Biden says Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks or not

Last update: Wednesday 4/20/22 

Here's the first paragraph of an article in the NY Times on 4/19/22. "President Biden said on Tuesday that Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks, undercutting efforts by his administration to urge Americans to keep wearing face coverings on airplanes, trains and buses even after a federal judge struck down a nationwide mask mandate on public transport."

Below find two links: the first is to an article that describes the judge's decision to nullify the CDC's mandate for masks on planes and public transports; the second describes Biden's reaction.

• "Federal Judge Strikes Down Mask Mandate for Planes and Public Transit", Charlie Savage and Heather Murphy, NY Times, 4/18/22 
• "Biden says Americans should decide for themselves if they want to wear masks on public transportation.", Katie Rogers, NY Times, 4/19/22

As suggested by the closing words of the first paragraph of this blog note, the president's words are confusing, but the confusion derives from the confusing context created by the CDC. 

Readers may recall that the Alpha variant was far more transmissible than the original variant of the transmissible; the Delta variant was two to three times as transmissible as Alpha; the Omicron was two to three times as transmissible as Delta; and the BA-2 subvariant is supposed to be at least 50 percent more transmissible than the first Omicron. Yet throughout all of these biblical "begats" from one variant to the next, the CDC has vehemently asserted the substantial protective value of cloth masks. 

Yes, cloth masks reduced the spread of the original variant if everybody wore them. However their protective value declined again and again as variants became more and more transmissible. Today they have so little remaining value that given a choice between wearing a cloth mask in indoor public spaces or staying at home, the only responsible option nowadays is staying at home. 

Fortunately, high quality respirators, like N95s, protect their wearers from catching the virus no matter what other people are wearing or not wearing. In other words, if you are wearing a properly fitted respirator, you can travel safely on planes and buses that are no longer subjected to mask mandates.

Unfortunately, there are a few important caveats to this optimistic assessment:

• First, your respirator must be correctly fitted to your face. For example, if you wear glasses that get fogged up, you are not wearing your N95 correctly. 
  
  
• Manufacturers don't make respirators that are small enough to snugly fit the faces of small children.
  
  
• Nothing is perfect. N95s greatly reduce your exposure to pathogens in the air, but like vaccines and boosters that protect you from severe illness, a very small percentage of N95 wearers may contract the virus. This level of risk should be acceptably low to everyone  ... except persons who are immunocompromised ... or have other underlying health conditions for which any infection may lead to severe illness ... or persons whose households include persons who are immunocompromised or have high risk underlying health conditions.
  
  
• Finally, cloth masks can be washed, then reused; respirators cannot; so respirators add a new cost to their users' costs of living. Most people who travel by plane or roll around in Ubers can afford this additional cost; but some people who use buses, metros, and other public transport cannot.

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Links to related notes on this blog:  

• "Omicron Defense" -- a news page that provides an overview of tools for coping with Omicron is updated on Wednesdays and Thursdays