The masks story fits the template of bounded distrust. You sum it up here as:
Let me tell you a story, in three acts.
All masks don’t work unless you’re a health professional.
All masks work.
Cloth masks don’t work.
At each stage of this story, scientists got on television to tout the current line. At each stage of this story, the ‘science denier’ style labels got used and contrary views were considered ‘dangerous misinformation.’
Those were the gestalt of the era, not the words that the top experts were saying. Focusing in just on the first act:
Look at the words that Fauci or the CDC were saying in March 2020, and it wasn’t “wearing a mask won’t reduce your chances of getting covid at all.”
The quote from the CDC which got discussed on LW was “CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including COVID-19.” This isn’t directly saying anything about the world (except about what the CDC is recommending); the CDC generally speaks in imperatives rather than declaratives.
Fauci said sentences like “When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is” (from this 90 sec video—IMO watching the video gives a better sense of what Fauci is up to). The content of that sentence is that the risk reduction from masks is probably > 0% but is < 100%, but it’s said in a way that can easily give an impression that rounds off to “don’t work.” Some interesting rhetorical moves here, like comparing to the standard of “perfect perfect”, and switching to very concrete language (“block a droplet”) and tentative phrasing (“might even”) when discussing the benefits rather than using any word like “effective” or “helps” or “prevents” which fits neatly into the concept templates that people are ready to act on.
It’s the sort of situation where, if you’re half paying attention to the chatter and inclined to believe what you hear, then you’ll come away thinking that masks don’t work. But my recollection is that, once I had reason to think that think mask-wearing would reduce my chances of getting covid (late Feb?), I didn’t come across any instances where a person who would know clearly said ‘no, you’re wrong about that, masks don’t work at all.’
I think the US Surgeon General’s tweet pretty straightforwardly has that as an interpretation, that wearing a mask as part of the general public does not reduce your Covid risk.
The masks story fits the template of bounded distrust. You sum it up here as:
Those were the gestalt of the era, not the words that the top experts were saying. Focusing in just on the first act:
Look at the words that Fauci or the CDC were saying in March 2020, and it wasn’t “wearing a mask won’t reduce your chances of getting covid at all.”
The quote from the CDC which got discussed on LW was “CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including COVID-19.” This isn’t directly saying anything about the world (except about what the CDC is recommending); the CDC generally speaks in imperatives rather than declaratives.
Fauci said sentences like “When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is” (from this 90 sec video—IMO watching the video gives a better sense of what Fauci is up to). The content of that sentence is that the risk reduction from masks is probably > 0% but is < 100%, but it’s said in a way that can easily give an impression that rounds off to “don’t work.” Some interesting rhetorical moves here, like comparing to the standard of “perfect perfect”, and switching to very concrete language (“block a droplet”) and tentative phrasing (“might even”) when discussing the benefits rather than using any word like “effective” or “helps” or “prevents” which fits neatly into the concept templates that people are ready to act on.
It’s the sort of situation where, if you’re half paying attention to the chatter and inclined to believe what you hear, then you’ll come away thinking that masks don’t work. But my recollection is that, once I had reason to think that think mask-wearing would reduce my chances of getting covid (late Feb?), I didn’t come across any instances where a person who would know clearly said ‘no, you’re wrong about that, masks don’t work at all.’
I think the US Surgeon General’s tweet pretty straightforwardly has that as an interpretation, that wearing a mask as part of the general public does not reduce your Covid risk.