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There is no question that an incoming Biden-Harris administration will take a much firmer line in suggesting that people wear masks to combat the spread of the coronavirus. than the outgoing Trump administration.
Andrew Selsky of the Associated Press has been looking at how advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has changed over the course of the pandemic as more science has emerged about the disease. how the virus spreads.
He reminds us that US Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted on February 29: “Seriously folks: STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from contracting #Coronavirus ”.
But last week, after long advising people to wear masks because they help prevent infected people from spreading the coronavirus, the CDC added a new reason to wear a mask. Skins can also protect users who are not infected
The agency referred to a study led by Japanese researchers that found that masks block about 60% of the amount of virus that comes out of an infected person. When an uninfected person wearing a mask is close to an infected person who is not wearing it, the amount of virus inhaled by the uninfected person was reduced by up to 50%.
But when BOTH people wear masks, that produced the best result.
The decrease in virus particles reaching the second person was close to 70%. So if everyone wears a mask when social distancing isn’t feasible, the infection rate will drop, experts say.
In the entire United States there is no single federal mandate for masks. The CDC has only made recommendations, and Donald Trump often ridiculed Joe Biden for wearing one when in public.
Biden, now president-elect, has repeatedly said there should be a nationwide mask mandate. He has also promised to ask all governors to impose rules on masks. For those who refuse, he has vowed to surround them to pursue similar mandates at the local or county level until the entire country is covered.
As of yesterday, 36 states have some kind of mask mandate.
Republican governors in Iowa, North Dakota and Utah, all of the hard-hit states, have recently changed course and required at least limited use of masks. Others have expanded or expanded previous orders.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds On Tuesday he cast some doubt on the science behind masks, even as he imposed a limited rule on masks, noting that neighboring states with mask mandates have seen a growing number of cases, though not as badly as Iowa.
You have unknowingly hit the mark on how misinformation about the virus has spread so widely. “If you look, you can find what you want to support wherever you are,” he said.
