wear masks.
This trope is trotted out every day by the anti-mask crowd. It is nonsense. Here are the facts:
Nobody ever said "don't wear masks." The message, for anyone who cared to pay attention, was this:
- There is (was) a critical shortage of PPE (personal protection equipment), including face masks. The need for this equipment is (was) extremely dire in the early days (March-April).
- Front-line health care workers and first responders need that gear most - without it, they will die in great numbers (and then we will all be in even more trouble, as the pandemic spreads and we have no trained professional staff to deal with it).
- In order to make as much PPE available to those who really need it the most, individuals should not try to buy it all up. So don't hoard medical supplies - leave that for the critical medical staff and other front-line essential workers who need it the most. You don't really need a mask, instead stay home and limit your contact with others.
The point was that most of us didn't really have a great need for PPE (we were supposed to be staying at home), and we should let the docs and nurses have it. Not that wearing masks was bad or provided no benefit.
So please stop spreading disinformation ("Hey, we were told not to wear masks, so don't blame me for not wanting to wear one now!"), stop making excuses, and do the most basic, common sense thing you can to help slow the spread of the virus: wear the damn mask! To everyone who wants to "open up" the economy anywhere, the #1 thing you can to do help make that happen is to wear a mask. Every person you see out amongst others (within 6 feet of another person) who is not masked up is contributing to spreading the pandemic, causing more economic hardship, and further delaying the day when life returns to something we might recognize as anything like "normal".