I watched locally in February as people shared the "worry about the flu/don't panic" articles to keep doing very risky things: travel, conferences. My area is highly-educated. They trusted credible media. They avoided social media misinformation. And they thus endangered all.
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I wrote this in late February—there still wasn't any helpful pieces on why we needed to flatten the curve! Late February! Why not? (Can't find traditional media pieces before mine who explained the term—the phrase isn't mine, of course, it's well-known).https://twitter.com/writesaacson/status/1245336551292375040 …
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Yesterday, I commented on something tech, and someone was like, what do you have to do with tech? Lol! I've been pandemic writing for months. He had no idea I do tech. I didn't want to write "flatten the curve" or "we need masks" pieces. But people who should and could weren't.
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Forget reflection, I got weird pushback.
@NateSilver538 was so mad about me writing about the complacent/lagging media message that he caricatured my position beyond recognition and told me to "sit this one out". Yet, I'll say it again: there should be a reckoning & hasn't been.Show this thread -
Yes. For example, we are finally seeing more coverage of asymptomatic transmission, in context of finally admitting the argument for masks. We had many many peer-reviewed papers on asymptomatic and non-feverish, atypical clinical presentation since Jan 29. https://twitter.com/hhavrilesky/status/1245362927630090242 …
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More countries are switching to masks. Yeay! That's the good. If media had earlier dug into the science of masks and the experience of Asian countries that had been successful in containing this epidemic, we could have been here weeks ago. That's the bad.https://twitter.com/seaef/status/1245444646664355843 …
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This is great! California! By the way, would love for CA issue guidelines for correct use and sanitization. It's good to say masks *in addition to* other measures. But I have yet to see a single convincing study of "incorrect" use being worse than no mask.https://twitter.com/covidperspectiv/status/1245438129974083584 …
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My prediction is that, until vaccines, we will go through waves where we necessarily relax social isolation but masks will help a lot during those intermittent periods. How much is an empirical question but Japan—screwing up everything else but masks—suggests it is a great deal.
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Center for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford concludes that surgical masks are *as effective* as respirators for preventing infection in viral outbreaks. Fits Hong Kong's hospital practice. Asia was ahead on the science of this. Our experts were lagging. https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/what-is-the-efficacy-of-standard-face-masks-compared-to-respirator-masks-in-preventing-covid-type-respiratory-illnesses-in-primary-care-staff/ …pic.twitter.com/DodJIwQWza
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Your daily irresponsible media failure: clickbait headline from
@washingtonpost claiming "masks were useless" in the 1918 flu epidemic based on no research or evidence but one historian saying so in a throwaway manner in a book. Shame on you,@elizamcgraw. Lives are at stake.pic.twitter.com/v4bi8QORUW
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So,
@elizamcgraw who normally writes about horses finds a casual sentence in a book that was more about how the 1918 epidemic spread and builds a piece around it titled masks "were useless" and it gets published on APRIL 2, 2020 in the middle of a pandemic in the@washingtonpost?Show this thread -
Science and fact-based advocacy has won this argument about masks. Even the United States is likely to join. There is no evidence of harms (it was all speculation), and if something actually comes up, we can address it then because the benefits are clear. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/opinion/trump-coronavirus-masks.html …pic.twitter.com/ZdqbLfpikr
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Some of this increase may well be due to hospitals being overloaded. As I tried to explain in the piece on top of this thread, and throughout late Jan and February on social media and in articles, *this* is why “but the flu” comparisons were so misplaced. https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/1245852365464449025 …
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We already have failing governmental institutions. We have some of the best journalists in the world but US traditional media also has big structural failings we must reckon with.