I think on balance you’re right masks probably don’t hurt, and this is a change from my initial views. I don’t think they’re quite as magical as people seem to

I think on balance you’re right masks probably don’t hurt, and this is a change from my initial views. I don’t think they’re quite as magical as people seem to think. For example if you wear glasses you’ll notice how easy it is to have them fog up with a mask that doesn’t fit well. Those are your droplets shooting vertically into the air. We don’t know how reused masks perform either esp. when they get dirty. Still, probably helps overall. Where it does cause harm is early on if everyone gets N95s and the docs can’t get enough (which absolutely happened) then that actually kills more people (docs, nurses, and the people they would have saved). The right message in retrospect should have been, “don’t go buy masks, save those for people who need the highest performance, but wear a cloth mask when indoors. Wash it frequently.” We screwed up, but it’s not malice and it is complicated.