Coronaviruses are not an unknown and airborne spread should have been assumed unless ruled out.
That's the hindsight I'm talking about. The WHO declared that it was not airborne at the beginning of the pandemic, as did the CDC, and it took a long time for them to change their guidance. Even independent aerosol researchers didn't release their findings until April, but that was after the CDC had already asked people to wear cloth masks.
Treating people like dumb idiots that you need to lie to to get what you want results in those people mistrusting your future recommendations, e.g. to get vaccinated.
You have more faith in people than I do -- the truth is that many of the public are dumb idiots and if you say "We want you to wear cloth masks to protect either other, but please dont use N95 masks, we need those for first responders", the first thing that will happen is that there will be a run on N95 masks, leaving none for first responders. Which happened anyway, my older sister ended up sewing homemade masks that my younger sister used in her job in healthcare because they had to ration N95's.
But supply chain issues for PPE is a whole different problem, and I'm not sure we've solved it.
That's the hindsight I'm talking about. The WHO declared that it was not airborne at the beginning of the pandemic, as did the CDC, and it took a long time for them to change their guidance. Even independent aerosol researchers didn't release their findings until April, but that was after the CDC had already asked people to wear cloth masks.
Treating people like dumb idiots that you need to lie to to get what you want results in those people mistrusting your future recommendations, e.g. to get vaccinated.
You have more faith in people than I do -- the truth is that many of the public are dumb idiots and if you say "We want you to wear cloth masks to protect either other, but please dont use N95 masks, we need those for first responders", the first thing that will happen is that there will be a run on N95 masks, leaving none for first responders. Which happened anyway, my older sister ended up sewing homemade masks that my younger sister used in her job in healthcare because they had to ration N95's.
But supply chain issues for PPE is a whole different problem, and I'm not sure we've solved it.