MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-05-05 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] masked
|
Coronavirus: Why is there a US backlash to masks?
5 hours ago
Share this with Facebook
Share this with Messenger
Share this with Twitter
Share this with Email
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Image copyright Getty Images
While US health experts continue to encourage mask use in public, and
more parts of the country adopt this guidance, there has been pushback
from some Americans about covering up. Why?
Many protesters across the states have been pictured defying social
distancing guidance without masks or face coverings. Online, the debate
about mask effectiveness still plays out, with some claiming masks are
not effective - or enforceable under US law.
This is in marked contrast to other countries where populations have
generally been compliant in wearing face coverings.
The UK has yet to adopt the policy, pointing to WHO advice which says
only health workers should wear them. But the London Underground advises
passengers to cover their nose and mouth.
So what does the resistance in the US look like?
Ohio's Republican governor Mike DeWine - who has been praised for his
early efforts to stem the spread - had to walk back an order requiring
residents to wear masks in public as businesses reopened, calling the
measure "a bridge too far".
"People were not going to accept the government telling them what to
do," he told ABC News on Sunday.
There are similar stories across the nation, though many states and
local governments have rules or guidance encouraging masks in public spaces.
In Stillwater, Oklahoma, city officials had to rescind a mandatory mask
order for local restaurants and businesses after employees were
threatened and verbally abused by residents who refused to cover up.
Why some countries wear face masks and others don't
In Flint, Michigan, a security guard was shot and killed in an
altercation that allegedly began over a customer's refusal to cover
their face per the state governor's order.
US store guard killed after mask row with customer
Many New Yorkers were photographed in Central Park over the weekend
enjoying the warm weather without proper nose and mouth coverings;
similar scenarios have played out on Californian and Floridian beaches.
What have political leaders said?
On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was "disrespectful"
for people to refuse to wear a mask in public. "You can literally kill
someone because you did not want to wear a mask. How cruel and
irresponsible would that be?"
But the mixed messages have come from the very top.
At the same time as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced new
guidance that Americans should cover their faces in public to curb
Covid-19's spread, President Donald Trump said it was "voluntary" and he
himself would not do so.
Then Vice-President Mike Pence was pictured visiting a health clinic
without wearing one - which he later apologised for.
Media captionTrump doesn't see face mask necessary behind 'the great
Resolute desk'
Why do so many Americans seem to have an issue with them?
Emory University Global Health and Law Professor Polly Price says the
situation in America now mirrors what happened during the 1918 Spanish
flu outbreak.
At the time, the US Surgeon General advised everyone to make and wear
their own mask - just as instructions are now on the Centers for Disease
Control's website, guides were sent to newspapers.
"It was up to state and local governments whether they were going to
require their populations to do it - not all did," she says.
Some cities levied fines for people not wearing them.
"There were very few court challenges, but they generally upheld the
authority of local governments to have face mask ordinances," Prof Price
says.
"We do have a long tradition of individual rights, so even during the
Spanish flu people would sue about the schools [being] closed. Or
restaurants and bars were closed and people would sue about that and
they routinely lost."
In the same way that protesters have argued the lockdowns infringe their
rights, much of the anti-mask rhetoric seems to come from the same well
- American resistance to government mandates.
Why so much US resistance to the lockdown?
But Prof Price says requiring masks during a health crisis is not
fundamentally different from other safety regulations.
"I think that governors have extensive power to order measures that
protect the public health," she says.
"As long as they can show that connection, just based on our
constitutional tradition, that would be upheld. It'd be a different
question if the penalty was a year in jail for not wearing a mask."
Why was health advice unclear for so long?
Guidelines have been confusing, says Professor James Thomas of
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Epidemiology.
One reason for that was, initially, masks needed to be prioritised for
medical workers, he told the BBC. Another reason was our unfamiliarity
with the virus itself.
"Over time, we're learning more about it, how it's transmitted,
situations in which it is not transmitted and we're adjusting our
recommendations based on what we learn."
Prof Thomas says the learning has been particularly slow with Covid-19
because of a lack of testing. But we know now that the novel coronavirus
travels through droplets, like a sneeze in close quarters, rather than
lingering in the air for long periods of time.
Why we should all be wearing masks
This is how masks can help.
Prof Thomas says in one case study in a Chinese hospital, around 70
individuals ended up being near a patient who was later found to have
the virus. But, because the patient and everyone in the hospital were
wearing masks, no one else contracted it.
But not every face covering is created equal.
If you're making your own, using a thick fabric - something where, if
you hold it up to a light, you can't see through it - is best
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
Hangout mailing list
Hangout-at-nylxs.com
http://lists.mrbrklyn.com/mailman/listinfo/hangout
|
|
