Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day since coronavirus
Speaker 1: was declared a global pandemic. Our main story today. The
Speaker 1: question of whether healthy people should wear masks to protect
Speaker 1: from COVID nineteen has been surprisingly hard to answer, Even
Speaker 1: as more places adopt widespread maskius, health agencies can't agree
Speaker 1: on their official recommendations. The shifting rules around covering our
Speaker 1: faces have made it harder to trust authorities about what
Speaker 1: will control the spread of the virus. But first, here's
Speaker 1: what happened today. New York State reported its largest increase
Speaker 1: in coronavirus deaths on Tuesday. Even so, there are signs
Speaker 1: that infection rates in New York are leveling off. The
Speaker 1: number of new cases reported has steadily dropped since Friday's peak.
Speaker 1: The United Kingdom also reported a record number of deaths
Speaker 1: in a single day, but in China, for the first
Speaker 1: time since the pandemic emerged in December, the country said
Speaker 1: it had no new deaths. The Chinese government formally ended
Speaker 1: the lockdown in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak first emerged,
Speaker 1: after seventy six days. The strict measures imposed to combat
Speaker 1: the virus have been lifted. How Speaker Nancy Pelosi says
Speaker 1: Congress's next stimulus bill to prop up the U S
Speaker 1: economy will be at least another one trillion dollars. On
Speaker 1: a private conference call with Democrats, the Speaker said the
Speaker 1: package would focus on replenishing funds for programs. Those funds
Speaker 1: had been established in Congress's two point to trillion dollar
Speaker 1: virus Relief Bill, which was signed into law last month.
Speaker 1: Pelosi said there should be a dish a direct payments
Speaker 1: to individuals, extended unemployment insurance, more resources for food stamps,
Speaker 1: and more funds for the Payroll Protection Plan that provides
Speaker 1: loans to small businesses. Now for today's main story, US
Speaker 1: health officials and the World Health Organization are sending conflicting
Speaker 1: signals on the value of wearing masks in public. At
Speaker 1: the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the world's leading health
Speaker 1: authorities told the public that there was no need for
Speaker 1: masks unless you were ill or looking after someone who was.
Speaker 1: But after more studies suggested people without symptoms could be
Speaker 1: spreading the virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and
Speaker 1: Prevention recently changed their guidelines suggesting people cover their faces
Speaker 1: to help slow transmission. The World Health Organization, though held
Speaker 1: back from making the same recommendation. The confused and over
Speaker 1: face masks is just one more example of how our
Speaker 1: understanding of the virus and how to fight against it
Speaker 1: is constantly changing. As London based Bloomberg News reporter James
Speaker 1: Payton explains, this changing messaging makes it hard for the
Speaker 1: public to know what information to take seriously. It also
Speaker 1: presents challenges in persuading people to change their behavior to
Speaker 1: help prevent future pandemics. The streets of London or New
Speaker 1: York today look much different than they did even a
Speaker 1: week ago. Lots of people have their faces covered somewhere
Speaker 1: commercial surgical mass, others improvised with bandanas or so their own.
Speaker 1: A few even sport that coveted, and nine mass that
Speaker 1: are in such short supply among healthcare providers. What's clear
Speaker 1: is that something has changed in these cities. Until recently,
Speaker 1: few people were mass in public. What's not clear is
Speaker 1: how much they help. Outside of hospitals and clinics. The
Speaker 1: w h O and CDC are now at odds so
Speaker 1: over whether everyone should wear mass. Dr Anthony Fauci is
Speaker 1: America's top medical expert on the coronavirus. He recently appeared
Speaker 1: on Fox News to say even simple coverings could make
Speaker 1: a difference, especially for those situations when you're at the
Speaker 1: grocery store or pharmacy, for instance, and it's difficult to
Speaker 1: stay six ft away from others. Because of some recent
Speaker 1: information that the virus can actually be spread even when
Speaker 1: people just speak, as opposed to coughing and sneezing, the
Speaker 1: better part of valor is that when you're out and
Speaker 1: you can't maintain that six foot distance, to wear some
Speaker 1: sort of facial covering. Health officials say basic mass won't
Speaker 1: protect you if you're healthy, but they worry that if
Speaker 1: you are infected and don't show any signs of sickness,
Speaker 1: you could unwittingly spread the disease. A number of countries
Speaker 1: and cities around the world have already embraced the idea
Speaker 1: of wearing masks in public check citizens have in ordered
Speaker 1: to wear masks outside their homes, and officials from New
Speaker 1: York to Los Angeles have instructed residents to cover up. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the WHO is still urging people to wear mass if
Speaker 1: they show symptoms or they're taking care of those who
Speaker 1: are ill. The shifting recommendations are coming as scientists race
Speaker 1: to understand the virus and how it spreads. A study
Speaker 1: published last week and the journal Nature showed that flat
Speaker 1: surgical face masks reduced the droplets released from the nose
Speaker 1: and mouth into the air, and there are some indications
Speaker 1: the widespread wearing of mass could have helped lower transmission
Speaker 1: and outbreaks of other respiratory illnesses such as stars and influenza.
