SHORTLY after President Joko Widodo announced that the public may forego mask use in open areas on Tuesday, May 17, a lot of activity ensued in a WhatsApp group of epidemiologists and the health minister. The public health experts there had pro and contra stances regarding this announcement made amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Windhu Purnomo, an epidemiologist from Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, who is a member of that group, cal