Originally Posted by
trueblu
PS the major issue with masks for everyone, and it's a REAL issue is that we just don't have enough masks in the West...if we all have 2 masks and re-use every other day, that's still 600M needed in the US alone...which is 10x more than what's actually available...
Right. But perhaps, if we had better (more) test data, we'd get the biggest benefit from everyone-wears-a-mask by limiting that strategy to areas with widespread community spread (Seattle) and not, say, Rapid City, SD, to reuse Artemis' example. Then again, the areas with lots of cases are (naturally?) densely populated areas of the country, so the 75k masks saved in Rapid City SD don't get us very far. Plus it would annoy the citizens of that city if they don't get masks. I'd try to fashion my own mask from a coffee filter (size 4) if I didn't have a box of N95s from two years ago.
Originally Posted by
artemis
And one reason timely and accurate testing is so important is that different levels of infection (sporadic cases versus early community spread versus widespread community transmission) may need different responses, and different locations in the US may be able to safely take different measures. The measures needed to get control of the situation in Seattle may be complete overkill for Rapid City SD. But without good data on where the infections are and how fast the disease is spreading, state and local officials are forced to guess about when to implement measures such as banning large public gatherings and closing schools.
Edit: that didn't age well...
"
5 new cases, including 1 death in South Dakota (Pennington County)"
County seat of Pennington County is ... Rapid City.