Long-time iSteve friend Luke Lea writes:
Steve, Way too much emphasis on testing when the quickest and easiest way to drive the RO number below one would be to require everyone out in public to wear low-tech masks by law (such as the one described in the video below if necessary). The idea is not to protect the user, let alone to identify the infected, but rather to protect the public by requiring everyone to cover their mouths.
The video is from the Japanese national network showing how to turn a piece of paper towel into a facemask effective at preventing you from infecting your fellow citizens. The Japanese love folding paper and they are good at it, which is a Good Thing.
I could explain this better if I knew the proper medical jargon for two main reasons for wearing a mask:
(There’s also a third reason: that a mask helps you retain your natural humidity, which is probably helpful.)
Masks help do both, but a lot of the current commentary about how you need a Ph.D. in Maskology to properly use masks is based on doctors’ natural worries about reason #1, while a 95% success rate at #2 would do wonders at driving down R 0 below 1.0.
Granted, at the moment, the U.S. needs to reserve the better sort of masks for health care workers like doctors and nurses. But, let’s be honest with Americans: the reason you can’t get masks right now is not because they don’t work at preventing you from spreading the virus but because we outsourced their production to China. That was really dumb.
But in the future we will have more masks and then you must then wear them to help your fellow citizens avoid the germ.
