> You can't say with such certainty that masks caused that reduction - in the simplested terms there are too many uncontrolled variables. There really aren't.

> You can't say with such certainty that masks caused that reduction - in the simplested terms there are too many uncontrolled variables. There really aren't. This was the only major change in that period for 6 million people. > As one example - was the rate of testing over that time the same? More or less (https://covidlive.com.au/report/daily-tests/vic https://covidlive.com.au/report/daily-tests/vic). The positivity rate was also quite high during that period, likely obscuring the full effect that masks have. > That's hardly scientific though. It's better. What happens in a petri dish doesn't always translate to what happens in the real world.