New national mask standards seek federal approval and would add effectiveness label
ASTM International released new national mask standards that could help Americans choose face mask protection based on two labels of effectiveness. Author: Heather Hope (Reporter) Updated: 7:03 PM PST February 18, 2021
SAN DIEGO There is a science to picking the proper mask, and now with new national standards awaiting federal approval, the goal is to put a label on each mask to determine their effectiveness, just like with sunscreen SPF numbers. We want to make sure that there are no gaps, and then you want to breathe in and feel whether the air is coming in,” said Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam, President and Professor at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
An Elimination Strategy for COVID-19
Published on Feb 17, 2021
Video Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] JOHN WHYTE: Welcome, everyone. You re watching Coronavirus in Context. I m Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Officer at WebMD. Everyone is talking about the variant and how we need to vaccinate as many people as we can. But some experts are suggesting that s not enough. We actually need a no-COVID strategy, an elimination strategy. So to help explain what that means, I ve asked Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam to come back. He is Professor and President of the New England Complex Systems Institute. Dr. Bar-Yam, welcome back. YANEER BAR-YAM: Thank you.
Last modified on Mon 15 Feb 2021 07.17 EST
The dilemmas are achingly familiar by now. Should we lock down or stay open? If we lock down, when and in what order should the different sectors of the economy open up? What about schools? Places of worship? Cultural and sporting venues?
In each case, the question being asked is essentially the same: is saving
x lives from Covid-19 worth
y potential damage to society? The question is usually framed in terms of damage to the economy rather than damage to society, because the former is easier to measure (how do you measure the damage done to religious people of not being able to pray together, to schoolchildren of not being able to mix, or to any of us of being deprived of art?) That calculation is complex enough, but feeding into it is another that’s even more morally fraught: are some human lives more valuable than others?
The real answer to our dire situation is maddeningly obvious: adopt a strong elimination strategy rather than trying to chaotically manage a disease that
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A five-week lockdown could squash viral transmission, one researcher argues.
Yaneer Bar-Yam uses a fire analogy. It’s a simple scenario, says the American scientist specialized in the quantitative analysis of pandemics: there’s a fire in your living room. You can go hide in the basement where you can’t smell the smoke and see the flames or you can put the fire out.
So far there, many are headed for the basement.
We’re back to flattening the curve.
US President Biden signed an order in January mandating masks in airports and on many planes, trains, ships and intercity buses. The US was one of the very few countries where this had not been mandated, and as a nation hungry for true leadership and reasonable policies, his orders were well received.