Pedestrians walk past a mural that appears to show Bernie Sanders' eyes, in downtown Los Angeles, California during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic on April 14, 2020. (ROBYN BECK / AFP)
WASHINGTON — Wearing masks has long been regarded by Americans as unnecessary for healthy people. Yet, since just about half a month ago, it has become a common practice for grocery goers as well as on duty apartment concierges.
Although Americans have generally abided by the federal government's guidelines asking them to keep social distance and avoid group gatherings, wearing masks has been harder to come by
The change occurred against the backdrop of the United States becoming the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the country's coronavirus deaths the highest around the globe.
MASK WEARING
Although Americans have generally abided by the federal government's guidelines asking them to keep social distance, avoid group gatherings and practice good hygiene, wearing masks has been harder to come by.
Not only were most Americans still reluctant to wear masks when the coronavirus ravaged the country, they also doubted the effectiveness of doing so in preventing the transmission of the disease, believing that only sick people need to wear them.
Some were even physically attacked for covering their faces.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which previously did not suggest that healthy people wear masks, put out a recommendation on April 3 for the use of "cloth face coverings" in light of the large number of asymptomatic
bearers of coronavirus, Americans finally began to realize the merits of such practices.
As a result, more and more of them have since chosen to wear masks, scarfs or other makeshift coverings.
Zhang Siqi, a visiting scholar at Duke University, recalls the reaction of an employee at her local Costco wholesale store when seeing her talking while wearing a mask in mid-March.
"She was sanitizing the handrail of my shopping cart with disinfecting wipes," Zhang said. "When I explained to her that she didn't need to do so since I was wearing the mask, she got so nervous and scared that she suddenly jumped two meters away from me, not at all caring about what I said."
Zhang said the employee's reaction made her feel unwelcome, "as if the virus was erupting from my mouth as I spoke."
Things have changed now. When Zhang and her fellow members from the North Carolina Chinese Scholars Sino-US Exchange Association went to a local police station on April 10 to donate two boxes of masks, a police officer was very grateful, saying he would encourage his colleagues to wear them.
The change in Americans' attitude towards wearing masks is reflective of the Chinese experience in combating the virus more objectively and rationally.
Gradually abandoning previous misperceptions, Americans have come to understand that those wearing masks do not necessarily carry the virus. People do so to effectively prevent the virus from further spreading.
As the police officer told Zhang, "We'll get through this together."
CHINA'S EXPERIENCE
A hospitalist in the US state of Washington said nurses in his hospital would pat on the patient's back to help get the mucus out -- a practice commonly adopted in Chinese hospitals.
Having treated more than 20 COVID-19 patients, the hospitalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he will discharge a patient when his or her two consecutive polymerase chain reaction tests for COVID-19 are both negative, and when he or she maintains smooth breathing and does not have fever for three consecutive days.
Chinese experience, according to the hospitalist, has contributed to setting those standards
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Chinese experience, according to the hospitalist, has contributed to setting those standards.
The hospitalist also said a growing number of his colleagues are now wearing masks. "That was not the case in the past, except for those working in Intensive Care Units."
In US hospitals where COVID-19 patients were being treated, doctors and nurses failed to take sufficient protection during the early days. The hospitalist told Xinhua that three of his colleagues contracted the coronavirus for what he believed was not wearing masks at work.
"They were confused why I didn't get caught by the virus. After all, we work together every day," said the hospitalist. "I was not surprised at all, since I wear masks all the time and wash my hands quite often."
Ever since the coronavirus outbreak occurred in the United States, there has been constant criticism domestically of the US federal government for taking the issue lightly and acting too late, which led to rapid spread of the virus and skyrocketing fatalities.
Even Anthony Fauci, the current administration's top infectious disease expert and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has regretted the belated mitigation efforts.
"I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Monday.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic is raging around the globe, the US hospitalist said the strengths of the United States and China vis-a-vis the virus are complimentary.
While the United States' advantage lies in scientific research, China has accumulated precious clinical experience given its heavy caseload during the pandemic, the hospitalist said.
The hospitalist considered the exchange of ideas between US and Chinese medical workers to be both conducive and necessary. US clinicians like him need specific experience because so many unexpected turns of events can happen to COVID-19 patients in the wards, he said.
"China has gone through the same virus and gained experience, and what matters is that they have managed to contain it," said the hospitalist.
"If Chinese doctors have something to share, I really look forward to learning from them," he added.
