ABOUT NOT WEARING MASKS

In the United States, face masks are required in more and more places as part of the fight against the coronavirus. Many stores require them. Some governors are telling people they must wear a mask, even outdoors. Some journalists love scolding pedestrians and politicians who don’t wear them.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization, which has generally been incompetent during this outbreak, possibly because of the organization’s coziness with the Chinese regime, is giving very different advice. Basically, the WHO says asymptomatic people shouldn’t wear masks in most cases:

“WHO only recommends the use of a mask in specific cases. If you have cough, fever, and difficulty breathing, you should wear a mask and seek medical care. If you do not have these symptoms, you do not have to wear masks because there is no evidence that they protect people who are not sick.”

The exception, the WHO says, is for healthy people caring for people who have been infected with the coronavirus.

U.S. guidance in favor of wearing a mask is generally based on the idea that many sick people have no symptoms — no cough, fever, or difficulty breathing. The notion that asymptomatic people can spread the virus is also behind most of the most dramatic lockdown measures. The WHO, in its guidance against asymptomatic people wearing masks, doesn’t seem to reject the idea of asymptomatic spread but simply doesn’t acknowledge it.