> They don't prevent people from dying eventually. The paper does not say this. It shows an 11% reduction in spread in the group that was encouraged to wear su

> They don't prevent people from dying eventually. The paper does not say this. It shows an 11% reduction in spread in the group that was encouraged to wear surgical masks. Masks were not mandated, only encouraged. It also shows that 5 months after the researchers stopped encouraging mask-wearing, compliance dropped by 14%. So masks reduce the spread, and encouraging people to wear them leads to higher compliance.