Thread by @AbraarKaran

1/ Contrary to some media headlines, our proposal for #BetterMasks has not been to “just give everyone N95s”

If that was, I would be using #N95Masks

I think of masks the same way I think of any risk mitigation. Better is better. Unregulated cloth masks not the bar to settle on

2/ we even specifically asked CNN to change the headline (they initially chose N95 masks) bc the idea behind this movement was always to provide folks w/ a multitude of options- N95s are one of those. But so are high grade surgical masks w/ mask fitters

cnn.com/2021/01/29/opi…

3/ The arguments saying “just get more people to wear any mask”- guess what?

We should do both

& getting “anti-maskers” to wear a mask is actually IMO a harder problem than getting someone who already believes in masks a #BetterMask (which helps them around those who don’t)

4/ Those saying “where’s the data that better masks are needed”— let’s do this again just like we did for “where’s the data for masking at all”- & then let’s tell people they don’t need to mask (& then find out later we were wrong)

That worked out really well the first time

5/ Those using well ventilated hospitals w/ everyone masked & patients regularly tested & N95s used for Covid patients & COVID suspected patients as a comparison point for crowded poorly ventilated community settings where not everyone masks— yea, that’s not a good comparison

6/ Even in those clinical settings, we are at least using medical grade masks w/ 3 layers, one of which is meltblown nonwoven filter—NOT unregulated cloth—everyone is wearing it, & some, incl myself, are often wearing N95s. & even then we have had multiple hospital outbreaks

7/ Again- we are calling for smarter mask policies. Are #BetterMasks needed for every single setting? Alone or distanced outdoors? No.

We are specifically saying for high risk people, high exposure workers, or when regular risk people enter higher risk indoor crowded settings

8/ But notice that much resistance will come from w/in the establishment itself; this is par for the course

We don’t use the precautionary principle very well

If you’re not sure whether higher filtration better fitting masks will be better than poorly fitted cloth, they will

9/ Will they be a silver bullet? No. Will they alone stop the epidemic? No. Because we can’t do any intervention perfectly

And that’s the point. We need to do every intervention better. That includes getting more people to wear any mask; and to up the standard on our masks too

10/ And another point- contact tracing—which we know has fallen behind esp when places are surging with transmission well beyond our capabilities— is designed to find droplet based spread (within 6 feet, within 15 minutes); if that’s what you look for, that’s what you find

11/ Harder to trace for smaller particle spread in the community setting; but you’ll hear people say they have “no idea” where they got infected; “had a mask on” etc; masks w/ higher grade filtration & fit will reduce risk here. This has always been about reducing risk. #covid19