CDC mulling face masks for the public

Good post Pixie...Tough to swallow that our government has purposely lied to us, very sad.

A bit of both.

The home made mask would offer the wearer no protection at all, quite possibly make things worse by increasing the chance of secondary infection.

At the same time, should the wearer have the virus, even the most inappropriate cloth, as long as it covered mouth and nose, would massively reduce droplet spread and, by extension, community spread.

If a government was to make public mask wearing compulsory, those who were forced to use a scarf or whatever, would still cut down the spread.  Should this happen, I will still be in my FFP3! (I want protection for me!)  But as mine are valved and offer no protection to those near me, I would wear a surgical mask over the top.

It's not rocket science!

'And yes, it could increase complacency.  People need to be a bit scared first!  (Those who are not scared, don't understand things yet!)

pheasant, that's pretty much what I've always thought.  If everyone is masked, even with a simple surgical mask, it prevents/minimizes spread.  Surgical masks were the vast majority of what people wore as they were required to wear a mask in public in China.  If it prevents spread, the less need for masks that protect.  But, I do believe masks that protect should be reserved for healthcare and emergency workers.  

I'd like to add that here in my little corner of Brooklyn, most of the people I see are wearing masks.  I doubt they know it's not protecting them.  But if it protect me and everyone else, I'm all for it!

Proper hand hygiene and sneeze control removes the need for any mask. 

Asian countries didn't have a better outcome because of masks....they have a more obedient culture, and governments not afraid to use police to enforce social distancing and quarantine.  

Wearing a bandana will be as good as wearing an N-95 mask for droplet control.  

Save a mask, save a life (HC worker).

The authors of this article are colleagues of mine from University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. 

I find their arguments against widespread use of masks to be convincing.  

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data

Dr. Brosseau is a national expert on respiratory protection and infectious diseases and professor (retired), University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Sietsema is also an expert on respiratory protection and an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

We do not recommend requiring the general public who do not have symptoms of COVID-19-like illness to routinely wear cloth or surgical masks because:

• There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
• Their use may result in those wearing the masks to relax other distancing efforts because they have a sense of protection
• We need to preserve the supply of surgical masks for at-risk healthcare workers.

The Asian experience is not very convincing to me, as their governments were MUCH more strict on enforcing social distancing & quarantine than we Westerners could ever be!  I think that is why they had such swift response to their infection control.  

However, we are also finding that they hid a great deal over there:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/u-s-intel-china-covered-up-extent-of-coronavirus-outbreak.html

do like me and buy the cloth masks folks are making to place over your N95.