Thread by @AbraarKaran

There are many who have argued against mask mandates, citing that we don’t need masks in every single situation, esp outdoors. While this is true, leaving it up to people to interpret when to mask has also not worked out so well— to no fault of theirs- our messaging has failed

https://twitter.com/scottgottliebmd/status/1320732166242918400

2/ Our messaging hasn’t been nuanced enough to help people understand viral transmission well enough that they always know when to mask v when not to mask.

And that behavior change takes time; unfortunately, we are once again out of time.

3/ At this point, the benefits of masking consistently will outweigh the costs. And as we hit winter, we will mostly be indoors where masking is most important anyways.

The one place that we will get hit hard I predict is *home based* transmission, where people aren’t masked.

4/ I am hopeful that more consistent masking outside the home will prevent many cases inside the home, but it probably won’t prevent them all— and some level of viral spread within families and “social bubbles” has already been set in motion as our 70-80k daily cases makes clear

Cc @NickStoico @CaroMT @CarolineYLChen @elizabarclay @cshea4 @B_resnick @kakape @HelenBranswell @edyong209 @mccabe_caitlin @DDpan