[briandear]

Have other countries done this? Is the US the only country that has seen a spike as things open up? Just interested in the comment “failure of this administration,” when I haven’t seen such attempts in other countries either. Perhaps this is a failure of the WHO? There hasn’t been any notable proposals from Congress in this issue either. Were people advocating such a solution and it was ignored? Because hindsight is 20/20. As late as Feb 28, there were politicians advocating people visit restaurants in Chinatown SF and calling travel bans racist. Was that a failure too?

The point of my comment is that we can talk about “failure,” but it’s disingenuous to suggest that the right answer existed all along but it was ignored. Nobody had the answers other than perhaps Taiwan when they sealed borders on 31 December — and Taiwan was ignored because of WHO politics.

[fragmede]

Regardless of if a new standard for masks would help (it would), the federal government's official position on masks is an obvious failure if you're paying attention, given that the first time President Trump wore a mask was July 11, 6 months after the virus should have been known to top officials in this administration.

(In particular, a surgical mask is better than nylon netting and "N95" doesn't describe how exhaled particles are treated. An N95 mask with an unfiltered exhalation valve has the wearer exhaling droplets all over the place.)