World Health Organization finally decides that facemasks should be worn to prevent the Coronavirus.

A woman wearing a facemask. BBC/Reuters.

The World Health Organization has reversed course and now recommends the wearing of facemasks for healthy people in order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. BBC. The WHO now says that the masks can prevent the spread of infected droplets, but in the past they said there was no point in wearing them for healthy people. The WHO cited studies that showed that facemasks were useful in slowing the disease in situations where social distancing is impossible. 

My Comment:

The latest stage of the facemask drama. For those that are playing along, in the beginning of the outbreak Americans were shamed for wearing or buying facemasks and the WHO and other government organizations in the West recommended against them. Then, on a dime, almost everyone now says that facemasks work and that they are even required in many areas. The WHO was the last holdout and now they too agree. 

Do I think facemasks work? I think they probably do. I think widespread use of facemasks is probably why China, Tiawan, Japan and South Korea had less cases than America as they were wearing facemasks from the start. I think it's pretty obvious that a disease that primarily spreads from airborne droplets will have trouble spreading if those droplets are caught before they get into your body. 

But I also think that going back and forth on the issue is a major reason why people don't trust experts. There was a massive amount of hypocrisy here when at first people were shamed for not taking the WHO's advice and now they are going to be shamed if they don't. 

There are also some pretty clear downsides to wearing masks. They are pretty uncomfortable and are very annoying in hot weather. They hide your identity and prevent some non-verbal communication. And they are pretty ugly and non-fashionable as well. 

I think the combination of these factors and the flip-flopping on is another reason why fewer people are wearing them these days. I went to the grocery store tonight and compared to the last time I went there were a lot less people wearing them. Tonight, excluding the workers who are required to wear them, I think it was about a third of people wearing them. The last time I went to the store it was more than half. 

I myself was wearing one, and not just because I'm worried about the virus. I have pretty bad seasonal allergies that often cause me to sneeze and cough and I didn't want to worry about people judging me for coughing. And since I have wear one at work, I am pretty used to it now. 

Finally, I do think that we probably should be paying more attention to the Coronavirus. I know the problem before was that the coverage was non-stop but ever since the George Floyd case happened, the coverage is almost non-existent. That's bad as I think there is a decent chance of a major second wave happening due to these huge riots we are having. The virus hasn't gone away yet and it's dumb that everyone is acting like there is no risk anymore. I do think that the risk is lower than it used to be, but still, the reaction has been stupid.