There is a lot that went wrong with face masks from day 1– we went from don’t wear them, to wear them, to double mask, to no mask, & now possibly CDC coming around to high filtration masks.
I lay out 4 lessons we can learn from this in @bmj_latest
bmj.com/content/376/bm…
I lay out 4 lessons we can learn from this in @bmj_latest
bmj.com/content/376/bm…
2/ Acknowledge uncertainty— definitive statements about masks not working in the beginning were costly & based on lack of knowledge/evidence but were presented as if CDC was certain masks weren’t needed. They were wrong & then had to backpedal on it
3/ Precautionary principle — we should have assumed Covid19 was airborne and started with high filtration masks
3M had an FDA approved respirator for public health crises. We should have scaled this up (or something like it) for the public since day 1
3M had an FDA approved respirator for public health crises. We should have scaled this up (or something like it) for the public since day 1
4/ Setting expectations— this goes for vaccines too; needed to be clear on what an intervention could do & to what extent— otherwise people jump to conclusions that something ‘doesn’t work’ when it actually does work, just within its limitations
5/ the invisibility of prevention— people are quick to call preventative measures overblown because we have a hard time measuring something that didn’t happen. Masks are one of those— we don’t measure all the infections that were prevented, but this still matters
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