Did You Know WHO Mask Update
Author: Peter Kaminski Issue: 2023-01-18
Did You Know: WHO Mask Update
by Peter Kaminski
Consider this as a small bit of editorial opinion: you need a strategy to be informed about COVID-19. Our society willfully acts as if the pandemic has ended, even though it hasn't, and this affects even our national public health information.
As a tiny recent example, consider public health advice about wearing masks.
On one hand, the World Health Organization recently updated (13 January) its advice for anyone in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space to wear a mask, “irrespective of the local epidemiological situation, given the current spread of the COVID-19 globally.” Previous WHO recommendations for mask wearing were based on the local epidemiological situation.
On the other, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web page about long COVID, updated 16 December 2022, conspicuously omits any mention of masks in its section about preventing long COVID, even though mask recommendations were in an earlier draft of the page.
To borrow a question from the nascent SenseDoing group, “When would a healthy community suggest/mandate masks?”
Of the many existential risks we face, protecting yourself, your loved ones, and your community from short- and long-term effects of COVID is one of the simpler ones to take direct action on. Doing so starts with being well-informed.
Related:
- Peter Kaminski (author)
- 2023 (year)
- Topics: Health and Wellbeing