Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a frequent media contributor on the topic of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, inadvertently demolished the logic behind mask mandates during a Tuesday morning interview on "CBS Mornings."
Asked by anchor Tony Dokoupil about "so-called one-way masking," where some people wear higher-quality, protective masks to protect themselves instead of all of society being compelled to wear them, Jha referred to his time treating maskless Covid patients in the hospital while wearing an N95 respirator mask.
"If you wear a high-quality mask, a KN95 or an N95, which are now widely available, you can protect yourself under pretty much all circumstances," Jha responded.
Other than at first when N95s weren't readily available, what @ashishkjha says here has been relevant for a long time:
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) February 2, 2022
"If you wear a high quality mask, an N95, you can protect yourself under pretty much all circumstances."
Given this, how is forced masking EVER justified? pic.twitter.com/D8Fj2fiFkk
"When I think about when I've been in the hospital taking care of sick patients with Covid, I'm wearing an N95 and they're not," he continued. "The patients are not necessarily wearing masks, and yet I know that I am protected by that and of course I'm protected by my vaccine. So for immunocompromised people and for people who are worried about getting sick, wearing a high quality mask provides an enormous amount of protection against getting infected."
Now, while Jha obviously believes in mask mandates ...
Right now, the storm is starting to ebb
— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) February 1, 2022
Infections are falling, hospitalizations down
But with infections still high
Indoor mask mandates make sense. As do indoor capacity limits
Many states still have them (though bars are open in every city in America, as far as I know)
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... he undercut his own logic by contending that masks can be protective, thus prompting the question: If your mask protects you, why do I need to wear one?
Of course, "one-way masking" with masks that may actually provide some protection has been the answer the entire time to the societal contagion of forcibly masking everyone. While members of the general public forced to wear masks often pay little attention to quality or to wearing them correctly (mandating even N95s has done little to nothing to curb the spread in Europe), someone wearing a properly fitted N95 conscientiously and purposefully to protect themselves is more likely to do so correctly and consistently, thus possibly resulting in some actual protection in spaces where the virus may be prevalent.
At any rate, brilliant idea, Dr. Jha. If only someone had thought of this sooner!
Serious question and I'm open to being wrong:
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) July 2, 2020
Is there a logical reason why the elderly, immunocompromised, and even anyone still 'skeered' of coronavirus at this point can't wear an n95 mask that actually protects them and leave the rest of us the hell alone?
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