Quote
from
Doctors unleash on politics as coronavirus spikes: 'No other country debates masks'[
www.yahoo.com]
social distancing and the use of masks in public have become a source of contention among those who feel it violates their personal freedoms.
In a series of interviews, doctors on the front lines in states where COVID-19 infections are exploding lamented the controversy in stark terms. They argue that mixed messages from mayors, governors and President Donald Trump are making it harder for people to appreciate the need for masking — especially as infections among younger citizens jump sharply.
“Honestly the politicization of science is one of our incredible societal downfalls. Science should not be politics,” Dr. Hilary Fairbrother, a Houston emergency medicine physician, told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. The Lone Star state is in the throes of a record number of cases that threatens to overwhelm health systems in major cities like Dallas and Houston.
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“We have a very different culture here. There’s no other country I know of in the world that debates masks,” added Dr. Murtaza Akhter, [professor in the University of Arizona’s Department of Emergency Medicine]. “People don't even debate seatbelts anymore... but to debate masks during a pandemic is so utterly ironic that it's hard to comprehend.”
Akhter, who accused Arizona’s governor of “passing the buck” on using face masks, said the coronavirus “doesn’t know state, city borders or national borders, it transcends all borders and all people. So the problem with having some people wearing masks and others not wearing them, is that the threat [of spreading] is still going to be there.”
