WHO advises all to wear face masks in public (finally)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its advice on face masks, saying they should be worn in public to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

The global body said new information showed they could provide "a barrier for potentially infectious droplets".

Some countries around the world already recommend or mandate the wearing of face coverings in public.

The WHO had previously argued there was not enough evidence to say that healthy people should wear masks.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead expert on Covid-19, told Reuters news agency the recommendation was for people to wear a "fabric mask - that is, a non-medical mask".

It was blatantly obvious to many at the very beginning of the outbreak.

The simple face mask is probably a major reason why countries in Asia have relatively lower rates of infection compared to those elsewhere.

I refuse.

People have been wearing facemasks for how long throughout human civilizations? And the WHO figures it out in a few months? Did they acknowledge Taiwan yet?

The WHO is a joke and a waste of time.

How can you say that about one of the most influential rock bands of all time 😨?

The WHO is funded worse than many Western universities, has zero power to sanction anyone, and literally has to beg for everything.

If you seek to depend your entire health emergency response solely on the advice of the WHO, then I don't know what to tell you - other than you're either very naive or very stupid.

Long live Entwistle!

Why? Honestly if social distancing and face masks means we don't need to lock down, it's a small "sacrifice".

I wanna shoop, baby, shoop!!

Don't care what anyone else does, I will be wearing a mask in public until this passes or a confirmed vaccine is made.

Yeah, it would be great to finally normalize mask wearing in the West.

I'm glad they could catch this before any confusion came about.

I'm going a wear a gas mask to filter out the pollution.

Because I like to breathe.

I've been wearing a mask. Those turds thought they could hoard the masks for themselves.

@Gaming-Planet: Mine's made of toilet paper.

If you struggle to breathe while using one I would suggest seeing a doctor.

It's not that I struggle. I breathe better without, which is enough.

I drive faster without a speed limit. Speed limits need to go.

Our company supplied us with a different batch this time around and while we noticed our ears don't hurt anymore, it's noticeably harder to breath, or at least it feels like it. No one has passed out yet. It doesn't help that it's hotter out now either.

What kind of shitty ones are you guys buying?

They wear out faster if it is hotter and humid in my experience. While we have two different ones we use at the lab, difference being if you tie them behind your head or just go over your ears.

For the offices we got different ones. I don't like them. Can't seal them at all over your nose, making them terrible if you got glasses.

I wouldn't mind wearing a mask if it wasn't so damn hot outside.

@horgen: Not sure, they’re from China though. The other ones we had were too and they were worse. The strings were too tight and our ears were hurting. They would often snap and because they were snapping so much we were running out at an alarming rate so we to start stapling the strings back on.

Ah. I am not sure were ours are made. Could be 3M.

I wish more people would use a face mask. I still see people with out it. I put one on every time I go somewhere outside of my own house.

I know the medical community tends to err on the side of caution because sometimes stuff could cause more harm than good (i.e. that stuff Trump was peddling), but the face masks seems like something they should have gotten behind from day one.

Feel free to correct me, but I don't see how a face mask could cause harm. Especially when we know the virus spreads via exhalation (atomized droplets of moisture, from what I've read, act as a carrier for the virus) and face masks are specifically designed for this.

Here I go, here I go, here I go again!

Based on what I'm seeing in Texas atm they certainly didn't get the memo.

Hate all these people who don't wear masks! I don't understand why is it so tough to wear these masks in public?

I wear a mask. My Grandmother wears a mask. Half the people in the local Wal-mart don't, and they go down the lanes the wrong way, the workers and shoppers block the paths, forcing you to try and go out the wrong way. And it's not just the local Wal-mart, it's all the stores.

@Gwynbleidd_91: That’s why cases of Coronavirus are exploding in Texas. No sympathy from me.

@madrocketeer: Where did you get your degree?

From the university of living in a middle-income developing country that can't test for shit and by all rights should look like Brazil or Ecuador right now, but instead said; "f*** China, f*** the WHO, we'll rely on our own doctors and experts and look after ourselves first."

And as a result, our numbers are 3,148 cases and 58 deaths, with all new cases in the last three weeks being quarantined imports. If more people would spend more time and effort fighting this virus as they do complaining about China, the WHO, 5G towers or whatever else they feel like wasting their breaths blaming next, they could have replicated our result.

@madrocketeer: So you don’t have any grounds to talk, got you.

@thegreatchomp:

Yeah, sure, whatever. Don't want to learn and improve from other experiences and want to learn it the hard way instead? Be my guest. No freckle on my backside.

´We neither have have any idea about long term effects from it. Do lunges recover from it? I recently read about one case where an otherwise healthy woman in her late 20’s need a new pair(?) of lunges after COVID-19. Her own were damaged beyond recognition.

@madrocketeer: *Pats on head* Ok little buddy. You keep disrespecting medical professionals.

@thegreatchomp:

Then you haven't read through my posts properly, or have a very simplistic view of the world. Or both.

I respect medical professionals, especially the 1,000 contact tracing teams that helped my country contain COVID-19. I even respect the 1 million volunteers, many of them hardened veterans of previous battles with things like AIDS and MERS, who backed up those contact tracers. Hell, even the WHO does decent work, and ultimately, their existence is worthwhile, regardless of their limitations.

Doesn't mean I can't point out flaws in their organisation as a whole. Take this face mask advisory, for example; the WHO muddled with this for months until finally making up their minds now, in June. Whereas over here, our health officials had a simple, concise and consistent messaging on this since early March: "social distance first, if you can't, wear masks." Bish, bash and bosh. And as our numbers show, the advisory worked, or at least contributed to it.

I could discuss another recent example of why you shouldn't listen only to the WHO for health advisory, but the point is: the world is not simplistic and binary black and white. Nobody and no organisation is perfect, and pointing out their flaws is not disrespect.

@madrocketeer: You’re trying to hard, and taking an a simplistic view of the world. You are not taking anything other than one advisory into account and assumed it worked. The US has been at times legally requiring both, hasn’t worked well. Wonder why one policy would work in one country but not another? Hmmm, I swear there was more to it than just masks and social distancing. Funny that.

That and you just did disrespect them above and backpedaled when called out on it. Either way, adios amigo.

@thegreatchomp:

Again, you haven't read my post properly. I said it worked, or at least contributed to it. I explicitly mentioned the 1,000 contact tracing teams and the 1 million volunteers. Nowhere did I say the mask advisory is the sole factor to our success. And as for whether what we did as a whole work; the numbers speak for themselves: 3,148 cases and 58 deaths in a country of 60 million.

And again, legitimate criticism is not disrespect. There is no back pedaling here.