Published by marco on
The article Here’s what WHO says your mask should have to prevent COVID-19 spread by Beth Mole (Ars Technica) details the technical specifications for making your own facemask.
tl;dr: “you’re probably doing it wrong, guidance suggests.”
The WHO says:
Here in Switzerland, there is still no mask requirement almost anywhere in public. It is strongly recommended to wear them on public transportation, but the SBB reports that 90% of people aren’t wearing them. It is honestly a mystery to me how Switzerland ended up with the #1 ranking for combating COVID-19. The numbers speak for themselves, though—the spread is, for all intents and purposes, at a standstill.
Once I start commuting again, I will be wearing a mask. I wasn’t interested in being part of the first wave. My interest in being part of the second wave is similarly low.
The article WHO butchers asymptomatic COVID comments. Here’s what they meant by Beth Mole (Ars Technica) takes the WHO to task for “butchering” their message, but honestly makes quite a mess of summarizing the WHO message nearly as badly.
Still, more than halfway through the article, she finally sums up the relevant terminology.
“The WHO has consistently used asymptomatic transmission only when talking about truly asymptomatic cases.”
- Symptomatic case = Someone who is infected and has symptoms at some point.
- Asymptomatic case = Someone who is infected but never develops symptoms.
- Pre-symptomatic = The phase of a symptomatic infection when a person may test positive for the virus and/or may spread the virus but has not yet developed symptoms.
- Pre-symptomatic transmission = Spread of the virus from a symptomatic case during their pre-symptomatic phase.
- Asymptomatic transmission = Spread of the virus from an infected person with no current symptoms. This transmission could be from a pre-symptomatic person or a truly asymptomatic case, depending on how the terms are being used.
Where I think I disagree with the author is where she deems the WHO “confusing” when they have been consistent and others have constantly misinterpreted the terminology, using their own definitions. That’s honestly not the WHO’s fault. It may be their problem, but it’s not their fault.
There are a few points of interest:
I’m cautiously optimistic that pre-symptomatic transmission is less of an issue than some think. It would mean that it’s possible to keep COVID-19 under control by tracing super-spreaders and squashing outbreaks quickly.
The U.S.‘s inability to squash its rate has less to do with pre-symptomatic transmission and more to do with an utter lack of planning, discipline, and organization. People in the U.S. don’t trust anyone or anything and they’re not particularly well-trained at doing anything for the common good, so their follow-through has been much less effective than in European countries.