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A comment on A concept that took hold in the ’70s haunted everything from seat belts to masks. Parent comment

Re:A concept that took hold in the ’70s haunted everything f... by jquery on Friday November 19, 2021 @11:25AM (#29278879)
There weren’t enough masks for health care workers at the time and we were facing a possible meltdown of the entire health care industry (and societal meltdown). Advising people not to hoard masks, and instead leave them for health care workers, was probably the right move. Even if our government said “go get masked up” nothing would’ve changed, as proper masks were out of stock for months.

I’m not saying the deception was necessary, just illustrating it’s not black and white. It would’ve become a partisan issue regardless with Trump doing his performative masculinity routine and refusing to wear them.

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Re:A concept that took hold in the ’70s haunted everything f... by emodendroket on Friday November 19, 2021 @01:08PM (#29280320)
But the deception is specifically what I'm objecting to. Yes, it would have been quite reasonable to say "healthcare workers need the masks -- please leave them for them." By doing a public volte-face, the medical authorities opened the door to questioning of their advice and the "macho posturing" that you're talking about. I'm not convinced that it would have played out the same if they hadn't made such a foolish decision.
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