Yes, experts will lie to you sometimes

Re:Yes, experts will lie to you sometimes by yorwba on Monday March 29, 2021 @11:26AM (#26623163)

Sometimes, "not recommended" is used as an euphemism for "bad for you". As in "Alcohol is generally not recommended for people who take certain prescription drugs." It doesn't exactly help that this is common in medical lingo.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Yes, experts will lie to you sometimes by scoutt on Monday March 29, 2021 @11:31AM (#26623252)

"initially not recommended to the general public so that first responders wouldn’t feel the strain of a shortage of PPE."

To me, that doesn't sound as "bad for you". Maybe if "not recommended" is taken out of context (and extrapolating that into "not recommended because masks don't work").

It's still not a lie, as far as I can tell.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Yes, experts will lie to you sometimes by ghaff on Monday March 29, 2021 @12:36PM (#26624401)

What a lot of people would like to have heard in retrospect is something like the following even if a bit sugar-coated:

N95 masks are strongly believed to help but do not buy them. Save them for health care workers. We do encourage you to wear bandanas, gaiters/buffs, homemade cloth masks, or other non-medical PPEs. They are of unknown efficacy but they can't hurt. But don't buy N95s.

Which a lot of people would have heard as: You really should be wearing N95 masks and others won't do you much if any good but we need to save them for the important people.

(At which point, a lot of people would have been F this and tried to buy N95 masks for their own protection.)

[ Parent | on HN ]