And because it will get brought up..."Public health recommendations are built on scientific evidence, and at the time, there just wasn’t much research on the effects of community-wide mask usage or cloth masks at all." So, hold up, what you're telling me is that for 73 years leading up to 2020 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't bother to conduct research on the efficacy of masks during respiratory illness outbreaks? That's either complete bullshit or a clear dereliction of duty. There is no in between.
"...if people have come to the conclusion that they have to hold a hard line as being pro-mask in a world where the only other option is anti-mask, there’s no space left to talk about (or fund research on) whether masks are more useful in some situations than in others." Dr. Vinay Prasad is an outstanding Twitter follow. Mostly because he's apolitical.
Then there's this..."evidence showed that mask usage prevented the transmission of COVID-19." Who's got the data that quantify that?
"Effective March 10, Texas became the first state in 2021 to abolish its masking requirements and other COVID-19 restrictions — at that time, only 11 percent of the state’s population age 16 and older was fully vaccinated. Recent preliminary research has shown that this decision neither improved the state’s economy (as politicians there predicted) nor increased COVID-19 case rates (as scientific experts feared). And no one knows why." C'mon now. Really? But we know masks prevent the spread, eh?
The rest of the article is well worth the read.
Trump and his administration caused the most damage, especially in the spring of 2020. Don't @ me.
