THE LANCET SPEAKS OUT FOR THE CDC

Now that our Administration reportedly appears to be sidelining the CDC (U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention) https://www.cdc.gov, our friends across the Pond have tried to come to the rescue. 

A strongly worded Editorial in the venerable British medical journal Lancet is well worth reading.  

Here is the final paragraph:

The Trump administration’s further erosion of the CDC will harm global cooperation in science and public health, as it is trying to do by defunding WHO. A strong CDC is needed to respond to public health threats, both domestic and international, and to help prevent the next inevitable pandemic. Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.  The Lancet

Here's a link to the entire editorial in the issue dated May 16, 2020: 
https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(20)31140-5.pdf

And check out the sidebar articles here too!

This editorial is just one page and says it all!
Share your views with your  Representatives in Congress (House and Senate).

Also see The Lancet online for many more relevant articles on COVID-19.  https://www.thelancet.com/

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TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK?

Here are somewhat differing views from respected sources which appear to focus on the extent to which masks protect the wearer.  (Note: these views may be most applicable to simple cloth or fiber masks, not the more expensive and protective N95 respirators.)   

CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) at University of Minnesota has doubts, saying advisories on masks may not be based on sound data:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data


Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (my public health alma mater) suggests it depends on what kind of mask:

https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-education-and-research-center-for-occupational-safety-and-health/can-a-mask-protect-me-putting-homemade-masks-in-the-hierarchy-of-controls

However these doubts do not appear to question the efficacy of wearing a mask to protect others from virus-bearing droplets the wearer might emit.  

So this blog will continue to urge wearing a mask in order to protect others.  

My own view at this time is based upon the Precautionary Principle: Since wearing a mask is not onerous or dangerous, and since it could be helpful in slowing or stopping COVID-19 virus transmission, why not?   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle


Whether or not a mask protects you from what others may emit, a covering over your nose and mouth can block droplets of fluid you may emit as you cough, sneeze talk or even breathe! 

These droplets may hold COVID-19 virus which you may be carrying even though you may not have any symptoms, thus infecting others.  

Given this information, and since wearing a mask is not dangerous or even burdensome for me, and since it could protect others around me, and could possibly even give me some degree of protection,  I'll continue to wear a mask whenever I leave my apartment, while still maintaining social distancing and other hygienic measures (washing hands, etc.)

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