| I didn’t see those reports (but I don’t really watch TV much). I can see a logic that goes: we don’t know if masks help yet. Therefore, if you decide to wear a mask, keep that in mind, and continue to follow the distancing guidelines. Also, be careful when donning and doffing your mask, as you are likely to accidentally touch your face at that point. This is the advice I remember from reading stuff. But, I could definitely imagine people trying to “dumb it down” on TV and coming up with “maybe masks will harm more than hurt.” As a public policy, given the data available at the time that seemed plausible. Unfortunately everybody’s a pundit on TV, so they might discuss public policy and personal advice (as well as their speculation about how people will feel about public policy, completing the media ouroboros) in one sentence and mix them all up. Not sure what the fix is, maybe the CDC needs a more active media department to keep on this stuff. In particular, panicking people seem to want to see how these decisions are made. Have every interview be about the error bars, bookended with the current advice, which is just stay far apart. |