Thread by @RanuDhillon

1/ Just heard @CDCDirector on @CNN @drsanjaygupta push back on the proposal @AbraarKaran @sri_srikrishna & I put forward on the gov't sending N95-caliber masks to every home (cnn.com/videos/health/…)

A quick rebuttal

THREAD

2/ Dr. Walensky's counterpoints to this idea seem to be:

- N95-caliber masks aren't necessary; multi-layer cloth + 6 feet is good enough

- access to masks is not a bottleneck

- N95-caliber masks are hard to wear for long periods

3/ For the 1st point, we know that Covid can spread via aerosols indoors & in crowds

Cloth masks only variably block (~50-70%) & surgical masks up to 80%

People -especially essential workers, those at high-risk- need better protection particularly in poorly ventilated scenarios

4/ For 2nd point, @CDCDirector seemed to think @andersoncooper was asking about masks in general & not specifically high-caliber masks

Access to *high-caliber* masks is a challenge & people don't know which ones & where to get them & some may not be able to afford them

5/ For 3rd point, I agree that N95s are hard to breathe in for long periods

But most people though would only need to wear for shorter periods (eg, grocery store) & there are more comfortable options such as KF94s, elastomerics & others close to NIOSH approval (eg, @one_canopy)

6/ This is why a number of other countries are moving to also promote or mandate such masks for their populations

washingtonpost.com/world/europe/e…

7/ We need to do everything we can stop transmission to save lives now, prevent the emergence & spread of faster-spreading deadlier variants & time to get vaccination up to scale

If supply is the reason we're hesitating on doing this, then let's solve it (ie, invoke DPA)

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