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> The government has clearly intentionally lied about things (e.g. government telling us early on that masks don't work, Lots of people say this, but it's eas
by DanBC 6y ago
> The government has clearly intentionally lied about things (e.g. government telling us early on that masks don't work,
Lots of people say this, but it's easy to see that it wasn't a lie.
Please try to find the good quality studies that you think the government should have been using to tell the public that wearing masks works.
Before covid we had lots of studies around mask wearing, mostly in healthcare professionals in medical settings. They really struggle to show a benefit.
Mask wearing (especially if you can't maintain distance, can't meet outside, can't ventilate properly) is important but even now the quality of evidence isn't great.
It definitely wasn't a lie. We know distancing and lockdowns work, and there were some people who were only pushing mask wearing in order to prevent lockdowns. The risk was that people would continue to meet and mix while sort of wearing a mask, and not doing it properly. That would have driven infection up.
- vorpalhex 6y ago> Please try to find the good quality studies that you think the government should have been using to tell the public that wearing masks works. "Factors influencing the wearing of facemasks to prevent the severe acute respiratory syndrome among adult Chinese in Hong Kong" Catherine So-kum Tang et al. Prev Med. 2004 Dec. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15539054/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15539054/
- DanBC 6y agoSee, that's not a study that shows whether masks work or not. It's a study showing how you persuade people to wear a mask.
- standardUser 6y agoYou admit yourself this was manipulation. "The risk was that people would continue to meet and mix while sort of wearing a mask..." Their job isn't to play 3-dimensional chess with human behavior. It's to communicate public health messages in a way that is both effective and accurate. I agree that the science was (and is) not very clear regarding mask usage. But if the messaging from the beginning had been "everyone wear a cloth mask inside, it might help" we maybe could have skipped this entire insane anti-mask movement.
- DanBC 6y agoI'm not sure it's manipulation, rather than large numbers of people who have differing interpretations of the data. > But if the messaging from the beginning had been "everyone wear a cloth mask inside, it might help" we maybe could have skipped this entire insane anti-mask movement. Yes, I agree very much with this.