Being forced to wear a mask is not trivial especially since there is zero reason to do so. Plus, there are doctors who are publicly declaring they are counter productive as people constantly touch their masks before washing their hands.. which renders the effect of wearing them 100% useless.
@Disheveled Human
The world has been - and still is over reacting with the shutdowns. Just because they shut themselves down does not mean anyone was right.
Let’s deconstruct what you’re saying further.
First off, masks are absolutely not 100 percent useless. They are far from perfect, but they are a cheap and effective way to mitigate Covid spread through aerosols. And there is plenty of statistical evidence to back this up. In areas with strong mask mandates, community transmission is far lower than regions that don’t or didn’t mandate it. This trend is global.
You’re right in that people should have been instructed on the proper use of masks, as some pretty easy-to-make mistakes can reduce their effectiveness. This is a public health outreach issue though, not the fault of masks themselves. If they were technology, the problem would exist between chair and keyboard.
There was confusion in the US early in the pandemic over the efficacy of wearing masks, primarily because health officials feared hoarding would deplete stocks for actual medical institutions, and so discouraged mask purchases for the public. This isn’t entirely without merit, as we can all remember the profiteering seen with hand sanitizer before more production facilities could come online. However, I agree that one of the greatest missteps of the US government was deriding the use of masks from an efficacy standpoint, instead of simply telling people “don’t buy 10000 N95 masks idiots”.
See, the nice thing about this global pandemic is that, across the world, we have seen all sorts of national responses to the spread of Covid, from the draconian to the totally laissez-faire. The statistics are all there for anyone to see, and they paint an unequivocal picture: those that locked down early and hard had much lower death rates and managed to stay within the capacity of their local health institutions. Those that said “fuck lockdowns” not onLy had people dying in the streets, but critical shortages of important supplies such as medical oxygen. This not only made it scarce for those attempting to recover from Covid, but for all the other normal patience in hospitals who rely on oxygen.
The facts and data are unequivocal. Masks work, lockdowns helped curb the spread to the benefit of their nations’ populations, and the vaccines are as safe and effective as one can reasonably hope, which is to say very safe. I defy you to find any stats contrary to this.
p.s. One very debatable topic is the cost of the lockdowns to their populations in other ways, such as mental health and economic depression. Again, that is very specific to the country in question, but I will absolutely concede that a conversation can be had about “how hard” the lockdowns should have been. But on every other fact? Sorry, but if you deny it you’re pissing in the wind.
