Gates Package — page 987

rt book if everyone would just wear It is unfortunate that Americans have not grown more accepting of masks in the intervening century. The protests were at least as vocal and occasionally violent in 2020 as they were in 1918. Missing the value of masks is indeed, as the head of China's CDC said, one of the biggest mistakes made during the pandemic. If everyone had masked up early on--and if the world had had enough supplies to meet the demand--it would have blunted the spread of COVID dramatically. As a public health expert from the Gates Foundation told me over dinner one night, "How to Prevent the Next Pandemic would be a very short book if everyone would just wear masks." The benefit of masks has been proven around the world. In Bangladesh, for example, researchers ran a study involving nearly 350,000 adults in 600 villages.31 One group, about half of the people, were given free masks (some cloth, some surgical), information on the importance of using them, in-person reminders, and encouragement from religious and political leaders. The second group didn't get any of those things. After two months, proper mask use in the first group was up 42 percent, versus just 13 percent in the second group. People in the first group also had a lower COVID infection rate, and even five months later, they were still more likely to be using masks. It'll be interesting to see whether the social standards on wearing masks change much as a result of COVID. In March 2020, I went to an in-person meeting while I was feeling under the weather. Because the CDC hadn't recommended masks yet, I didn't wear one. Luckily, I later found out that I'd had the flu and not COVID, but I feel bad that I was there with respiratory symptoms without taking a measure that might have reduced the chance of spread. Knowing what I know now, I would either join that meeting virtually, or I'd wear a mask.