That's a great example of the type of topic I could see people shutting down arguments/conversations over. In a very general sense, it doesn't make a lot of se

That's a great example of the type of topic I could see people shutting down arguments/conversations over. In a very general sense, it doesn't make a lot of sense for laypeople to argue among themselves over the findings and guidance of experts. At best you see an extremely-localized effect (e.g. you convince someone it's okay to not wear a mask and they happen to not catch COVID) and at worst you add to the pile of disinformation and confusion around the whole thing (e.g. you convince someone that masks aren't effective at viral load reductions). In another sense, presenting one side of an evolving, actively-researched subject and painting it as fact (e.g. "masks aren't effective") doesn't help either. What we know about the virus and its transmission lifecycle changes as we learn more about it and it's often prudent to err on the side of caution in the context of potential deaths, especially when there are arguments actively being made for the effectiveness of those tactics (e.g. masks are not completely ineffective). For your courtesy, I'll conclude with this and excuse myself from the thread, as I'm not here to argue: I wish more people got their news, guidance, and expertise from vocal experts in the field and those experts' interpretations, rather than forming their own personal interpretations bourne from individual studies, which vary wildly per study for innumerable reasons rarely obvious to a layperson. I say this to mean: don't bother taking the time to find individual studies that say masks aren't effective -- there are plenty of studies I could also dig up saying the opposite, and neither one of us should be forming conclusions based on strangers throwing links at each other on the internet. >Where is it that you’re not able to publicly or openly discuss things? There has never BEEN such a wealth of opinions and discussion freely accessible to everyone. reply In a roundabout way, I'm agreeing with you here. Not because I think I'm right or you're wrong, but because there's really no point in either of us arguing over it here if neither of us are actually publishing papers, providing guidance, etc.