And to not use surgical masks
Surgical masks would have been fine and beneficial for those in cities and any suburban hotspots. They are designed to be disposable for hospital staff. But regular people can and do rewash and reuse surgical masks. I've re-used surgical masks plenty, then washed and reused them some more. You don't need excellent protection when you go out in public in low risk environs. Any kind of mask will do.
Again, if everyone is wearing a mask, you have two layers of protection. That plus hand washing, social distancing, temp checks, a ban on large groups = a thorough response and will reduce transmissions.
We're talking about what were 80 cent surgical masks, probably even cheaper when you buy them in bulk. Let's say everyone in NYC started wearing face masks on March 1, or even on March 5th when I got back and started haranguing folks here about the need. Well, that's 12M masks, not all of which need to be surgical masks. But let's go with 12M surgical masks at a cost of $1 per. (they should have been handed out for free -- but folks would've paid whatever cost).
If they had implemented business closures, face mask wearing, temp checks and social distancing then, there's no reason that transmissions wouldn't have been greatly reduced, possibly minimal. Shanghai had roughly 500 total cases. Let's say NYC could've limited cases to 2K - 3000 infections. A made-up number but isn't that where SF and LA are around. And they didn't deploy face masks, which would have lowered transmissions.
By deploying 12M masks to the public in NYC on or about March 1st and mandating everyone wear them in public (it was never mandated, but just strongly recced in Shanghai),
there would have been many fewer Covid-19 cases, and with many fewer contagious patients they could have easily saved 12M surgical masks used in hospitals dealing with the 50K infected NYers. So there wouldn't have been a shortage of masks, hospital beds, ICU rooms, isolation wards and ventilators. Or any shortage would have been minor and manageable.
You don't seem to understand anything about face masks and/or the use of them during a pandemic. They fit well. They can be reused. They provide two layers of protection against viral transmission. They keep everyone on alert because it is sobering when every person you meet is wearing a mask. Everyone who has the virus and is contagious will be largely prevented from spreading the virus in public places. Anyone not infected reduces their chance of inhaling or otherwise coming into contact with the virus.
Face masks combined with other measures (closures, social distancing, hand washing, temp checks) make for a strong regimen of protection and helps stop transmission chains. Outside of Wuhan and Hubei where the outbreak originated before strong precautionary measures were in place, China avoided serious outbreaks. The US dickered and NYC became New Wuhan, NJ mimicking Italy.
Fuckin' heh ...
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