COVID-19: Why is the Greatest Country Ever Still Short of Masks?

Worldometer:

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 205 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances. The day is reset after midnight GMT+0.

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Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths	Total Recovered	Active Cases	Serious, Critical	Tot Cases/ 1M pop	Deaths/ 1M pop	Total Tests	Tests/ 1M pop
World	1,182,827	+66,184	63,925	+4,755	244,224	874,678	41,965	152	8.2
USA	301,147	+23,986	8,173	+769	14,518	278,456	7,973	910	25	1,502,729	4,540
Spain	124,736	+5,537	11,744	+546	34,219	78,773	6,416	2,668	251	355,000	7,593
Italy	124,632	+4,805	15,362	+681	20,996	88,274	3,994	2,061	254	657,224	10,870
Germany	92,150	+991	1,330	+55	26,400	64,420	3,936	1,100	16	918,460	10,962
France	89,953	+7,788	7,560	+1,053	15,438	66,955	6,838	1,378	116	224,254	3,436
China	81,639	+19	3,326	+4	76,755	1,558	331	57	2
Iran	55,743	+2,560	3,452	+158	19,736	32,555	4,103	664	41	80,000	952
UK	41,903	+3,735	4,313	+708	135	37,455	163	617	64	183,190	2,698

New cases:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

Mar 23          9  601       85      435            24               7        1631

        24         7  743     100      489            33               9        1983

        25         4  683     129      454            47               6        1987

        26         6  712       73      498            33               5        1801

        27         5  919     182      569            71               8        2782

        28         3  889     241      674            52               5        2609
        29         5  756     169      624            49               8        2706
        30         4  812     271      537            19               6        2849
        31         5  837     439      553            37               4        3661
Apr    1         7  727     589      463            83               3        3239
          2         6  760     522      709          158               4        4183

          3         4  766     716      587          123               5        3822

          4         4  681     769      546            55               3        4755

Summary:

• New deaths in the USA and World continue to increase.
• Italy and Spain seem to be past their peaks, although Europe is now the epicenter.  France had 1053 new deaths, more than the USA with 769.
• China and South Korea continue to approach zero new deaths.
• There was another fear story on the news, this time, about Brazil, with their festering favelas (shantytowns).  But Brazil only has a total of 376 deaths, with 13 new deaths.  Their deaths per million people figure is a very low 2, while the World is at 8.2 and USA 25, with both Spain and Italy around 250.  In South America, watch Ecuador.  Only 172 deaths, but with 27 new deaths.
• Otherwise, the rest of the World today, as reported, seems to be riding out this pandemic.

Spinoffs:

• The tragedy of Donald Trump and this pandemic was symbolically illuminated by the Navy firing of Captain Brett Crozier, commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.  Here is a Fox Channel clip reporting on this courageous act, sacrificing his naval career by communicating up his chain of command to save his crew.  They are cheering "Captain Crozier."  Brings tear to your eyes.  To quote The New York Times:

His removal from prestigious command of an aircraft carrier with almost 5,000 crew members has taken on an added significance, as his punishment is viewed by some in the military as indicative of the government’s handling of the entire pandemic, with public officials presenting upbeat pictures of the government’s response, while contrary voices are silenced.

• Are you confused whether you should use a face mask or not?  

Here is a complete timeline of important events and decisions compiled by Brookings regarding this pandemic.  It's been more than two months since President Trump barred people from China to enter the USA.  Good decision.  But about face masks?  Yes, they want you, generally, not to have them unless absolutely necessary, for fear that healthcare workers can.  But two months later, the simple fact is that the greatest country ever still does not have enough of them for everyone.  Why?  Almost anyone can make them.  Yet, we're still importing them from China.  Why?  First, the White House was slow to act.  That was almost criminal.  

The other reason is that those countries that overcame this novel coronavirus are those where everyone already owned a lot of them.  I would guess that there were 10-100 times more face masks/capita in countries like China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan compared to the USA.  Plus, they were comfortable with them.  Just about every one who had a cold wore them when they went out.  Thus, any contagion is regularly minimized.  Couldn't find any evidence, but does anyone know if seasonal flu cases per capita is lower in the Orient?

Why so many face masks in the Orient?  Air pollution!!!  I remember wearing them when I was in Beijing (because of industrial pollution and vehicles), Singapore (man-made forest fires to clear land in Indonesia), Seoul (air pollution and natural dust from China), Osaka (same as Seoul) and Delhi (vehicles and industry).

The irony is that we legislated our country to largely cure air pollution by controlling stack gases and improving car efficiency, where they're also all equipped with the proper exhaust system.  Otherwise, we'd have had a lot more masks in possession.  Someone should tell President Donald Trump that lowering vehicle efficiency standards and allowing for additional stack gas pollution will not cure the nation from COVID-19.  But such is the nature of this White House.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced that “CDC is advising the use of non-medical cloth faced covering as an additional voluntary public health measure.” Trump himself said he does not plan on wearing a face mask.

Today, the CDC finally came around and said that people should wear "simple cloth face coverings."  The nation remains short of personal protection equipment for healthcare personnel, and we still are far short of those mythical N95 masks.  Note that the technology has improved to N100 masks, but these cost around ten times more than the N95 version.

On social media, the #Masks4All campaign was started by Jeremy Howard, a distinguished research scientist at the University of San Francisco and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council. The #Masks4All movement doesn’t just push for people to wear masks, but also to make their own face masks at home to ensure that health-care workers have access to supplies.

Great about face masks, but what about your eyes?  This virus can enter your eyes too.  Opthalmologists suggest abandoning your contacts for glasses.  But this virus can still sneak into your eyes, so goggles are better.  I went one better by buying a face shield.  Read about my difficulties in ordering one.  It's been ten days, and still no delivery.

The recommendation is to still use a face mask even with a shield.  Of course, if you go out, should you wear this outfit to the left?  Well, no, because that would be taking away scarce PPE from the frontline.

About why the USA remains short of masks?  Too bad we cleaned up our air.  But the main reason is that the White House leadership, with a priority of keeping the stock market high, kept downplaying the pandemic, and hoped this inconvenience would go away.  Still waiting for something called REDEMPTION.

In any case:

About my promise to complement this COVID-19 matter with the need to move on with our life even in lockdown, the WINE posting will come soon.  Maybe tomorrow.

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