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> The evidence wasn't perfect, but you have to operate using the best working evidence you have. It's logical that face coverings reduce spread of a virus sprea

> The evidence wasn't perfect, but you have to operate using the best working evidence you have. It's logical that face coverings reduce spread of a virus spread primarily through respiratory droplets. You're making two mistakes here, that mask advocates frequently make: 1. At the time this decision was made there was no evidence that masks would have any effect. That's why public health officials around the world were saying they'd have no effect. It wasn't a noble lie, they were actually telling the truth about masks at the start and we can see that by simply searching the literature for evidence masks are effective that predate March 2020. Thus there is no justification for this policy given evidence based decision making. 2. Your claim about what's logical is predicated on the belief that COVID spreads through large droplets of water. This isn't how it works. COVID spreads like a gas, against which masks are useless. > The downside, of people being mildly inconvenienced by wearing a cloth over their face, is tiny compared the risks of your health systems getting overwhelmed If masks don't work then the risk of health systems being overwhelmed is irrelevant. And they don't work, that's the point you keep trying to avoid. But equally as important: the downsides of the policy are far, far greater than "minor inconvenience". If you really believe that's the only downside you have no business forming opinions on health matters at all. Firstly: wearing masks is unnatural and not surprisingly, doing that for too long breaks things. Things like children. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1592670/covid-news-babies-suffering-lockdown-mask-facial-expressions-ofsted https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1592670/covid-news-babies-... The UK education regulator has just issued a report about delays in babies development and struggles with responding to basic facial expressions. They say “Children turning two years old will have been surrounded by adults wearing masks for their whole lives and have therefore been unable to see lip movements or mouth shapes as regularly.” There are certainly many other problems, think of the enormous trash problem it creates too. Secondly, the policy is incredibly destructive in other ways. The entire population spent the last two years being forced to go along with an obviously incorrect and pointless rule, along with absurd caveats like restaurant physics. It's utterly destructive to people's confidence in public health and the ability of governments to make rational decisions. If anyone ever needs any reason to doubt public health ever again, about anything, masks is all the justification they'll ever need.

chimprich 4y ago
> This isn't how it works. COVID spreads like a gas Nonsense. The virus spreads primarily through salivary droplets. Please don't peddle this rubbish. There is some aerosol transmission, but most infections happen at short range. Masks aren't perfectly effective but they do help, and that has saved lives. If you don't even understand the basic science then educate yourself before commenting.
- native_samples 4y ago
  That was the belief at the start of the pandemic. Oddly so because it was inconsistent with how things like SARS-1 spread. Very few people believe the droplet theory now, because it's inconsistent with the evidence. For example if it was really spreading this way, then masks would have an immediate and visible impact on case curves, but they don't. If you want more evidence, try: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16696450/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16696450/ SARS-1 spread through an apartment building by using drain pipes. No droplet transmission is capable of that. For SARS-CoV-2 the same thing happened on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. People were locked in their cabins, yet, the virus still spread through the ship without difficulty. This was very early evidence the spread-through-droplets theory couldn't be correct, but was ignored by public health.
  - chimprich 4y ago
    > Very few people believe the droplet theory now Again, absolute nonsense. World Health Organisation: "Current evidence suggests that the virus spreads mainly between people who are in close contact with each other, for example at a conversational distance. The virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe."[0] > People were locked in their cabins, yet, the virus still spread through the ship without difficulty. No one is disputing that the virus spreads through aerosol distribution. The majority of spread is through salivary droplets. Is your argument seriously that because there is some aerosol spread, that somehow disproves the model that spread is mainly through salivary droplets? If you are unable to understand the argument I don't see how we can continue the conversation. [0] https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/cor...

chimprich 4y ago

> This isn't how it works. COVID spreads like a gas Nonsense. The virus spreads primarily through salivary droplets. Please don't peddle this rubbish. There is some aerosol transmission, but most infections happen at short range. Masks aren't perfectly effective but they do help, and that has saved lives. If you don't even understand the basic science then educate yourself before commenting.

native_samples 4y ago
That was the belief at the start of the pandemic. Oddly so because it was inconsistent with how things like SARS-1 spread. Very few people believe the droplet theory now, because it's inconsistent with the evidence. For example if it was really spreading this way, then masks would have an immediate and visible impact on case curves, but they don't. If you want more evidence, try: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16696450/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16696450/ SARS-1 spread through an apartment building by using drain pipes. No droplet transmission is capable of that. For SARS-CoV-2 the same thing happened on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. People were locked in their cabins, yet, the virus still spread through the ship without difficulty. This was very early evidence the spread-through-droplets theory couldn't be correct, but was ignored by public health.
- chimprich 4y ago
  > Very few people believe the droplet theory now Again, absolute nonsense. World Health Organisation: "Current evidence suggests that the virus spreads mainly between people who are in close contact with each other, for example at a conversational distance. The virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe."[0] > People were locked in their cabins, yet, the virus still spread through the ship without difficulty. No one is disputing that the virus spreads through aerosol distribution. The majority of spread is through salivary droplets. Is your argument seriously that because there is some aerosol spread, that somehow disproves the model that spread is mainly through salivary droplets? If you are unable to understand the argument I don't see how we can continue the conversation. [0] https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/cor...