Interview with Director General of China's CDC + Video

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Health
Medicine
Edward Hessler

The journal Science published an interview (March 27) with George Gao, who is the director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, on what his country has learned from China's management  of COVID-19. Jon Cohen was the interviewer and author of the update.

Please read all of it. It is very good.

I will be especially interested  in the response from our government on what Dr. Gao had to say about wearing face masks. This answer struck me in the face without the hand, so to speak.

"The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others."

The only thing I have that comes close to a mask is a bandana and in this country masks are already scarce for health care workers and others who have to deal directly with infected people. 

However, high quality N-95 masks are not required (see below) These should not be used but given to health care providers--to front line people. The nearly any-of-a-kind masks are a way of a preventing hand-to-face contact.

Update:  Yesterday Professor Jerry Coyne (WEIT) called attention to the video Protecting Your Family From COVID-19 by Dr. David Price (Weil Cornell Hospital (NYC}. Price is a critical care lung specialist--pulmonologist. The video is long (57 m 06 s) and cuts out a bit. It includes  answers to good questions, too. It has more than 350000 views.