The state Public Health Department’s announcement was a troubling missed opportunity because the department has been otherwise exemplary, including in its communications around high-filtration masks earlier in the epidemic. Even before the guidance, I noticed very few people wearing masks, including while noticeably sick and symptomatic, during my travels on both airplanes and buses in the state. A policy statement imploring people to actually test and mask, with the incentive of isolating for less time if you do so, could help reduce transmission.
Public health policies that don’t match what people are willing to do are unlikely to be useful, so trying to maximize compliance while minimizing harms is a reasonable middle ground in our new world of weighing uncertain COVID risks. But without clear communication to tell people how to be safe and why, these efforts will fail.
Abraar Karan is an infectious disease doctor and researcher at Stanford University.








Source: 
You must be logged in to post a comment.