SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
U.S. Government Proposed Manipulating CDC Guidelines to Avoid Mask Shortages: Whistleblower:
The U.S. government proposed manipulating information about whether N95 masks worked to fight the spread of coronavirus in the general public, according to Dr. Richard Bright, a whistleblower who testified publicly for the first time on Thursday. The deception was an effort to avoid shortages and keep masks available for U.S. health care workers, but likely had a ripple effect throughout the country, leaving many people to believe that all masks are useless or even harmful during a pandemic. Bright's testimony is the first confirmation from a high-ranking official that the U.S. government actively sought to distribute incorrect information about N95 masks during the covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Bright told the House Subcommittee on Health on Thursday about his attempts to warn others in the Department of Health and Human Services about the pending shortage of masks in January and early February, just as the novel coronavirus was spreading outside of China. Bright said that officials at the meeting simply said they would change the recommendations put out by the CDC to discourage the general public from buying masks.
"I indicated we know there will be a critical shortage of these supplies. We need to do something to ramp up production," Dr. Bright, the former top vaccine specialist at HHS, said of a meeting with HHS officials on February 7.
"They indicated if we notice there is a shortage, that we will simply change the CDC guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing those masks, so that would save those masks for our health care workers," Dr. Bright testified.
"My response was, 'I can not believe you can sit and say that with a straight face'," Bright said. "That was absurd."
[...] Dr. Bright's entire 6-hour testimony is available on YouTube, and it's quite damning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2020, @11:03PM (2 children)
I call bullshit. Well, I call psychosomatic, inclusive-or bullshit.
I've used N95 on site for 12h shifts minus food breaks. For thousands and thousands of hours total. The only time they are restrictive is in such particulate-filled air that the mask is pancaked (and discoloured!). That won't happen in day use.
If you're so out of shape that you can't move without breathing through your mouth, then maybe the issue isn't the N95, but your cardio fitness. If you think you can't breathe enough through an N95 that's not clogged, you're not actually failing to breathe, you're just panicking and putting your body into limbic overdrive, and either imagining it, or self-causing it. If you hyperventilate with an N95 you will also get lightheaded.
I've used stronger PPE than N95s too (cartridge masks, VO, oil, and non), and they are harder to breathe through than N95s. And guess what? They add a very very small metabolic overhead (slightly more force to draw in air) but less than walking by orders of magnitude.
Maybe a better perspective: if you can walk while chewing for N minutes, you can walk for N minutes with an N95 on. The added metabolic load is less than chewing.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday May 17 2020, @11:42PM
Then you either run marathons as a hobby, your shit wasn't sealed worth a damn, or you were not in fact using N95 masks.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday May 17 2020, @11:44PM
P.S. I've used cartridge masks as well. For hours on end while preforming strenuous exercise. They breathe much better than an N95 does.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.