> It's still mind boggling to me that governments didn't say "Don't wear a mask for yourself -- wear one to save your neighbor."
I mean... they did?
Like in the UK's guidance literally the second sentence is "Face coverings are primarily worn to protect others because they cover the nose and mouth, which are the main sources of emission of the virus that causes coronavirus infection (COVID-19)."
The point of masks, originally, was to catch saliva drops from surgeons as they worked over an open body, not to stop viruses.
For COVID its use was novel. But having an intention isn't enough. It must actually work. Otherwise, you are just engaging in witchcraft and tomfoolery.
The respiratory droplet model of how COVID spread was wrong, which was proven by lots of real world evidence. Look at how the Diamond Princess worked out and please explain how that was compatible with either masks or lockdowns working? SARS-CoV-2 spreads like every other respiratory virus, as a gaseous aerosol that doesn't care about masks in the slightest.
I'm not sure where you're getting this from. Repeated studies continue to affirm that COVID is spread by respiratory droplets and that masks are effective in reducing transmission.
Indoors. There were decades of research leading to the recommendations of mask wearing when symptomatic and only indoors.
All that fell by the wayside when mask wearing became a covid-time cult. A friend (with a degree in epidemiology) told me that if she tried to argue those points and doubts outdoor mask mandates she will be the immediately out of her job.
The covid-time environment of shutting down scientific discussions because policymakers decided that we had enough science to reach a conclusion should not be forgotten, it was a reasonable concern turned into a cult. My 2c.
Nobody was persuaded, they were forced by law exactly because it was obvious to everyone with their brain switched on that masks didn't work. Remember how when the rules demanding masks on planes were rescinded there were videos of whole planes ripping off their masks and celebrating mid-flight? Literally the second the law changed, people stopped wearing masks.
That's because masks were a mass hysteria. They did not work. Everyone could see it.
> And masks? How many graphs of cases/day with mask mandate transitions overlayed are required before people realize masks did nothing? Whole countries went from nearly nobody wearing them, to everyone wearing them, overnight, and COVID cases/day didn't even notice.
Most of those countries didn't actually follow their mask mandates - the USA for example. I visited because the PRC was preventing vaccine deliveries to Taiwan so I flew to the USA to get a vaccine, and I distinctly remember thinking "yeah... Of course" when walked around an airport of people chin diapering.
Taiwan halted a couple outbreaks from pilots completely, partially because people are so used to wearing masks when they're sick here (and also because the mask mandate was strictly enforced everywhere).
I visited DC a year later where they had a memorial for victims of COVID. It was 700,000 white flags near the Washington monument when I visited, as I recall it broke a million a few months later.
The point of wearing a mask is to protect other people from your respiratory droplets. Please wear a mask when you're sick.
It's still mind boggling to me that governments didn't say "Don't wear a mask for yourself -- wear one to save your neighbor."
Sure, there would have been some people who ignored it because they're jackasses, but I can't believe we wouldn't be in a better place today.
Both in terms of public scientific- and community- appreciation.
> It's still mind boggling to me that governments didn't say "Don't wear a mask for yourself -- wear one to save your neighbor."
I mean... they did?
Like in the UK's guidance literally the second sentence is "Face coverings are primarily worn to protect others because they cover the nose and mouth, which are the main sources of emission of the virus that causes coronavirus infection (COVID-19)."
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-wh...
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They did in the US as well. It’s disappointing US leadership flip flopped on masks enough times that anti-mask started to make sense to people.
The point of masks, originally, was to catch saliva drops from surgeons as they worked over an open body, not to stop viruses.
For COVID its use was novel. But having an intention isn't enough. It must actually work. Otherwise, you are just engaging in witchcraft and tomfoolery.
The respiratory droplet model of how COVID spread was wrong, which was proven by lots of real world evidence. Look at how the Diamond Princess worked out and please explain how that was compatible with either masks or lockdowns working? SARS-CoV-2 spreads like every other respiratory virus, as a gaseous aerosol that doesn't care about masks in the slightest.
I'm not sure where you're getting this from. Repeated studies continue to affirm that COVID is spread by respiratory droplets and that masks are effective in reducing transmission.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8721651/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-mask-effectiveness-what-sc...
https://www.ukri.org/who-we-are/how-we-are-doing/research-ou...
Why do you believe the Diamond Princess is a counterexample?
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Indoors. There were decades of research leading to the recommendations of mask wearing when symptomatic and only indoors.
All that fell by the wayside when mask wearing became a covid-time cult. A friend (with a degree in epidemiology) told me that if she tried to argue those points and doubts outdoor mask mandates she will be the immediately out of her job.
The covid-time environment of shutting down scientific discussions because policymakers decided that we had enough science to reach a conclusion should not be forgotten, it was a reasonable concern turned into a cult. My 2c.
> AI is very friendly, even
Very friendly until it reads in your email that you plan to replace it with a new model:
https://www.anthropic.com/research/agentic-misalignment
It was genuinely difficult to persuade people to wear masks before everyone started doing it and it became normal.
Nobody was persuaded, they were forced by law exactly because it was obvious to everyone with their brain switched on that masks didn't work. Remember how when the rules demanding masks on planes were rescinded there were videos of whole planes ripping off their masks and celebrating mid-flight? Literally the second the law changed, people stopped wearing masks.
That's because masks were a mass hysteria. They did not work. Everyone could see it.
As a counterpoint, myself and most people I know continued mask-wearing for many months after it stopped being a legal requirement in the UK.
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I hope we never have to find out how wrong you are.
> And masks? How many graphs of cases/day with mask mandate transitions overlayed are required before people realize masks did nothing? Whole countries went from nearly nobody wearing them, to everyone wearing them, overnight, and COVID cases/day didn't even notice.
Most of those countries didn't actually follow their mask mandates - the USA for example. I visited because the PRC was preventing vaccine deliveries to Taiwan so I flew to the USA to get a vaccine, and I distinctly remember thinking "yeah... Of course" when walked around an airport of people chin diapering.
Taiwan halted a couple outbreaks from pilots completely, partially because people are so used to wearing masks when they're sick here (and also because the mask mandate was strictly enforced everywhere).
I visited DC a year later where they had a memorial for victims of COVID. It was 700,000 white flags near the Washington monument when I visited, as I recall it broke a million a few months later.