The data seems pretty comprehensive in favor of masks.

It's pretty baffling to me how much the anti-mask propaganda has taken off. Not only is there misinformation out there about how masks actually "activate" the virus, but there's also a surprisingly large contingent of folks who see it as an infringement on constitutional rights.

I'm in Virginia at the moment, and have noticed dozens of bumper stickers that are anti-mask. The President, of course, has been very anti-mask. Many conservative politicians -- Nino Vitale in Ohio, for instance -- have railed against masks.

It's truly odd that such a simple solution exists, a solution that allows us to largely re-open the economy with only a minor inconvenience, and yet so many are vehemently opposed.

We're in truly odd times.

The data doesn't really back this up. Like everything else, Americans view of the World Health Organization basically falls on partisan lines.
... [/QUOTE]
What is your personal impression of the WHO?

Here are my impressions. Had the WHO given out a correct information early, the spread might have been contained in China, and they have been consistently wrong. It's hard to imagine how any group could be so wrong on so many aspects of it.

Next to fail was CDC. They had a full month to prepare, to ramping up testing, and to building a system of contact tracing. Trump bought them a little extra time with his one correct move, banning travel from China, which bought about 2 extra weeks. Still, the CDC was only able to conduct a handful of tests while other countries were conducting thousands. CDC effectively blocked the tests developed by others, such as the University of Washington, by requiring their tests to be validated against SARS and MERS, but refusing to ship them samples of SARS and MERS.

Next up, Trump started injecting himself into the middle of the issue, one that he wasn't qualified to handle, and making crazy pronouncements like "poof, it will vanish". The CDC continued to be wrong for awhile, for example, advising against mask, and saying the virus could not aerosolize, but in their defense, it was partly because they were getting wrong information from the WHO. Meanwhile the WHO continued to give out wrong information at every turn.

After that, however, the CDC got going and did a fine job. Their testing finally began to ramp up, and they began approving the independent tests, further ramping up testing. They adjusted their views as new facts came in, such as data on aerosolization from UNMC. They reversed on masks, and recommended that everyone wear masks.

Thus, my opinion is that the CDC failed early, when it was most critical, but since those early errors is doing well. Sadly, the WHO is still issuing crazy pronouncements, such as recently saying that asymptomatic transmission is not a problem one day, and then retracting it the next. I believe they are still saying that there is no reason for non medical workers to wear masks.

Trump could have come out of this with dominant position for the election, and become unbeatable. Leaders almost always gain high approvals in times of crisis. All they have to is lead. Trump could have called for unity, then put experts in charge, and allowed them to do their job, and followed their recommendations. Had he done so, his popularity would have soared. He would gained support if the virus turned out to be nothing, because he was Presidential, and he would have gained support if it turned out to be serious, even if the economy crumbled, because he was decisive. Instead of taking the win-win position by acting Presidential, he took took the risky route, and made a huge bet that the virus would be no big deal, and go away on it's own. It hasn't, so his approval rating has fallen.

So, my grades:
CDC: C. They are doing very well now, but their early failure was costly. Their grade would be higher but for the fact that what is done early is critically important.
Trump: F. After banning travel early, he has done very poorly
WHO: F-. How could any group be more wrong on more issues? They were wrong early. Even today I think they still recommend against masks.

[QUOTE=Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame]...
From my vantage point, the handling of Covid became political basically immediately. From the left, the blame went to Trump. And because Trump's handling was so obviously terrible and the Right couldn't figure out a reasonable way to justify it, they tried to pass the buck onto the WHO and CDC. It seems to have worked, but only amongst Republicans.

...All that really proved was that Trump's base was more committed and turned out at a higher rate than expected, while Clinton's base was blase and turned out at a slightly lower rate than modeled...

What is your personal impression of the WHO?

Here are my impressions. Had the WHO given out a correct information early, the spread might have been contained in China, and they have been consistently wrong. It's hard to imagine how any group could be so wrong on so many aspects of it.

Next to fail was CDC. They had a full month to prepare, to ramping up testing, and to building a system of contact tracing. Trump bought them a little extra time with his one correct move, banning travel from China, which bought about 2 extra weeks. Still, the CDC was only able to conduct a handful of tests while other countries were conducting thousands. CDC effectively blocked the tests developed by others, such as the University of Washington, by requiring their tests to be validated against SARS and MERS, but refusing to ship them samples of SARS and MERS.

Next up, Trump started injecting himself into the middle of the issue, one that he wasn't qualified to handle, and making crazy pronouncements like "poof, it will vanish". The CDC continued to be wrong for awhile, for example, advising against mask, and saying the virus could not aerosolize, but in their defense, it was partly because they were getting wrong information from the WHO. Meanwhile the WHO continued to give out wrong information at every turn.

After that, however, the CDC got going and did a fine job. Their testing finally began to ramp up, and they began approving the independent tests, further ramping up testing. They adjusted their views as new facts came in, such as data on aerosolization from UNMC. They reversed on masks, and recommended that everyone wear masks.

Thus, my opinion is that the CDC failed early, when it was most critical, but since those early errors is doing well. Sadly, the WHO is still issuing crazy pronouncements, such as recently saying that asymptomatic transmission is not a problem one day, and then retracting it the next. I believe they are still saying that there is no reason for non medical workers to wear masks.

Trump could have come out of this with dominant position for the election, and become unbeatable. Leaders almost always gain high approvals in times of crisis. All they have to is lead. Trump could have called for unity, then put experts in charge, and allowed them to do their job, and followed their recommendations. Had he done so, his popularity would have soared. He would gained support if the virus turned out to be nothing, because he was Presidential, and he would have gained support if it turned out to be serious, even if the economy crumbled, because he was decisive. Instead of taking the win-win position by acting Presidential, he took took the risky route, and made a huge bet that the virus would be no big deal, and go away on it's own. It hasn't, so his approval rating has fallen.

So, my grades:
CDC: C. They are doing very well now, but their early failure was costly. Their grade would be higher but for the fact that what is done early is critically important.
Trump: F. After banning travel early, he has done very poorly
WHO: F-. How could any group be more wrong on more issues? They were wrong early. Even today I think they still recommend against masks.


I don't see this as a buck passing issue. The failing of one group does not forgive the failing of other groups. Errors by WHO do not absolve Trump, and errors by Trump do not absolve the WHO.

Here's an interesting poll, giving the approval rating for all 50 governors for their handing of Covid. It's a bit dated, from 3 weeks ago, before the recent surge, so opinions in some states may have changed significantly:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/approval-ratings-...

There are a bunch of red states on that list who have approval ratings for Trump's handling of the crisis close to 60%.

So I wouldn't waste my time looking to0 hard for a cause and effect with a lot of these approval ratings. Whether somebody approves or not seems largely driven by partisanship, not surprisingly. DeWine's one of the few that seems broadly popular across parties, actually.

You can require a Doctor's note. The Doctor's note doesn't have to provide details, but it's perfectly legal to make a doctor's note a required step in any accomodation made as an employer, particularly one that you deem to potentially put other employees at risk.