Feb 28, 2022·edited Mar 1, 2022Liked by John Skylar, PhD
If the CDC is going to recommend that mask-wearing be based on "your personal preference, informed by your personal level of risk," then it needs to level with the public about what exactly those risks are -- in particular, the significant danger of long COVID. I worry that we're inviting a massive wave of disability that neither our healthcare system nor our social welfare programs are really equipped to handle.
I also worry that, in practice, things won't be left up to people's personal preferences. Some employers will prohibit employees from wearing masks. I'm not sure there shouldn't be legislation protecting people who continue to wear masks in the workplace from being terminated for that reason.
I actually think the CDC guidelines are a good compromise. With so many people now testing at home, we can't necessarily trust the case numbers. Hospital admissions may be a lagging indicator but for public health purposes they let us know when we are heading into trouble. As a healthcare provider with an insatiable desire for knowledge, I would often go to NIH and CDC sites to see what viruses were out there so I could have a sense of what to expect. With the breakdown in the sentinel lab system this doesn't work as well but it helps. Managed care insurance plans use similar data to help predict when they need to deploy more resources on-line or into the community.
If the CDC is going to recommend that mask-wearing be based on "your personal preference, informed by your personal level of risk," then it needs to level with the public about what exactly those risks are -- in particular, the significant danger of long COVID. I worry that we're inviting a massive wave of disability that neither our healthcare system nor our social welfare programs are really equipped to handle.
I also worry that, in practice, things won't be left up to people's personal preferences. Some employers will prohibit employees from wearing masks. I'm not sure there shouldn't be legislation protecting people who continue to wear masks in the workplace from being terminated for that reason.
I actually think the CDC guidelines are a good compromise. With so many people now testing at home, we can't necessarily trust the case numbers. Hospital admissions may be a lagging indicator but for public health purposes they let us know when we are heading into trouble. As a healthcare provider with an insatiable desire for knowledge, I would often go to NIH and CDC sites to see what viruses were out there so I could have a sense of what to expect. With the breakdown in the sentinel lab system this doesn't work as well but it helps. Managed care insurance plans use similar data to help predict when they need to deploy more resources on-line or into the community.