Some advice to progressive bloggers today: Do not get into an argument over wearing face masks in an epidemic. I got e-mails about that one! All, I did was mention in the last paragraph of a commentary that we should not waste time wearing ‘make-believe’ surgical masks. What I was referring to was the suggestion from the American centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) that any home-made mask will do.
When you think about it, that is a typical civil servant’s response to a dim-witted politician. Some senior person at the CDC must have said to another, “The president wants us to approve face masks. As long as the public doesn’t use the good surgical masks, our medical people need, let the public make any fashion statement they want.”
A friend called me the other day and said if he did not know I did not like having my in-box cluttered with jokes, he would have sent me a very funny series about the various masks people are wearing. His favourite was a picture of a couple with matching face masks made with sanitary napkins.
But a far more serious concern is the ignorance of president Donald Trump. He has followers you know! These people are actually sharing fake news articles about the use of hydroxychloroquine. I am no chemist or doctor but, at one time, I sat through the details of many millions of dollars being spent on medical research.
My simple role, as president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, was to sign the cheques, but I always took an interest in the discussions of the medical specialists. The only problem was that, as president, I also had to listen to every crackpot idea that might have come from otherwise serious researchers, whose ideas had been rejected in peer review.
The simple facts are that what Donald Trump or I think of the proposed hydroxychloroquine treatment does not matter. It is only a review by experienced medical research professionals that counts. Until then we should both shut up about it.
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Copyright 2020 © Peter Lowry
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