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Comment by collyw | Hacker News Reader

The CDC did say that masks didn't work. Then they said that they do work.

I don't recall ever hearing the CDC say that masks don't work. My understanding is that initially there were recommendations against the general public wearing masks out of a concern that mass buying may have limited their availability to health care providers. In any case, the science is pretty clear now that they do work.

Our CDC ( Dutch equivalent RIVM.nl ) actually said they believed masks might be dangerous as it might give a false sense of security and ordinary citizens would not be able to handle them properly.

Mask are mandatory now in confined public spaces, but they have never started a campaign to train the public to handle the mask properly.

I do recall hearing similar concerns hear in the US (although I can't recall now where these statements originated from. People wearing masks improperly is certainly frustrating. (e.g. nose out, chin strap, etc.)

It was not so much as wearing them improperly, but putting them on improperly ( the proces ).

In California, once the guidance changed on masks in April they were still hard to buy so the guidance was “if you don’t have a mask, just wear a bandana or scarf over your face”. We have studies showing that this doesn’t work nearly as well as a surgical mask much less an n95, but I still see people doing it all the time.

There hasn’t been a public health campaign in the past 9 months to say “now that the shortage is over, wear a mask that actually works” which is crazy to me.

> doesn’t work nearly as well

At getting infected or spreading infection?

both

Source on those studies?

https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0016018

That false security hypothesis is an interesting specimen. I remember not buying it because masks would also serve as a permanent reminder of urgency, more than countering false security effects.

But looking back at it from 2021, I can easily imagine that while most people wouldn't engage in any false security follies now, after months of various levels of lockdown, (except for those who are just as capable of follies without a mask), back then things might have been very different.

It would take quite some confidence now to return to old habits, but then it wasn't return to but not breaking. Not breaking old habits was hard enough even without a false security token, even the tiniest glimpse of security theatre could have blocked a lot.

In order to limit buying the CDC pushed the lie that masks would not significantly affect the chance of catching COVID in a non-hospital setting. Then when that became too obviously wrong and PPE supply increased they changed their tune. This cost me a LOT of trust in the institution — that they would lie to manipulate mass behavior. Even early in the pandemic, the Asian countries which got the pandemic under control all required masks, and they have experience with coronaviruses.

After the above fiasco I don’t trust the CDC or any U.S. local or federal government agency to say that COVID won’t spread on surfaces when they are motivated to say so to save significant money and resources by skipping disinfection protocols.

To add a source:

>Who does not need PPE: CDC does NOT currently recommend the general public use facemasks. Instead, CDC recommends following everyday preventive actions, such as washing your hands, covering your cough, and staying home when you are sick.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200325060652/https://www.cdc.g...

You can see why this was interpreted to mean “masks don’t help”. There is no implication they are a good idea.

> In order to limit buying the CDC pushed the lie that masks would not significantly affect the chance of catching COVID in a non-hospital setting.

Is it actually a lie? I don't believe there is conclusive evidence either way. (It certainly doesn't appear to have made much difference here where we have had a mask mandate for months).

I very distinctly remember them saying "there is no evidence to suggest wearing a mask reduces the chances of contracting COVID-19" which is extremely different from saying they don't work, especially in the early days when there was barely any evidence/data at all.

Edit: actually, the CDC did recommend people who were either sick or caring for those who are sick wear masks and gives a clear reason as to why that's the recommendation: https://web.archive.org/web/20200324155703/https://www.cdc.g...

Not the CDC, but surgeon general was spouting this garbage in March.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/02/29/health/face-masks-coronav...

CDC is referenced in the article too, but this tweet was just egregious.

> “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"

So the surgeon general, not the CDC.

https://time.com/5794729/coronavirus-face-masks/

Yeah, and the rest of the world still said "masks are a good idea" through all of that. It was pretty obvious what the CDC was up to at the time (trying not to cause panic buying, etc) but it was a terrible idea for them to do it.

Fauci and the WHO said the same thing. Only mask if you're sick or if you take care of sick people around you but you don't need to mask if you're healthy.

Edit: [0] is a archived version of the WHO public advice about when to use mask from late april. It probably was up even longer:

> If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with COVID-19. Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing. Masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent hand-cleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water. If you wear a mask, then you must know how to use it and dispose of it properly.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20200421063423/https://www.who.i...

The rest of the world didn't say that. Many of the world's politicians felt the need to be seen to be doing something, so forced masks upon us despite little hard evidence.

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