CDC's New Symptoms

I agree with you totally - they did not stockpile any (even though they have stockpiled smallpox vaccine and so they understand the idea). When I tell people I bought masks in 2010, they probably think I am a 'smart arse', but my point is (even if I am a smart arse!) that I knew this would come and so did many others from reports I read in national media. It was 'when?' not 'if'. Btw, same with the 2008-2009 financial crisis which caught governments by surprise - I read many reports (esp by economic's journalist William Keegan) of this looming financial crisis as it was based on unsustainable debt. Same as now!

But I have been thinking if there was some resistance to masks in the West due to a perception of being bound and gagged as a form of assault. I note that people are becoming more accepting of a mask - perhaps because they now realise it could save them (I am reading reports of people who have been infected saying "I wish I had worn a mask" and that type of message has value) or perhaps, as many masks are being made to look fashionable, they broke the link with control (of which being gagged is a form). Of course the 'instagram generation' would even wear handcuffs is they were told it looks fashionable - as long as their ts and bs still show!