In response your point about middle eastern spread, ok. It spreads in families.
The women are masked outside and I guess the men aren’t.
And they die in equal numbers.
Thus masks are pointless. Unless you have another thing to say about how they are helping?
Because if they are helping them the women who have been very thoroughly masked outside since way before this virus even started would be contracting and dying way less often than men.
We all have our masks off at home. So that’s irrelevant for comparison.
Some of the countries in the Middle East:
The men go without masks in crowds. They spread the disease to each other and to their wives at home. The women don’t wear masks in every place or situation, by the way.
Some of the countries in Asia:
Both men and women wear masks in crowded public areas. Far fewer men and women bring it home.
People were getting the virus before emergency responses were taken. Given today’s air travel. Places such as the United States would already be having cases of COVID-19 in a month or even less.