Speaker 1: While a scientific consensus has yet to emerge, the research
Speaker 1: and supportive face mass is growing. But while health officials
Speaker 1: are pushing this message that everyone should wear masks, it
Speaker 1: also could create new problems. Scott Gottlieb is a former
Speaker 1: Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Key points to one debate
Speaker 1: around wearing a mask. Even if it can cut down
Speaker 1: on transmission, it's likely a lot of people will use
Speaker 1: it incorrectly and still potentially spread the virus. They'll reuse
Speaker 1: the mask. If they have a mask on, they're going
Speaker 1: to be more apt to touch their face, and so
Speaker 1: that's why health professionals say, well, masks in the general
Speaker 1: population don't really reduce the risk because most people aren't
Speaker 1: gonna wear it right. They're gonna wear one mask for
Speaker 1: a whole week. They're not going to change it. It's
Speaker 1: gonna get more, it's gonna get contaminated. When they have
Speaker 1: the mask on, they're gonna be constantly adjusting it, and
Speaker 1: that's going to increase the risk that they transmit infection
Speaker 1: because a lot of the transmission is through touching of
Speaker 1: contaminated surfaces and then touching your face. But the value
Speaker 1: of the mask, the real substantial value is in cutting
Speaker 1: the risk of transmission. So when you have a virus
Speaker 1: like this where a lot of the transmission is asymptomatic, people,
Speaker 1: if you mandate that they wear masks when they go out,
Speaker 1: it's gonna cut their risk of giving the infection to you.
Speaker 1: Another risk is that promoting mass will give the public
Speaker 1: a false sense of protection that would encourage them to
Speaker 1: go out more and abandon physical distancing. Health authorities also
Speaker 1: discourage wearing mass out of fear that people would hoard
Speaker 1: them that could worsen shortages for doctors, nurses, and other
Speaker 1: healthcare workers. Even if authorities aren't recommending the highly protective
Speaker 1: surgical grade products that are scarce and used in hospitals,
Speaker 1: wearing masks to limit disease transmission is a common practice
Speaker 1: in many Asian countries. It took off during the Stars
Speaker 1: epidemic of two thousand three, and health authorities there say
Speaker 1: wearing masks can make a real difference. Widespread mask use
Speaker 1: was cited as one of the reasons Hong Kong limited
Speaker 1: the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. Now the CDC
Speaker 1: is following. Asia's lead officials say mass do help limit
Speaker 1: that transmission, and to solve the issue of shortages, have
Speaker 1: emphasized that the type of mass ordinary people where need
Speaker 1: not be hospital grade. New York City mayor build A Blasio,
Speaker 1: ordered the city's residents to cover their face with just
Speaker 1: about anything last week. Let's be clear, this is a
Speaker 1: face covering. Again. We'll talk about the details in the moment.
Speaker 1: But it could be a scarf. Uh, It could be
Speaker 1: something you create yourself at home. It could be a bandana.
Speaker 1: It does not not need to be professional surgical mask.
Speaker 1: In fact, we don't want you to use the kinds
Speaker 1: of masks that our first responders need. Scott Gottlieb, the
Speaker 1: former FDA commissioner, put together a roadmap for escaping the
Speaker 1: crisis with several other experts, published by the American Enterprise Institute,
Speaker 1: the conservative think tank. They suggest everyone, including those without symptoms,
Speaker 1: should cover up. Gotlieb says, we just need to get
Speaker 1: over our discomfort with the idea. Introducing the mask as
Speaker 1: you lift those shelter and place orders might be a
Speaker 1: good way to have a slow transition towards, you know,
Speaker 1: people going out again, and we might become a culture
Speaker 1: going forward where the wearing of masks in public, um,
Speaker 1: you know, is more common. I think we might have
Speaker 1: made a mistake by shaming the use of masks at
Speaker 1: the outset as heavily as we did. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have masks at home right now. They bought masks,
Speaker 1: they have they've had them for a long time, and
Speaker 1: they're reluctant to wear them because they, you know, they
Speaker 1: were ashamed into not wearing them. So they have something
Speaker 1: that could potentially be affording them a certain degree of
Speaker 1: protection and not even using it. And so I think
Speaker 1: we need to rethink how we how we think about masks,
Speaker 1: how we talk about masks with consumers, how we educate
Speaker 1: consumers to use masks appropriately, because on the margin, they're
Speaker 1: probably incrementally helpful when used appropriately in the right setting.
Speaker 1: If wearing masks in public places where it's difficult to
Speaker 1: maintain a distance. Is a prudent way to help slow
Speaker 1: the spread of the coronavirus. It begs the question should
Speaker 1: we have been wearing them all along? The director of
Speaker 1: the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, George Gau,
Speaker 1: told the journal Science last month he believes America and
Speaker 1: Europe were making a big mistake by not telling the
Speaker 1: public to wear masks during the widening epidemic. That suggests
Speaker 1: we could look back on this as a missed opportunity.
Speaker 1: For now, there's likely to be more confusion over mass wearing.
Speaker 1: Maybe the best advice is just where something over your
Speaker 1: face when you go out. As New York Governor Andrew
Speaker 1: Cuomo said last week, it couldn't hurt. Assuming you keep
Speaker 1: your guard up, You'll probably have plenty of company. What
Speaker 1: would have drawn stairs in the US or Europe just
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago is increasingly normal. And that was
Speaker 1: James Payton in London. And that's it for the Prognosis
Speaker 1: Daily edition. For more on the pandemic from our bureaus
Speaker 1: around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus, and
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Speaker 1: or Spotify. It helps more listeners find our global reporting.
Speaker 1: The Prognosis Daily edition is hosted by Me Laura Carlson.
Speaker 1: The show is produced by Me Tophor Forehaz, Jordan Gaspoure,
Speaker 1: and Magnus Hendrickson. Additional reporting by James Peyton. Original music
Speaker 1: by Leo Sidrian. Our editors are Francesco Levi and Rick Shine.
Speaker 1: Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.