
Not wearing masks for Covid-19 is a ‘big mistake,’ top Chinese scientist says - sohkamyung
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/not-wearing-masks-protect-against-coronavirus-big-mistake-top-chinese-scientist-says
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mantap
When the dust settles in this crisis, the scientific and medical communities
need to have a discussion on how they communicate with the public. Countless
times I see statements to the media along the lines of "There's no evidence
that masks work". But this is a truism, infectious diseases exist along a
spectrum of transmissibility, as the transmissibility of COVID-19 is still a
matter of active research, then of course there's _no evidence_ that masks
work. That's simply what it means for a disease to be new. Yet the public in
the West hears it as "Masks don't work".

~~~
didgeoridoo
We heard “masks don’t work” because that is _literally_ what they were saying.

>> “Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!” tweeted Dr. Jerome Adams, the U.S.
Surgeon General, on Feb. 29. “They are NOT effective in preventing 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!” In an
interview with Fox & Friends, Adams said that wearing a mask can even increase
your risk of getting the virus. “Folks who don’t know how to wear them
properly tend to touch their faces a lot and actually can increase the spread
of coronavirus.”

[https://time.com/5794729/coronavirus-face-
masks/](https://time.com/5794729/coronavirus-face-masks/)

Gutting trust in medical and scientific institutions by telling obvious lies
right as a pandemic got rolling will go down as one of the greatest failures
of public health communication in US history.

~~~
Arnt
Lying by omission is a well-used technique.

What this does is... sort of... lying by superfluous detail. Every bit is
true, but the lay reader might well end up with the wrong impression. (Unless
that the right impression — if reserving masks for health care workers is the
optimal strategy. I have no idea how likely that may be.)

