April 29, 2009
Masks and the flu
I'm not sure why the CDC is sending out such equivocal messages about the utility of face masks for flu prevention. Yes, it's better to use higher-quality masks, and it's important that they fit well (not like the cheap cloth mask with gaps all around shown at the top of this MSNBC article). But even a mask that does nothing against airborne infection still has considerable utility, drastically reducing the often-unconscious touching of mouth and nose that seems to be a constant of human behavior. Kids are terrible in this respect, but a lot of adults are not much better.
The argument that masks give the public a false sense of security is specious. Mexico City is, by all reports, all but shut down -- no sense of security from all the masks in evidence there, false or otherwise. The real risk is not that masks will change the behavior of ordinary people, but that government officials might use the adoption of masks as an excuse to avoid other essential public health measures, such as school closures, quarantines, and the like. In practice, however, this hasn't been playing out as an either-or situation; the wearing of masks becomes a powerful and everpresent reminder that things are not normal, more likely to heighten alertness than to breed complacency.
I'd also like to see our medical authorities come right out and recommend mask use in certain settings, even at times when there's no elevated risk of a flu pandemic. When I'm stuck in a plane right in front of someone sniffling and sneezing, it should be the sneezer who is treated like a pariah for not wearing a mask -- not me for wearing one.
Posted by David on April 29, 2009 8:52 AM
One must always be amazed at the hysteria that seems to spread worldwide so rapidly. The new WHO figures seem to indicate that there are just 8 fatalities reported in total from this new flu strain. In point of fact approximately 35,000 Americans die each year from "flu," not quite 100 each day. Disease has a natural history, and the remarkable reluctance of the Obama "team" to shut the door to Mexican incursions, whence the disease originates on the basis of "it's like shutting the barn door, after the horses are gone," is next to just dumb, if not so dangerous. Logic indicates if 100 infected folks from Mexico enter the U.S. each day, that is much worse than 10 infected folks coming across. But the political agenda once again is more important than public health, defense, or economics. The good news is likely to be that the impacts, real or imagined, of the disease are over stated, and as in the swine flu epidemic of the past, it is more a whimper than a hurricane.
Posted by: Donald Wolberg on April 30, 2009 2:41 PM
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