Hand-washing and coughing etiquette were emphasised strongly at the beginning of the pandemic, before mask-wearing. But at the moment it actually seems that con

Hand-washing and coughing etiquette were emphasised strongly at the beginning of the pandemic, before mask-wearing. But at the moment it actually seems that contact infection is at most a minor — or virtually irrelevant — mode of infection. Hand-washing therefore almost certainly ranks way below mask-wearing in terms of effectiveness^1. As for the rest of the list, social distancing is strongly emphasised but incredibly hard to do in practice. It’s an extremely costly intervention, because it affects the economy both directly (workplaces) and indirectly (restaurants, cinemas …). And yet, notice how many countries still practice strict social distancing rules (albeit inconsistently and often not based on the best evidence). And as for coughing etiquette, I can’t remember when I last heard somebody cough or sneeze when out. I’m sure it happens (after all, it’s sometimes unavoidable) but it has definitely gotten much rarer. In sum, it’s a very strong claim to say that “masks are a pointless waste of time”, and almost certainly wildly off the mark. ^1 Of course hand-washing should be practiced nevertheless, because it also prevents other infections, notably GI infections. But paradoxically excessive hand-washing also has negative health implications: soap and alcohol destroy the skin’s protective layer and dry it out, and the mechanical action of hand-washing exacerbates this through abrasion, which causes micro-lesions, irritation, and increases the risk of catching infections. And unlike for mask-wearing we actually have very good evidence for this. We don’t yet know the exact consequences, but the NHS has noticed a strong uptick in dermatological conditions since the beginning of the pandemic, some of which are serious. (Here’s a publication on this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102542/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102542/)